Officers

President:          Benson Kirkman         919-859-1187    benson.kirkman@att.net

Vice President: Willie Rowe                 919-291-2077    wlrowe@nc.rr.com

Treasurer:          Ken Maruyama           310-633-3208    kenmaruyama814@gmail.com

Secretary:          Catherine Windsor      919-889-3691    jcatwindsor1959@gmail.com

WCSD, Minutes, 21 March 2018

Wake County Senior Democrats

Minutes of the Meeting for March 2018

President Kirkman called the meeting to order and welcome new members and guests.

The following candidates spoke for a few minutes laying out the their platforms:

Allison Dahle (NC House 11)

Luis Toledo (NC Senate 16)

Susan Evans (Wake Co. Comm.)

Gerald Baker (Wake Co. Sheriff)

Luis Toledo was our guest speaker. The topic was The US Tax Plan Debacle.

Step 1. $1.5 trillion deficit

Step 2. Budget cuts (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid)

45-year (adjusted) low investment in NC

Poverty rate increase from 14% to 15% over 10 years

No one is addressing what the Federal cuts will mean to the NC Budget

Old Business

Minutes Approved

Ken and Mike Rulison spent 10 minutes discussing our online presence and the

results of Mike's online use survey

President Kirkman adjourned the meeting. There was no pledge to the Flag of NC

There were 22 persons attended.

The next meeting will be April 18, 2018.

--Submitted by Catherine Windsor, Secretary

Simple Economics

Editorial

The economics of both drugs and immigration can be simple.
Supplies of drugs and immigrants are washing at the borders of the United States.
Demand for drugs and immigrants exist within the borders of the United States.

From an economic view, if demand for drugs or immigrants diminished, so would pressure on our borders; you cannot sell what the consumer does not want to buy.  Here we have clear policy choices: reduce our demand or reduce the supply.

The values issues are: will letting the supplies in do more damage or more good than keeping them out?

The policy issues are: how can we keep them out or let them in with a degree of control? And, on the other hand, how can we reduce the demand?

The economic issues are: finding the programs that will accomplish any policies at the least cost and with the fewest, least harmful side effects.

Lower drug demand means fewer addicts and lessened stress in the lives of persons using or at risk of using drugs --- including, of course, opioids. Lower demand would lower prices and push producers and traffickers to shift to more profitable activities.

Fewer jobs for immigrants means more barriers to hiring immigrants, including enforcement of regulations on employers. Fewer jobs would reduce immigration while barriers to hiring would increase the wages for existing employees. And, we must accept the reality that immigrants will do some jobs at pay levels too low to attract citizen workers. To seriously keep out immigrants (temporary or longer-term) will seriously disrupt some businesses.

Moral Politics

Not an oxymoron, but an underlying frame for how we address political choices.

Starting with the public vs. the private and community vs. liberty.

"The central issue for our time is what kind of country America is and ought to be, that is, what system of values should govern us. First, we must understand that all politics is moral....And today our politics is governed by two very different views of what is right and wrong." -- p3.

The book moves on to urge debate based on core moral values, not on policies or factoids. The latter do not change peoples minds.

Lakoff, George and Wehling, Elizabeth, 2012. The Little Blue Book, the essential guide to thinking and talking Democratic. New York, Free Press. 142 pp.

For A Fair America

more sites

Emily's List / Maggie's List

Sources on the WCSD Web Site - NC Sites

NC Sources

[in progress of restoration]

NC Justice Center

NC Policy Watch

It's the values, Dummy

Yes, it is the Values!

Do we have any?  What are they?  Do we have a word or phrase for each one?

Our values are not the negatives of the values stated by our opposition. They are OUR positive values.  Are the others pro-life? OK, we are PRO-FAMILY, where every family member is wanted and cherished.

And so it goes, for the whole litany of values: due process, liberty, freedom, markets, economy, workers, community, transportation, security, safety, natural surroundings, and more.

Here are some words we should claim as our own:

• Fairness
• Openness
• Justice
• Right livelihood 
• Living wages
• ---- what else would you add? 

Wake County Senior Democrats urges all Democratic candidates to campaign on values that all voters may share.

Here is the drill:

               Values => problems => solutions => actions