RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Building a high-tech fence along the US/Mexico border and putting a moratorium on legal immigration.

Proferring that something so gargantuan and schizophrenic as the US federal government could ever focus on anything is unimaginable. The Congress (all 535 members), the administration, and, to a less obvious degree, the judicial branch are all singularly and individually focused on their own power and retaining it at nearly any cost. Each player shamelessly chases the glare of the camera when any amount of credit might be shared or stolen and shuns it like a vampire when the tone is derogatory or accusatory. It has become (if it hasn't always been) a morass of self-aggrandizement and preemptive blame deflecting, using ordinary people, pathetic victims, dangerous enemies (both real and imagined) and heart-tugging rhetoric and issues to accomplish its greedy objectives. No political party has ever elevated itself or its actions above this level of morass, nor is it likely any will. Try to glean some semblance of a vision from whatever candidate or party you're voting for and determine whether it is in agreement with your vision.

Curbing the present infringement on civil rights and reigning in this president's complete obsession with going beyond the limits of his executive power. . .although learning to speak at a level that doesn't induce giggles would be a nice start. . .

Getting its head out of its own behind.We need a thorough cleansing of all of the corruption,graft and dishonesty in our elected officials before the whole country falls apart at the seams.

Social and domestic issues. I want the federal government to focus on preventing the spread of AIDS, helping our homeless citizens, and cracking down on child pornography.

Protecting the homeland and restoring fiscal sanity to budget. Here we have a Republican majority in both houses of Congress and a Republican president, and they're spending money like drunken sailors, as John McCain would say. Passing massive tax cuts while at the same time presiding over record increases in non-defense and discretionary spending is not good public policy. Under the Bush Administration, discretionary spending has increased well over 30% in just four years (almost equal to the increase in discretionary spending during the 8 years of Clinton and the Republican Congress). This is a serious issue, and the only way to solve it is to get serious about our budget. Both sides are to blame, and few have taken the initiative in fixing the problem, but it is clear that something must be done to restore order to this country's fiscal house.

Protecting our people.

Marriage and the american family because it is the basis of society. If you solve the problems of families you solve the problems of the nation.

Which contestant gets voted off the island next. At least that way they would do less harm than with whatever the hell it is they're doing now.

Keeping the economy healthy, making health care available to all Americans, and fighting terrorism.

At the present time, the federal government should be focused most on restoring the economy to health, making sure our Civil Liberties do not disappear, and saving our environment, not fighting terrorists on the other side of the globe and exporting democracy.

Defending the citizens against terrorism, AND stopping illegal immigration.

Finding and correcting the root CAUSES of terrorism. Terrorism itself is a tactic, not a separable, definable entity. Once the hatred of the U.S. and the western democracies which underlies the current conflict begins to dissipate--by correcting the underlying injustices--the world will be a safer place. This is a worthy long-term goal for the federal government.

The federal government should focus more on shrinking its power back down to where our founding fathers intended it. Thanks to the likes of Abe Lincoln and FDR we now have a product of the states whose power far surprasses that of the states in every way imaginable.

Military, police force, and law courts.

Terrorism. Do you want to run the risk of a nuclear weapon being detonated in NYC? Neither do I.