My non-negotiables

I left the following comments at the Crunchy Con blog concerning Catholics being unenthusiastic with Mike Huckabee:

I was enthusiastic at first for Huckabee’s candidacy. As the preceding statement implies, my enthusiasm has waned. Admittedly, my own views are only representative of myself. The Haggee thing never bothered me. My threshold for outrage is a lot bigger than others. What bothers me about Huckabee is that his foreign policy doesn’t appear it will be modest but rather guided by the interests of Israel; his fair tax is kookery and would benefit the wealthy; he really doesn’t see an actionable problem with the oligarchs/corporate elite; he really doesn’t want to do anything about the carnage free trade has wrought; and he will not address the health care crisis in this country. I don’t have any plans for voting Democratic, but at least they are addressing the real issues facing this country. Yes the social issues are important, but these are issues that can be, and I’m afraid will have to be, addressed at the State and local levels.

As we come closer to the Presidential election, my list of non-negotiable issues is shortening.  John Medaille of the Distributist Review offered his own list of non-negotiables.  Needless to say his list and my list aren’t what you will find at Priests For Life or Catholic Answers Action.  To be honest, it isn’t really all that representative of Faithful Citizenship.  Here is my list:

• Address the Health Care Crisis.  Note, manipulating tax credits and speculating over the benefits of reducing defensive medicine produce negative points.  Blaming the uninsured or illegal immigrates will not ingratiate you either, although those are at least legitimate issues.  Addressing those issues however will not come close to solving the health care problem.
• Address the Corporate Issues.  Companies moving their pension obligations to the public through bankruptcy is evil.  Companies that depend on the public sector to provide housing (Section 8), food (Food Stamps), and medical care (Medicaid) for the families of employees are evil.
• One cannot provide public witness in favor of abortion and gay marriage.  I understand much won’t be done on either issue.  A little outrage at the occurence of abortion wouldn’t hurt.  A recognition that people in good conscience can oppose abortion while feeling sympathy for the social circumstances surrounding abortion would be helpful.  I can accept the stark reality that in a society that overwhelmingly supports abortion rights the ability to eliminate them is doubtful.  I will not however vote for someone who proudly affirms the ‘value’ of abortion.
• Free Trade cannot be abided.  Free Trade has destroyed the bonds of community.  It alone accounts for a significant portion of the immigration from Mexico to here.  One doesn’t have to support the draconian measures many advocate for dealing with immigration in order to recognize that people leaving their home, community, and culture is not a good thing.  One doesn’t have to be a socialist to recognize that the economies of the Great Lake’s states have suffered greatly in the wake of de-industrialization.
• The Israeli/Palestinian conflict can only be resolved by Israelis and Palestinians.  Our national security interests do not need to include having an Israeli State.  This may be interpreted as an anti-Israel.  It is not anti-Israeli to recognize that states have obligations to indigenous peoples, even hostile ones.  Regardless, our national security is really not dependent upon the outcome of this conflict.
• Unskilled and lower skilled workers need to be treated humanely.  The present minimum wage is an embarrassment.  The idea that the high school dropout has no right to a better wage than the Chinese prison worker is offensive.  To be wonkish for a moment, we are not that far from the point where historically social instability has commenced as measured by the GINI coefficient.  There is a real gap between rich and poor that has grown.  If it were not for increases of women’s incomes as they reconciled with those of men, household income over the past 30 years would be negative.  As it is, wages have been stagnant for 30 years, and male wages have seen actual declines after accounting for inflation.