We Baker County Democrats are your friends and neighbors in high-desert, far-eastern, rural Oregon, who are advocating for a society that works for all of us in this American democracy. We choose to persevere in an era of severe political division, guided by a vision of underlying unity and mutual high regard.
We propose an ongoing, comprehensive national debate and concerted effort to solve the major issues we confront as a nation and a world. To top the list, we are focused on overcoming stagnant wages and widespread poverty in the United States and on the international threat of global warming. Our specific proposal describes recommended solutions and this website broadens the discussion. Whether you initially agree with us or not, we urge all our fellow citizens to get involved in the debate.
We must work together. The way we see it, none of the major problems (and opportunities) facing our country can be truly solved if we work separately and alone. Real solutions call for the wholehearted involvement of us all, of “We the People.” We are not alone nor on our own, as some would have us believe. We absolutely have a genuine stake in each other’s success. We all do well, when we all do well.
Together, we can use our unlimited creativity to devise solutions that meet everyone’s needs. We invite your participation in defining and solving local problems and major, national issues, including the following:
- Inequality of wealth and lack of good-paying jobs are undermining rural economies.
- Global warming: we’re already seeing the dangerous increase in extreme weather.
- Money in politics is shouldering many of us out of the debate, while sponsoring extremists.
- Overly expensive and inefficient health insurance endangers physical and economic well-being.
- Banks that are “too big to fail” are a continuing threat to our economy.
- Unlabeled GMO’s prevent knowledgeable consumer choice.
- Reproductive privacy is being threatened.
- Gun violence takes a tragic, daily toll.
- Trade treaties and the proposed T.P.P. and T.A.F.T.A. treaties subvert our national sovereignty.
- Obsolete nuclear weapons threaten our very existence.
- Voting rights violations undermine democracy.
There are answers to these problems, answers that reflect our deepest values. We have witnessed them in our own history, and some are already in practice in other nations. Pope Francis is offering fresh inspiration. But we are stymied by an increasingly sterile, partisan gridlock. How can we calm down and break through the fear, polarization, and misinformation that sometimes make it difficult to acknowledge that these problems even exist, much less iron out solutions and translate the solutions into urgently needed action?
We believe that democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people, while imperfect, has a central role in using the common wealth for the common good. How can we, for example, deal with poverty in this great nation? Capitalism and free private enterprise are, as always, the best generators of wealth that we know of. But, a relatively few individuals, the “one percent,” located in, say, Southhampton, NY, or New York’s Park Avenue, have benefited beyond limit and beyond reason. They are amassing more and more of our wealth, and leaving rural areas holding the short end of the stick. How can our nation’s wealth be more fairly distributed? We believe in fairness for the common man, countering unrestrained advantage of the super-rich and politically well-connected.
Government that serves our real needs is not the problem. Unwarranted fear, division, and resignation are the problem, because they sap the strength of democracy. We are not alone nor on our own. We invite all of our fellow citizens to join with us to break through the barriers that divide and discourage us, and together seek meaningful answers that benefit everyone, urban and rural, and rich and poor, alike.
This web site is a work in progress. The links provided offer a start on background information and potential remedies. Please help us fill in the blanks. Together, we can find solutions that benefit everyone.
Paid for by the Baker County Democratic Central Committee,
and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.