Gravel '08

Ok, so being this is the candidate advocacy forum, I figured there would be a thread for
all of the candidates thus farm simply because different people like different people,
but as it stands there is'nt.

Now, I'm not gonna make a thread about all the candidates that don't have threads,
as that would be a waste of my time, as I don't want to make a thread about someone
I don't plan on voting for, however I did notice that one of the only two candidates I plan
on voting for (I'll vote for Hillary before I vote For Romney, Giulliani, McCain or Ron Paul
if it comes down to it though), does not have a thread, and is really not one of the candidates
that gets a lot of attention.


So, this thread is about, as you may have guessed from the thread-title, Mike Gravel.

Here is a condensed version of his stances on the issues.



The War in Iraq:
Senator Gravel's position on Iraq remains clear and consistent: to commence an
immediate and orderly withdrawal of all U.S. troops that will have them home within 60 days.
The sooner U.S. troops are withdrawn, the sooner we can pursue aggressive diplomacy
to bring an end to the civil war that currently consumes Iraq. Senator Gravel seeks to work
with neighboring countries to lead a collective effort to bring peace to Iraq.


Fair Tax:
There is only one entity in the U.S. that pays taxes: the individual. Businesses and corporations do not, they merely collect taxes from consumers of their
products and pass on the taxes to the government. The Fair Tax proposal calls for eliminating
the IRS and the Income Tax and replacing it with a progressive national Sales Tax on new
products and services. To compensate for necessities, such as food, lodging, clothing,
etc there would be a “prebate” to reimburse taxpayers for the taxes paid on necessities.


Global Climate Change:
Senator Gravel believes that global climate change is a matter of national security.
As President, he will act swiftly to reduce America's carbon footprint in the world by passing
legislation that caps emissions, and lead the fight against global deforestation,
which today is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases.

However, any legislation will have little impact on the global environment if we do not work
together with other global polluters.
Today, China and India are surpassing the U.S. in carbon emissions.
Fighting global warming can only be effective if it is a collective global effort.
As President, Senator Gravel will see that the U.S. launches and leads a massive global
scientific effort to end energy dependence on oil and integrate the world's scientific community
in this task.


Healthcare:
Senator Gravel advocates a universal health-care voucher program in which the federal
government would issue annual health care vouchers to Americans based on their projected needs.
Under the Senator's plan, all Americans would be fully covered and would be free to use their
vouchers to choose their own health care professional. No one would ever be denied health
insurance because of their health, wealth, or any other reason.
A universal health-care voucher plan will also relieve American businesses of the financial
responsibility of insuring their workers while ensuring that their workers get adequate care.


Immigration:
Senator Gravel favors protecting our borders and monitoring the flow of illegal immigrants into
our country.
He also favors a guest worker program and setting up naturalization procedures that
would fairly bring existing illegal immigrants into legal status.

Mr Gravel also believes in tackling the root cause of Illegal Immigration by reforming NAFTA
to be more beneficial to both the United States and to Mexico, which it actually is as it stands,
but can be much, much better and not have as many negatives.


Gun Rights:
While Senator Gravel fully supports the 2nd Amendment, he believes that fundamental change
must take place with regards to gun ownership. The senator advocates a licensing program
where a potential gun owner must be licensed as well as properly trained with a firearm before
they may own one.



Mike Gravel, like I said is one of my two choices for president, though to be fair he is my
top choice, and will get my vote in the primary as well as the overall race if he wins,
simply because he is the only candidate that I agree with the most, and who actually focuses
on issues (that none of the others seem to) that I consider important.



Information on Mr. Gravel's position on the issues as stated in this thread can be found
on his candidacy website.

Gravel for President

Just bumping this and adding an opinion on something I heard in regards to Mr. Gravel.

*BuMp*



Ok, so I was watching CNN, and there was this guy who runs a popular (I've never heard of it)
left/Democratic blog, anyways they were talking about what Hillary was saying to John
(I'm on a first name basis with them don cha know .) and he basically said he did'nt
want to hear what any of the other Democratic candidates accept for the top 3 had to say,
because they would'nt get enough votes.

Well guess what, if people vote for the person they like rather than for the person they think
has the best chance, than they do win, and only through having all the candidates talk and
state there points to everyone does that person gain support.


I'm personally going to vote for Senator Gravel in the Primaries, and I hope that others
who agree with him do so as well, instead of voting for someone else just because they
are more popular.

[edit on 7/18/2007 by iori_komei]

I really like Mike Gravel. He's using his personal political power to inform the debate (in the upcoming elections). He's "crazy" cos he knows, just like you and I, that he doesn't have a shot. But he does have a platform!

God bless him.

I'll be voting for Ron Paul in the Republican primaries (in N.C.). Beyond that, no other Repugnant in contention will get my vote.

Anyway, I hope Al Gore runs and has the vision to ask Barack Obama to run with him. They would win. Without question.