Here's some stuff I believe:
You can accept Marx's diagnosis without agreeing with his cure. I'd rather live in a laissez faire hands off communist autocracy than a laissez faire hands off corporate plutocracy. But both of those are not good options, and I see no reason why we can't just have a democratically regulated mixed economy and a tax system that punishes greed.
At the end of the day it's not about some theory of economics or another, it's about basic fairness. The idea that if a person wants a job, he or she ought to be able to find one and that job ought to pay for the true value of his or her labor. That if someone wants a good education, he or she shouldn't be priced out of getting one. That if you break the law and end up in a really bad place, you can do your time, clean up your life and we'll give you a clean slate and a second chance. The idea that we're lucky to have been born in the United States and we can therefore be gracious to those who were not but who wish they were and help them find their way to share in our bounty. the idea that no man woman or child should have to go to sleep hungry tonight. The idea that if you get sick you can see a doctor without having to declare bankruptcy. The idea that if we built a railroad across a continent in the 1860s and put men on the moon in the 1960s, we ought to be able to find a way to fill up a car in 2011 with a renewable energy resource that produces no greenhouse gas. The idea that it takes all of us coming together and agreeing on a common purpose to do some of the most important and fundamental jobs that need doing in our society.
The simple truth that we're all in this together, and so we ought to be able to talk about how to get out of it without calling each other names.
I don't see this as radicalism. I see it as common sense. These are values that we can all agree on. So why is it that it's so hard to get it done?