tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1437688200491675121.post8183652327126103799..comments2024-03-28T20:54:46.309-07:00Comments on Up Close, with Peter Sage: Rural Democrats have permission to be different.Up Close: Road to the White Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03590477200706751934noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1437688200491675121.post-48964595502863558022018-01-28T12:34:07.148-08:002018-01-28T12:34:07.148-08:00If you could make fire management an out-of-the-bo...If you could make fire management an out-of-the-box issue, you could win in district 2. Residents of district 2 marinate in smoke every summer. We cant get enough crews in a bad fire year because 'smaller government.' We cant break the stalemate over cutting trees because the repubs know it makes a great issue for them. Fire is an excellent issue for the democrats because the bad effects of fire can be mitigated by community action and by government action. Just the sort of thing we preach, collective action and teamwork, science-based solutions.richfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247870525920503962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1437688200491675121.post-37642367834540249872018-01-28T11:11:14.182-08:002018-01-28T11:11:14.182-08:00All the candidates at the forum talked about "...All the candidates at the forum talked about "finding things in common", "shared values" "focus on on solving problems together", etc.<br /><br />Mr. Crary spoke about the definition of insanity. If anything has been demonstrated with certainty by recent events it is that a significant percentage of the electorate does not share American values. All the issues are debatable by reasonable people with expertise in the related fields. If there is merit to more logging on public lands, great, but the value should go back to the public. The problem with Regressives is that they either want to funnel the money into private hands or simply sell off the land. Either way the public loses. Same with grazing "rights", privatizing any number of governmental services, and all the rest. These actions should be suspect. State and Federal governments, with the people's approval, have set aside land and resources in the interests of the common good which includes using the revenue to finance said government. The wisdom of this was recognized 100 years ago and is now under threat. Vincente Fox recently said (I paraphrase) "These %^&$$ people are trying to tell us we've been doing it wrong for 100 years", and he's correct, we are right be outraged.<br /><br />I think most Progressives have accepted that Regressives are not persuadable, and have to be voted back into the margins and under the rocks where they belong. Otherwise this country will be driven back to the 19th century. Candidates need to accept this and stop with the gauzy rhetoric. It's naive.Rick Millwardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754486828557229893noreply@blogger.com