The Issues

Red, Brown and Blue takes on the vital issues of our day. Unlike your traditional news source, we stand on a platform of opinions we believe essential to building a stronger America.

Political Involvement

Our voice will never be heard if we don’t get involved. We encourage multicultural audiences and individuals to get informed, think hard about the issues, and voice their opinions. In partnership with VotoLatino we encourage online voter registration. And in the future we plan to facilitate proactive communication with legislators and other decision makers to further the causes in which we believe, and shared progress for all Americans.

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Diversity

We believe that diversity is one of the keys to America’s historical prosperity and one of the essential factors in our future success. As a nation that has attracted immigrant groups from all over the world, our diverse society is in many ways a microcosm of the best the world has to offer. If we can harness the power of our multicultural society we can better interface with the world around us. Diversity, whether it’s racial, ethnic, religious, lifestyle or in the realm of ideas is one of the core values of American culture and politics, guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.

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World View

We embrace an evolving world view, one in which the United States should strive to better understand its neighbors, one in which robust communication and diplomacy foster mutual trust, enhanced relationships and broader alliance structures. We believe that we must re-engage not only our allies but our enemies in an effort to change paradigms and recast old molds. It is our belief that by understanding the roots of anti-American sentiments in hot spots around the globe we can better craft strategies for diminishing negativity and hostility towards our nation and people over the long term. While a strong military is a vital component to our security, we believe that peace and prosperity can only truly be won by finding and enjoying common ground with other nations and cultures through understanding, tolerance, and collaboration towards worthy shared goals.

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National Security

The events of recent years have made it clear that we live in an increasingly dangerous world. As technologies of mass destruction advance and proliferate, it only becomes more perilous. Traditional land wars, like the ones in which we are engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, render us unable to pose a credible deterrent or strong response to other threats which might arise such as the invasion of Georgia by Russia in August 2008. We believe that in order to enhance our security we must not rely purely on force but rather on changing the nature of our relationships with other nations and cultures, evolving our role in the world from bully to beacon of ideas and hope. By pursuing long-term, intelligent, strategic foreign relations on a systemic level we can grow our network of alliances and leverage deeper understandings of the threats, stronger relationships with others who can exert pressure for deterrence, and incentives for positive behavior change. In the end, this type of approach would enhance our national security not only by building higher walls and stronger surveillance systems and military forces but also by simply reducing the threats to our nation, our citizens and our way of life.

We must never allow our fears and desires for increased national security to undermine our ideals or our respect for our rights and freedoms. When we do so, our enemies have already won by destroying what is at the core of our identity. In the immortal words of Patrick Henry: Give me liberty or give me death.

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Economy

Our economy is in tatters. While other countries have become more competitive, we have not only lost our edge but also our way. We need our national leadership to convene the nation’s brightest economic minds to create a national master strategy designed not to give our economy a shot in the arm via stimulus programs, bailouts, short term tax breaks and rebates but to regroup, take an in-depth inventory of our strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats and develop a map for major corporations, small to medium-sized businesses and government agencies to work together to get us back on the right track.

Some of the components we envision as part of that strategy include:

  • Eliminating government budget deficits and reducing national debt to stabilize and revitalize our capital markets.
  • Restoring productivity by investing strategically and coherently in workforce and industry development geared towards areas where the US can remain – or become – competitive within a 5-year period. This includes developing programs that marshal the combined resources of the government, universities, non-profits, and private corporations to providing training and re-deploy skilled laborers whose jobs are being rendered obsolete by the declines of their industries in America.
  • Revisiting global trade agreements in a more system manner to ensure that our allies, trading partners and competitors do not benefit disproportionately from lopsided agreements that empower them to compete and outproduce us at incalculable costs to human rights and the environment.
  • Provide incentives for automakers and the energy producers to work together to reshape the balance of power in the world with regards to energy. Increase taxes on oil company windfall profits and earmark the funds for increased investments in R&D of alternative and renewable energy sources. Provide tax incentives for oil companies who re-invest profits in such R&D.
  • Integrate the areas outlined below into the economic master plan.

