A couple of weeks ago, I compared the Democratic and Republican Platforms on how they each plan to create jobs and stimulate the economy.  If you didn’t get a chance to read it, just click this link, It’s all about the jobs and the economy. Besides, the Presidents, we have a lot of thinking to do about everyone who runs for a seat in our government.  I’m encouraging an informed vote.

The remainder of the platforms are not that easy to compare side-by-side.  Plus, it’s a lot of reading for me, but more importantly, for you.  I’m sort of having fun sifting through the rhetoric to find the meat of what each party wants for the country.

Just so I can keep everything straight, I put the information into a simple chart, like I would for corporate goals.  This is also the way CoCo’s Individual Education Plans got laid out, too.  Pretty easy to understand; I think:  We will______________ by_____________ so that______________ happens. Previously, I added a column for how the action will be financed, too.  Sadly, it would be completely empty for this piece of the analysis, so stuck to just three columns.

Today’s Installment is about [tweetthis]the Democrats’ take on PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP. [/tweetthis]

There’s a lot here. Some things I agree with, some I don’t, and some make me scratch my head.  It helps to lay everything out in this format, don’t you think?

I already took a look at the Republican’s A REBIRTH OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. My next installment will be cover that part of the party’s platform.

If you missed my preamble, no, not those platforms.

And not that kind of party.

I’m reviewing and comparing the Democrat and Republican Party Platforms.  I’m doing this because there’s more to the election than getting a new President.  I already know who I want for my next President.  I, like, Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times, hope that all 50 states go to one candidate.

Both Parties have rebuilding the economy and creating jobs as the first thing on their respective Agendas.

The Democratic Party has nine pages on job creation, pay, and workers.  The Platform mentions Donald Trump or the Republican Party seven times in these nine pages.  The Republicans have eight pages on restoring the American dream; they mention Obama/the current administration or the Democrats eleven times.

Just so I can keep everything straight, I put the information into a simple chart, like I would for corporate goals.  This is also the way CoCo’s Individual Education Plans got laid out, too.  Pretty easy to understand; I think:  We will______________ by_____________ so that______________ happens.  I added a column for how the action will be financed, too.  Sadly that’s pretty empty.

So here’s the Democrats’ Plan for jobs and the economy:

We will	By	So that	Finacing by
Raise workers’ incomes	Incrementally raising the minimum wage to $15/hr	Everyone can earn a living wage	Federal dollars to support employers
Protect workers’ rights	Allowing unions to be certified by simple majority	Workers are protected at the bargaining table
Protect workers’ rights	Opposing right-to-work legislation	Workers are protected at the bargaining table
Support working families	Enacting  national 12 weeks paid medical & family leave	We have a strong, stable caregiving workforce
Support working families	Fighting for 7 days of paid sick leave, and paid vacations	We have a strong, stable caregiving workforce
Help more workers share in corporate profits	Incentivizing companies share in corporate profits with workers	Worker productivity increases
Expand access to affordable housing	Expanding incentives to ease local barriers to building.	We create millions of good-paying jobs, Address the housing crisis.	Increase funding for the National Housing Trust Fund
Expand access to home ownership	Expanding efforts like the Neighborhood Stabilization Program	We counter the Lingering effects of the foreclosure crisis are addressed
Address homelessness	Expanding initiative to end veteran and family homelessness	Veterans no longer go homeless.
Protect and expand Social Security	Fighting efforts to cut, privatize, or weaken Social Security.	Every American can retire with dignity	Ask those with incomes above $250,000 to pay more.
Ensure a secure and dignified retirement	Enacting legislation so that earned benefits will not be cut	Workers get priority and protection when pension plans are distressed.	Closing tax loopholes that benefit millionaires and billionaires
Create good-paying jobs	Building a better infrastructure	Millions of Americans are put back to work	Create an independent national infrastructure bank
Create good-paying jobs	Claw back tax breaks for jobs shipped overseas	We foster a manufacturing renaissance
Create clean energy jobs	Making American manufacturing more internationally competitive	Our industries are the greenest and most efficient in the world	Invest in efficiency
Pursue an innovation Agenda	Supporting public and private investment in science, technology, and research	We Enhance opportunities to achieve greater self-sufficiency
Pursue an innovation Agenda	Connecting every household to high-speed broadband, increase free Wi-Fi	We enable the Internet of Things and a host of transformative technologies.
Support a free and open internet	Opposing roll back of net neutrality rules	??
Expand space exploration	Strengthening support for NASA	Americans continue to push beyond the boundaries of what we know.
Support small businesses and entrepreneurs	Cutting red tape	We grow jobs faster.
Support small businesses and entrepreneurs	Providing targeted funding and support	We grow jobs faster.
Make investments to spur the creation of millions of jobs	Creating jobs for America’s between the age of 16 and 24	We decrease the number of young people who are unemployed (Currently 10%)	Direct federal funding for a range of locan programs

Whew! That was a lot of work.  Next up….

No,  not the shoes. The party platforms. 

No, not the fun parties.

The Presidential Democratic and Republican Party Platforms.  These go beyond what the Presidential Candidates say in their stump speeches. The platforms go beyond any one candidate.  These are the statements re-written every four years that describes in detail the  official principles, policy stances, and priorities of the party. The Democratic Platform is 51 pages long.  The Republican Platform is 59 pages.  They both have table of contents.

I’m going to read them both.  Yes, I am.  Cuz, you know what?  I’m going to vote in November like I do every year.  And you know what else?  There are more than just Hilary and Donald duking it out.

I’ll report back next week.  Interested?  I hope so.

Just for a little sneak-peek, here’s a look at the tables of content:

    Some days are perfect for laying on the carpet, face up in a “deadman’s” pose, watching […]

My dishwasher broke. For a week or two, I washed dishes by hand, while the new, more energy […]

 

I planned to write about fireworks today.  How do they work?  Of course colors explode because of chemical reactions, but my oh my, the fireworks today are so amazing and they change colors, and little whirligigs shoot out blue then white, and how do they make those smiley faces and hearts pop out?  I turned to my favorite podcast, “Stuff You Should Know,” and soon I found something that reminded me of something that I really wanted to learn more about.

Several years ago, I read an article by a physicist about Time.  That we humans invented it to fit our need to categorize, record, and capture our history and plan our future.  That our nows all happen at the same time, piled on top of each other like a stack of photographs. Well, that’s the intriguing way I remember it.  Josh and Chuck flagged Aeon’s post by Robert Lanza and Bob Berman  as part of their “Best Stuff We’ve Read this Week.”  If you’ve never heard of Josh and Chuck or “Stuff You Should Know,” click here.  You will be so glad you did.

‘If you try to get your hands on time,’ said the physicist Julian Barbour, ‘it’s always slipping through your fingers. People are sure that it’s there but they can’t get hold of it. Now my feeling is that they can’t get hold of it because it isn’t there at all.’

According to John Wheeler, you can change the past.  He set up an experiment

It’s the 4th of July, Independence Day, so it’s natural to include our that on my Gratitude List. […]