| Meet Bill | Issues | Help Us | Contact Us | Contribute |
|
"Liberal" or "Conservative" or "Right Wing" or "Left Wing" These labels don't serve any useful purpose in discussions of public policy. They are primarily used as implements of name calling. In the 1950s a child might have said, "You have cooties". Now those same people, as senior citizens might say, "You're a LIBERAL." or "You're a RIGHT WINGER." In his book, Pat Buchanan was so incensed at Bush, Cheney and the neoconservatives that he called them the most damning name he could think of - "LIBERALS". In 2006, I had a discussion with a rich retired farmer at the Windmill Days Festival in New Holland. It started out with his smiling and saying it would be a "cold day" when he voted for a Democrat. After a ninety minute discussion about my specific proposals, he agreed with virtually everything I proposed and I learned much from his ideas formed in fifty years of farming - one of the very toughest businesses. When his wife returned at the end of the discussion he said, "You're not going to believe this, but I'm going to vote for a Democrat." When we got past the labels and talked about the specific problems of the country and how to best solve them, we had a forum for exchanging ideas. Flinging labels doesn't solve anything but exchanging ideas about specific problems and the solutions does. By 2010, it became commonplace for lifelong Republicans as well as Independents and Democrats to read the issues on the back of my campaign card and say they agreed with all of my positions. I have always been fiscally and morally responsible. In public policy, this translates to everyone gets a chance and no one takes unfair advantage. When you go through the buffet line of life, everyone should pay his way and get to fill his plate. No one should get to shovel food into a five gallon bucket, leaving nothing for the people behind him.
|