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Saturday, June 25, 2011

PROGRESSIVES' PLATFORM FOR 2018, 2020 &....


 Here's a platform I think most if not all progressives can and should stand behind for 2022 and 2024. Let's also start picking candidates for ALL offices from the local level up, both state and federal, up to Congress and the Presidency. We should join, and work with, Brand New Congress and Indivisible, to this end. But let's also try to fly under the MSM radar for as long as we possibly can, so feel free to send 1) feedback to me at anglohebraicus@gmail.com and 2) this platform to as many others as possible whom you think might favor it. And look for people whom you think would be good progressive candidates for this or that office. We shall see if simple people power--we the people communicating and discussing with each other, person by person, by e-mail, the social networks and face-to-face--can carry an election with either no or minimal help from the big money dragons. Its success will depend on each and all of us in a very real sense.

 Here's the platform as follows:

1)CAMPAIGN FINANCE OVERHAUL--GET CORPORATE $$$ OUT OF ELECTIONS!!!!!
2) Medicare for ALL
3) Minimum wage set AT LEAST at $16/hr.
4) See what uses the 60,000 abandoned factories can be put to. Encourage working people to form democratically-run cooperative businesses in them, including financial encouragement.
5) End all favors to fossil-fuel companies and speed up transition to renewable energies and regenerative forms of agriculture. Lester Brown makes a good point when he notes that after Pearl Harbor, we retooled our economy in a matter of a few months. Yes, the analogy is imperfect but maybe instructive just the same.
6) Progressive taxation with the top rate as high as it needs to be to pay down the debt, keep middle-class programs functioning and help poor people and speed pro-ecology transitions.
7) Expand other necessary programs such as HeadStart and WIC. Cut deep into the military-industrial complex's funding.
8) Pass a law which would render anyone trying to hide their money from Uncle Sam at least under threat of losing their citizenship and forfeit their wealth.
9) Form state banks owned by the people of each state
10) Reinstate Glass-Steagall and discuss nationalizing the Fed
11) Collect information for a National Infrastructure Databank so that we know what needs repair and when. This takes roads, etc. out of the pork barrel. It'll also put people to work inspecting and collecting info on roads, bridges, water-pipes, dams--everything!
12) Once infrastructure information is collected, prioritize and get (re)building. Push towards educational equality across class lines.
13) Commonsense 'militia' regulations as per 2nd Amendment, including a permanent ban on private ownership of all military-style firearms and plastic weapons. Otherwise, firearms ownership to be regulated exactly as is motor vehicle ownership
14) Bring business back under firm and fair regulation coupled with open and firm support of labor's rights to organize.
15) Cool, if not end, culture wars. Support women's rights and LGBT rights but leave marrying same-sex couples by clergy to be settled by each individual church congregation. Resurrect the ERA and no more reactionary judges!
16) END the useless and counterproductive 'war on drugs'. Switch emphasis to prevention and education. Blanket amnesty for ALL imprisoned for nonviolent small-amount-of-drugs crimes. Decriminalize and TAX formerly illegal drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, hashish, peyote and opiates. Regulate these drugs along the same lines as alcohol (maybe sell them in State or package stores) with warning labels on them as we have on tobacco.
17) Compulsory two years of National Service for ALL between high school and college, including but not limited to the Armed Forces, ACTION, Teacher Corps, urban or rural internships. Inductees may indicate preferences but with understanding that they are subordinate to service needs. ONLY honest conscientious objectors may be excused from the possibility of military service.
18) Term limits to be discussed and deliberated. (Suggestion: no one may spend more than 30 years total in elective office, ex. six terms (12 years) in the House plus three terms (18 years) in the Senate.
19) Cut Congress's salaries by half and double the number of representatives. All former elected officials will have Medicare, but no more insurance without paying for it.
20) No more 'voter fraud' scams. A national system of voter registration
21) No more 'revolving door' between Congress and lobbyists
22) Encourage states to adopt ranked choice voting and/or proportional representation
23) Removal of the 75-year pension window requirement from the USPS.
24) Put a firm economic 'floor' in place in addition to strengthening and increasing the 'ladders' into the middle classes
25) In the Middle East, 'evenhandedness' will apply only to secularizers of the Arab/Muslim states. 'Evenhandedness' will be based on close listening to what Arabs and other Muslims tell each other as per Israel (which will remain our ally) and the West. Cool current relations with Turkey and make it clear that re-warming them depends on re-secularization.
26) Make it clear that our closest allies will always be fellow democracies and that 'democracy' means free and fearless public discussion and examination of religious faith along with anything else.Openly promulgate liberty--ESPECIALLY religious liberty--throughout the globe. Encourage honest dialogue and discourage those who can't take satire and/or honest questions.
27) A thoroughgoing re-education of law enforcement so that people of color will not be gunned down, most of them unarmed, while crazy-ass armed whites are talked into surrender
More points are likely to be added with time. Feel free to offer suggestions.
Please pass this on to at least twelve more people as you love our country! If you haven't that many on your e-mail list that's OK; just send it to all. This is one campaign cycle where I feel we the people need to do something RADICALLY different from past campaigns; join me if you feel the same way. God bless you all and--in a most urgent way--God save the United States of America!

7 comments:

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  5. Very impressive and tightly written, and I like that you didn't just whine, you actually had practical ideas of what to do.

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  6. Most. Progressives are anti Israel..

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  7. I notice you removed a lot of comments from this blog.

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