The idea of a two party system is by definition polarizing. It is a form of legalized segregation if you think about it. I have no idea what you mean should people in red states be getting taxed right now. I think Barack thinks very differently than most people. If you allow me a cliche, very "right-brained". His real talent lies imo not in conflict logic, but in reconciliation. In fact, I think he is trying so hard right now to listen to the advice from people that live in the old system, to "old logic", the very same system he knows doesn't work. I am afraid that the genius of Barack, a talent these people could never fathom, will be extinguished, or equally bad, made insecure in Obama. He will regret not taking his own path. It doesn't mean closing himself to others. So hard to explain...My hope is that when Barack is no longer president, that the legacy he leaves behind isn't just something that made the country better for x years while he was president, but that it is a revolution in the way government sees itself, and what we tolerate from politicians. A new level of cooperation, a new standard, a new Political Philosophy, is the best short description. Any advancement of monumental proportion is nearly always made by people that don't know any better. That is why major advances are almost always made on the back of young people - they don't know it is impossible. Everyone advising Barrack believes what he said in his campaign was just to get elected. I think they are gravely mistaken. Obama meant every word of what he says. His advisers assume it can't be true, because in their mind it is naive, or worse, in their mind, Utopian. Obama is too naive - he doesn't know it is impossible, and THAT is why it might work. nitro
You really think BO is naive? What did he say on the campaign that was so revolutionary? What's the Big Idea of the Obama campaign?
I have read approximately a book worth of material on Obamarx and there is nothing I mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to suggest he is any different from other pols. Actually he is worse.
If land is taxed then there is not the incentive to bid it up to unsustainable levels. It also more equitable as the rich are the landowners and allows the poor income tax payers and underclass an incentive to work harder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax
Naive is possibly not the correct word. The powers given to a president allow him/her very little final say his own. He needs Congress to concur. 90% or more of what Obama wants to bring into law requires yea from Congress. His ideas are the not the revolution, although they are at least evolutionary. It is Obama himself [what he represents] that is the revolution: 1) Minorities are becoming the majority. The new generation has been raised side by side with minorities and don't have any stigma at all with it. 2) Obama is the first president [elect] of a new generation. He understands this generation deeply. 3) Obama has a nearly perfect personality to reconcile a broken and dangerous foreign policy. 4) Obama is not tied to big corporations. Almost all the $ he raised was through private donations, much of it through the internet! He is owned by NO ONE accept the people that elected him. Special interest groups are in big trouble. 5) Green jobs and green tax cuts are going to create a new vibrant part of the economy long long overdue. Corporations using the earth as their unlimited untaxed dumpster is over, at least in the short term. 6) Obama has the ear and heart of the world. I could go on and on... nitro
On the other hand: "Obama reviews Bush orders on stem cells, drilling" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081109/ap_on_el_pr/obama nitro