I recently responded to a poll by a presidential candidate’s campaign, which helped me to write down some thoughts about American politics today.
If American democracy is to survive more than a generation from now (and that is very much up in the air) these are some things that leaders need to address immediately.
1. Meaningful campaign finance reform. Get big money out of politics. Not surprisingly, I don’t hear establishment candidates address this. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this when money determines the ability to win elections instead of truthful discourse and meaningful policy proposals with the public. Learn more about this by reading any number of books, my favorite is Republic, Lost, by Lawrence Lessig. This subject is almost non-existent in public discourse because politicians AND the media are complicit in profiting from the current environment. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and it’s not you and I.
2. Make federal voting a national holiday, and make it really easy for everyone to vote. If I can pay my taxes via mail, transfer thousands of dollars on my phone, then why is voting so damn difficult using these methods? I get it….it’s a states issue, but people are left feeling unheard. If you’re for enacting policies that have the effect of fewer people voting, then you’re not “for democracy”. Don’t dismiss a good idea to get more people to vote because it’s not perfect. Voter fraud by citizens as a legitimate problem has been debunked time and time again. Not sure about that, then go find the thousands of people convicted of voter fraud…..there aren’t that many.
3. The way that people get information is BROKEN. Public discourse is centered around news that people get off of Facebook, Twitter, and Faux News. Our elected leaders need to bring back something like The Fairness Doctrine (for the 21st century) and clamp down on Bots and other methods of disinformation. The public can’t find reliable information. The truth matters! Without citizens being able to easily find reliable information, Democracy is doomed. Why is it that someone, or some company, in eastern Europe can create 50 social media accounts and spread all manner of disinformation? Verify Identifications for all social media accounts. Yes, it hurts your corporate profits, tuff shit!
4. Why are we the only developed nation that doesn’t offer some form of universal healthcare? There are 33 developed economies on this planet and we are the only one that doesn’t offer some form of healthcare for all its citizens. It would seem apparent that in a pandemic we are at a huge disadvantage in dealing with a public health crisis when so many citizens don’t have access to medical care. Both mainstream presidential candidates are against this and they both belong to political parties that are complicit in running America into the ground since the 80’s (when we were number 1 in quality of life…now we’re not even in the top ten).
5. Invest in our country! Invest in the citizens! We have schools falling apart, standardized testing run amuck, the beginnings of a two tier education system(public-bad/private-good), roads and bridges in disrepair, people that need higher education without being saddled with life-long debt. Mass incarceration of mostly non-violent citizens that does NOTHING meaningful for our society. We have less than 5% of the world’s population, but almost 25% of the world’s prison population. Most of those are disproportionately minorities. The War On Drugs is a joke. You can’t war on an inanimate object. What we have is a war on drug users…some of the people most in need of our help.
Technically I can vote, but it doesn’t really matter because the core issues that need to be addressed aren’t even on the table. It’s like choosing between driving off a cliff at 50 mph, or 100 mph. Both options suck.
We’re all in this together and we have more in common than we have differences. This is what happens when Sarah goes away. Good night humans. Rant Over.