The media has been carefully avoiding dealing with any of John Kerry's policy proposals with anything more than a passing gesture. Many Americans are running away from Bush but they don't feel like they know anything about Kerry, and aren't inspired to run towards him. The Republican Party conjured image of him as wishy-washy and unspecific is working to a large extent.
Naturally it's a bunch of crap. Courtesy of Liberal Oasis, some excerpts from a speech Kerry gave on Tuesday, highlighting actual issues.
The minimum wage is the lowest it has been in America since Harry Truman was president in 1949 and we hear the same old arguments we've heard since 1949.
And every time we've passed an increase in the minimum wage, America's done better, notwithstanding those arguments.
When I'm president, the first thing we're going to do is start to raise that minimum wage to $7 an hour and allow people in America to be able to work and get out of poverty for the work that they do.
But it's not limited to minimum wage -- you've got to start talking about a living wage that so many mayors are beginning to talk about.
On Health Care as a Right
We're the only industrial nation in the world that doesn't yet understand health care is not a privilege for the wealthy or the elected or the connected.
It is a right for all Americans and we're going to make it available to all Americans.
And George Bush, he's had four years as president to offer leadership.
He doesn't even talk about it. He doesn't even have a fake plan, ladies and gentlemen, which is normally where they are. He has no plan.
And so we've got 44 million Americans who have no care and we have costs going up for everybody in the country?
I'm going to make certain we put in place the principle that that health care that senators and congressmen give themselves and you pay for -- it ought to be available to every American.
On Disenfranchising African-American Voters
Don't tell us that it's the best we can do [when] in the last election...2 million votes weren't even counted.
Don't tell us that, when voters who were duly registered and they turn up to vote and they find out that their names have been purged wrongly from the list, or when they show up to vote and they're told, we don't have you registered because the registry makes mistakes.
Don't tell us that people who are harassed and intimidated from going to the polls, something we thought we resolved in the 1960s and it still happens in the dawn of the 21st century?
We can do better, and we will do better this time.
On Unemployment and Underemployment
African-American unemployment is now at 10 percent, double the rate for whites.
In New York City, 18 up to 30, 50 percent, the African-Americans are unemployed. We can do better.
America's increasingly being underemployed. And while they're being underemployed, this administration's fight is not to create the new high-value added job that lifts people up.
This administration's fight, unconscionably and wrongly, is to try to reduce Americans' ability to win overtime pay.
And we're not going to lose a 40-hour work week in the United States of America.
On Economic Fairness
If you look at the share in America -- workers shares in America of the national income is at the lowest level in American history. That's just stunning.
I read that the other day and I just scratched my head, and I said, "What is going on?"?
And the spread between the haves and the have-nots is getting bigger.
There are more working poor in shelters today. There are more working poor. There are more homeless.
And you have to ask yourself: How can we be the richest country on the face of the planet and be pushing backwards against the right of an American worker to be able to actually do better in life?
On Investing in Children
It is long since time that we stopped being a nation content to spend $50,000 to $70,000 a year to house a young person in prison for the rest of their life.
Rather than invest $10,000 or $11,000 a year in Head Start, Early Start, Smart Start, after school programs, and give kids full citizenship for a lifetime.
On Education for Girls
Early on, too many kids are steered away from math and science by their teachers, by their parents, or by friends.
Too many are told, "Oh, you're not good at this" or "You're not good at that" or "It ain't the cool thing to do, so don't do it."
In fact, surveys show that in the fourth grade, girls and boys are actually equally interested in math and science.
But by time they get to the eighth grade, twice as many boys want to go into math and science careers. It's something that happens in the culture in between.
As president, I will give all Americans, especially women and minorities, the same encouragement, and we have to give it early on?
To get girls and minorities engaged in math and science, we're going to fund special programs in the middle school and the high school?
It's also time that we make a major effort to address the subtle discrimination and low expectations that cause too many young women to believe that math and science is somehow not for them.
As president, I intend to also support all-girls' schools designed specifically to prepare girls for careers in science and math.
On Optimism and Pessimism
This administration says this is the best economy of our lifetime. They say this is the best that we can do.
They have even called us pessimists because we dare to tell the truth about people in Appalachia.
We tell the truth about people who don't have health care.
We tell the truth about children being left behind.
We tell the truth about what's happening to seniors who can't afford prescription drugs and live on Social Security.
Well, I say the most pessimistic thing that you can say is that we can't do better in the United States of America.
Don't tell us that 2 million jobs lost is the best that we can do when we know that we can create millions of new jobs, and many of them we can create tomorrow if we would invest in our cities and our schools and our communities.
We could do better, and we will.
Amen, brother. Now please, for the love of god, do as you say.
