Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Okay, I care - just not as much as other people do.

Last night I was at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser (I was comped) in Chelsea. Hillary wasn't there but Bill was. He seemed tired but was still extremely effective. Anyway, while we were waiting in the bitter cold for the doors to open, there were a bunch of protesters. They were chanting and passing out flyers, angry at Hillary because she voted for the Iraq War and continued to support it. People just ignored them.

I could make this post about the ineffectiveness of protesting. Or about attacking people who are on your side of the political fence. But instead I want to admit that, as much as the Iraq debacle annoys me, I just don't think that it is the most important political issue we are faced with. In fact, I don't think it's in the top 10. I realized this when I started thinking about the issues that I believe have a greater long-term effect on the country than our presence in Iraq.

So here we are, my list of 10 things more important than Iraq (in no particular order)

1. The erosion of abortion rights
2. Global warming
3. Outsourcing
4. The proliferation of big box retailers
5. The decline of unions
6. Our crappy educational system
7. The concentration of wealth
8. Political corruption
9. The erosion of democracy
10. The lack of national health care

In the long run, when we leave Iraq and what happens after we leave will have less impact on the future of our kids than whether we guarantee them a chance to prosper with dignity and health. If those people want to protest something, they should be protesting Alito or Wal-Mart, not Hillary Clinton - who agrees with them 99% of the time.