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Environment

Historically our greatest assets as a nation have been: our ideas, our people and our environment. Without that trifecta, America’s rise to greatness would have been unlikely. We must not sacrifice our environment in lieu of short-term and fleeting rewards: like lower gas prices and greater profits for corporations that rape, pillage and pollute our oceans, bays, beaches, rivers, lakes, forests and skies while creating disease, destroying ecosystems and endangering entire species. These are our greatest natural resources, not what lies beneath or what enriches the powerful few who plunder our planet of its treasures for nearsighted gains. If we can reach out into space, if we could split atoms over six decades ago, if we can wipe out diseases that killed millions for centuries, we can find a way to co-exist with our world in harmony to our the long-term benefit and viability of our own species.

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Education

America’s economic expansion in the second half of the 20th century was in great part fuelled by the productivity of the most educated middle class in the world. Today, we don’t rank first in nearly any category when it comes to education. In order to get our economy, our society and our democracy on the right track in a sustainable manner, we must refocus and reinvest in our nation’s approach to education.

We cannot fix what’s broken by taking from it and abandoning it. Our public education system must be reformed and revitalized but taking limited resources away to subsidize private education, also endangering the separation between church and state, is ill advised. Why? Because voucher and privatization initiatives will only help the few, only pay partially for private school tuitions, leaving the poorest among us trapped in public schools further robbed of resources.

Instead a holistic approach to public education reform must be pursued. The federal government, the National Education Association and similar organizations, non-profit organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, think tanks on education, and scholars must convene to create consensus on a new direction for America’s approach to education and develop strategies and action items for reform on every level, from how education is funded to how it actually works in the classroom. Best practices, public and private, should be studied and used to develop new national standards. In order to attract better teachers, higher salaries must be offered. Merit pay should definitely be a part of the equation. The private sector should be more involved in the funding of public schools or we will find our labor pool increasingly unable to cope with our needs and continue to outsource jobs that should and could be performed domestically to other countries. New technologies and methods of learning must be studied and implemented to put America at the forefront of education in the world, rather than last in our class of industrialized nations.

It is important to note that public education has long been the cornerstone of American democracy. This is the forum where people of all different backgrounds come together to learn a common language. That language is not necessarily English but rather the language of our civics, our society, our values, our ideals, our goals as a nation. Public schools are where equality of opportunity is born, where upwards mobility is placed within reach of all. These are core values that have defined America as unique within the world, breeding harmony and contentment domestically and positioning internationally us as a symbol of hope and human advancement, a place of opportunity for all. Public schools are where new immigrant groups have been integrated into mainstream society. And from the courtroom to the classroom to the schoolyard they are where some of our greatest internal battles for racial desegregation and equality have been fought. Progress towards the ideals put forth in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution is a never-ending process. Vibrant public schools are essential to keeping that process alive.

Let’s work together to ensure that every child in America has access to a great education.

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Public Health

Red Brown and Blue supports universal health care coverage for all Americans. Not only is the cost of health care usually one of the top worries among all Americans, but the health disparities that exist in our nation are intolerable for a country that hails itself as the leader of the free world. Freedom cannot be enjoyed if one is weighed down by the burdens of disease or the inability to afford care. Again, when Patrick Henry proclaimed “Give me liberty or give me death” the idea was that the two were mutually exclusive. We cannot continue to offer people the ultimately enigmatic combo of Liberty and Death. Health disparities are what those of us engaged in politics, public health and social advocacy euphemistically brand the tragic health consequences of racial and ethnic inequality in America. Hispanics and African Americans are disproportionately impacted by cancer, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, AIDS, obesity, teen pregnancy. To some extent this is the result of cultural predispositions linked to genetics and dietary customs. However, knowing what we know today, as a nation we have a duty to educate and empower our entire populace to adopt new behaviors in eating, physical activity and preventive health to overcome these disparities. We also have a moral obligation to provide access to quality health care from the womb to the grave. The most pervasive underlying cause and exacerbating factor is the most sinister disease of all: poverty. The fight for better health begins with the fight against poverty. It involves a comprehensive approach to leaving no American behind through education and economic initiatives that lead to a healthier, more prosperous nation as a whole.

