I like people who defy easy stereotypes and flout established categories. For instance, here’s the website of John McColgan, a Democrat running for a congressional seat in Oregon. Here’s his platform:
1. Defend the Constitution, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and the rules of the Geneva Convention;
2. Restore American credibility abroad by respecting international law and cooperating with the United Nations;
3. Promote long-term national security by converting some military spending into aid to underdeveloped countries, and by reducing our dependence on foreign oil;
4. Challenge any threat to the sanctity of human life, including war, euthanasia, cloning, abortion, and capital punishment;
5. Stimulate the economy by reducing tax rates and health care costs for the self-employed, by promoting fair trade and unionization, and by demanding stiff penalties for corporate fraud;
6. Promote a balanced budget through progressive tax reform;
7. Develop a national health care program supported by employers, employees, and investors;
8. Stabilize social security by removing the current ceiling on taxes for the wealthy and by taxing investment income;
9. Support public education by opposing mandatory federal testing and promoting local control;
10. Defend the environment by protecting national parks and wilderness areas, and by employing selective harvesting in federal forests.
Notice that Mr. McColgan seems to be to the “left” of someone like John Kerry on, for instance, health care and taxes, but to the “right” of most liberals on abortion, euthanasia and cloning. He’s also opposed to capital punishment – something almost no major party candidate is willing to do, lest they appear “soft on crime.” (Remember Bill Clinton’s trip home to Arkansas while on the campaign trail in ’92 to preside over the execution of a mentally retarded man?)
Anyway, I have no idea what his chances are, but I hope the good people of Oregon’s second district give this guy a look.
A Thinking Reed 
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