Should everyone have access to health care? Or just those with high paying jobs? Should every student be allowed to go to college? Or just those with rich parents?
I believe Americans can agree these opportunities should be afforded to everyone, regardless of income. What could be more important to our country than ensuring that all children have access to education and health care? Maybe the environment is the most important issue facing our country. Perhaps energy independence is most critical. If we are taking our cues from President Bush and this administration, none of these issues is very pressing.
Last week I wrote about how this president and the Republican Congress inherited a united country after Sept. 11. Rather than bringing us together, they chose to drive us apart. Whether it’s gay marriage, affirmative action, immigration or Terri Schiavo, it seems there is no wedge issue too divisive for the president to use for partisan gain.
Conservatives tend to counter this claim with rhetoric saying Democrats have no plan for America’s future. It’s true that in the past the Democrats have not done a good job of illustrating their vision to the American people. When the Democrats take over control of the house in November, their stated mission will be to reunite the American people around common goals.
Everyone agrees that students should be provided with the opportunity to go to college. In the 20th century we guaranteed all young adults access to a good high school education. It will be the goal of Democrats to ensure that we provide access for all students to attend college in the 21st century. While Republicans have made empty promises, the cost of tuition has risen by 40 percent in the last six years of their control. The very next day after the State of the Union address where President Bush committed himself to higher education, he cut student loans by $12 billion. No longer should it be a privilege of the rich to attend a university.
It’s unifying ideas like this that Americans can rally around rather than rallying against each other.
Democrats will also commit themselves to providing health care for every working citizen. In the 1960s, we created Medicare and Medicaid to provide health coverage for seniors and poor people. In the 21st century, Democrats will fight to ensure that if you work, you get health care. Rather than working toward this collective goal, the president continued to signs bills, written by the pharmaceutical industry, that have resulted in the nine million people losing their health insurance since 2000.
Americans overwhelmingly support efforts to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil. This is yet another example of an issue where Americans stand united in their desire to see real change. However, despite the president’s confession of our country’s “addiction to oil,” the last six years have brought no tangible improvements while gas prices have nearly doubled. When Democrats take control of Congress in November they will commit themselves to creating a hybrid-based economy that creates jobs, while decreasing our reliance on oil from foreign sources.
Even today, College Republicans Chairman Anthony Warren is hosting an exhibit on campus showing pictures of fetuses next to photographs from the Holocaust that attempt to equate abortion with genocide. Does this seem like the effort of a party trying to bring us together or drive us apart? I truly believe the issues that unite us are far greater than those that divide us. But rather than focusing on the uniting issues, the Republican leadership is choosing to drive us apart by diverting attention toward wedge issues like gay marriage and Terri Schiavo. Democrats, however, will bring us together by attacking the issues that we all see as most pressing. As the president says so frequently, “now is a time for unity.”
Clearly, the issues Americans are capable of unifying around are education, health care, the environment and energy independence. It is obvious now that after six years the Republican majority is still not prepared to step up, handle these issues and unite our country. This November, all of us are faced with one decision: Do we want change, or more of the same?
Together, America can do [email protected] is chairman of the College Democrats