It’s pretty clear, however the election turns out, there is a lot in America that is broken or barely functioning. Roughly 4 out of 10 Americans are people that are deplorable — and proud of it.
(And if you think that’s insulting to them, well Boo Hoo. Not apologizing. SMH. Take a look at what they say about us. It’s all there in Trump’s tweets.)
We can’t go on like this.
Let’s try something — a few changes. Things we would do if we could do.
- Direct election of the president. Dump the electoral college.
- Establish uniform national voting procedures, secure elections, extended voting, vote by mail, national holiday for voting.
- Expand the federal courts, rebalance the Supreme Court.
- Let’s not just make D.C. and Puerto Rico states; how about giving cities above a certain size their own Senators, elected directly?
- Roll back Citizens United, Shelby County, Janus, etc.
- No more gerrymandering.
- Campaign finance reform.
- Come up with a media Fairness Doctrine for the digital age.
- Make bringing down inequality a high priority — according to Wilkinson and Pickett, that would automatically improve a whole range of quality of life indicators.
- Get real on climate change. It’s not just about survival — it’s about creating good jobs right here in this country that can’t be off-shored.
- Tie it in with some kind of national service — a ‘draft’ for the 21st Century Climate Crisis.
- Some kind of universal health care — whatever works.
- Something like a universal basic income.
- Lift the cap on Social Security taxation, kill the carried interest loophole.
- REAL progressive taxation. A transaction tax on the stock market — something to steer money into productive uses instead of game-playing financialization.
- Real anti-trust enforcement again.
One more thing: hold Republicans accountable this time. Why refuse to learn from experience? Why deprive them of the lesson?
There’s a lot of ideas here, some of them much more attainable than others. We’re going to have to fight hard any way, so why not dream big? If you aim for the stars, at least you won’t shoot yourself in the foot.
Feel free to come up with critiques and suggestions in comments. It’s something to do besides obsessively checking vote returns….