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Immigration

America needs truly comprehensive immigration reform. Our greatest fear is that Congress won’t get it right because it will be more focused on branding whatever diluted version of reform they can compromise on as “compehensive.” And probably the resulting legislating will focus less on immigration and more on building fences.

That said, our country desperately needs immigrants. Not just any old immigrant, but people who are committed to producing, to learning, to growing, to competing, to contributing, to respecting the laws, and to earning their citizenship. I think a new immigration policy should be driven by the following factors:

Our Ideals: We are a nation of immigrants. Whether our ancestors came here from England, Ireland, Italy, Africa, Asia or Latin America, this is who we are, with the notable exception of Native Americans, of course. Immigrants have long been welcomed and eventually embraced into the fabric of our culture, from our workforce to our arts and entertainment, from our cuisine to political leadership. With each new wave of immigrants there has been resistance. There have been those fearful of how new immigrants will change our society or burden our economy. But in reality, in the end, each new group has contributed greatly to both. We must remain true to our ideals, for those are what bind us together and make us who we are. The ideals are what render being American so promising. The fact that we actually tend to live by most of them most of the time is what makes being American so rewarding and so coveted the world over. Embodied by the Statue of Liberty, our ideals are to be a refuge and beacon of hope for those seeking a place to be free, to give their children an opportunity at a better life than they have endured.

There is much differentiation made by pundits who posit that their ancestors were immigrants but they came here legally. My answer is that it has become much harder to come here legally over time. Our economy is starved for people willing to work at competitive wages, our unionized industries starved for people driven by ambition and hunger rather than by complacency and a sense of entitlement. We need new waves and generations of workers driven by a sense of urgency to advance, to contribute, to prove themselves. And we must design a system of education and workforce development that embraces these immigrants and merges them into our current labor pool to strategically create a more advanced, more diverse (not only in ethnicity but in skill sets, education levels, interests, talents, etc.), more dynamic and progressive labor force. This would all be part of the master economic plan that we call for. Again, immigration should be looked at in a truly comprehensive manner, comprehensive not just within its own universe but within a broader systemic approach to global and hemispheric trade agreements as well as our economy’s needs and opportunities.

If we can pardon Scooter Libby, give amnesty to the telecoms for conspiring with the Bush Administration to spy, and change laws to apply retroactively to multibillion dollar corporations and government officials, why can’t we provide amnesty to the millions of undocumented workers who have come to America with nothing but good intentions and the willingness to work below the minimum wage? Talking about the rule of law is a cop out. Laws are made to serve man, not the other way around. If people are breaking the law simply because the law itself is broken, then we need to fix the laws and forgive the men. After all, we also call ourselves a nation of Christians and forgiveness is the key principle in our spirituality.

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Key Points to our Proposed Immigration Policy:

  • Look at it holistically and systemically in terms of what’s in best alignment with our ideals and our economic needs.
  • Consider it within the broader framework of global and hemispheric trade and commerce.
  • Provide a mechanism to legalize undocumented workers and create two paths for immigrants: a) the path to citizenship, b) guest worker program.
  • Create target numbers of immigrants to enter into each path based on realistic assessments of our nation’s needs as well as the demand for entry.
  • For those willing to declare their desire and commitment to become US citizens, create certain standards including being in country as a taxpaying resident for 5 years, learning English, and passing the citizenship exam.
  • For those interested in working here but maintaining their roots in their nation origin create a program that welcomes, trains, taxes, and monitors guest workers at a reasonable level. Require that guest workers are returning to their nation of origin periodically. Create a path from guest worker to citizen.
  • Once realistic numbers have been established to allow for legitimate immigration levels to align with free market principles of supply and demand, then heighten the punishment and fines for breaking the law (both on immigrants and employees.)

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