A New Democratic Platform
It isn't enough for the Democratic party to not be MAGA. I'm fed up with them pulling to the right to "appeal" to moderate Republicans—and expecting leftists and progressives to bite the bullet because they're still the lesser of two evils. I'm sick of them acting like we should grovel at their feet because they aren't Donald Trump.
They may not do corruption in front of our faces like him, but they still do it behind closed doors. They wouldn't talk about developing Gaza into some luxury resort, but they would (and did) fund the genocide of Palestinians.
It seems like they might be realizing that pandering to the right hasn't gotten them anywhere. I'm not completely convinced, but I am hopeful that's the case.
So, here are some changes I want to see in the Democratic party as we move forward in the fight against fascism, and toward a better society. It's a long list, but it's not everything and it is based on ideal outcomes. None of it could happen overnight. But if we're working toward a more perfect union as our Constitution claims, we should be pushing for things that seem impossible, taking steps to progress towards a more possible reality in those areas.
Maybe it's more realistic to apply these positions to a third party, but the Democratic party is where we have existing political infrastructure. Anyway, this is a party platform I would support with pride, in no particular order:
Political System Overhaul
- Overturn Citizens United and legislate for a more transparent campaign finance system with total fundraising caps. We shouldn't be spending billions of dollars on political campaigns.
- Reduce the base income in Congress. No one should be in politics for the money. They're public servants and that's why they should show up for work every day.
- Ban stock trading in Congress.
- Term limits. Why are people dying of old age in office after serving for decades? Retire already!
- Give D.C. statehood. Let Puerto Rico, and Hawaii decide if they want to be states. If not, allow them international sovereignty.
- Repair the broken checks and balances system with amendments to the Constitution.
- Create a referendum process where the people can impeach elected officials, including the president.
- Establish ranked choice voting in general elections. This will allow for a more competitive system by giving third parties more of a chance.
- Implement multi-member districts. I may do an entire post on this one at some point. In short, when we hold a representative election we should strive for the results to represent as many people as possible. In our single-member system, all of the voters who didn't vote for the winning candidate go without representation.
Foreign Policy
- End U.S. support for occupations and genocides and stop meddling with other countries in covert ops. Seriously, it's weird. Quit it.
- End the embargo against Cuba.
- Partner with other wealthy nations to provide necessary aid where it's needed across the globe.
- Stop the war machine; enough with pointless wars for the profit of defense contractors. Prioritize peace.
Human Rights and Social Issues
- Universal healthcare as a human right should include vision, dental, and mental health services including addiction treatment.
- Housing is a human right. No person should be forced to sleep on the street in the richest country in the world.
- Provide free access to public education and childcare.
- Trans rights are human rights.
- Address racial and economic segregation.
- Establish better consumer controls and right-to-repair laws.
- Bring union power back. I've heard from several people that they didn't like being in a union. It didn't seem all that beneficial; unions don't have the bargaining power they once did. Fix that.
- Create better regulation of consumer privacy.
Economic Policies
- Tax billionaires out of existence—$999 million is plenty.
- Break up the near-monopolies in agricultural supply, tech, food, entertainment, and anywhere where a handful of companies run entire industries.
- Universal basic income has been proven to increase full-time employment, contrary to what you may have heard. Let's do that. Set a graduated rate based on employment income.
- Develop better infrastructure for worker-owned businesses.
- Promote a better work-life balance with a 4-day work week.
Sustainability and Environmental Issues
- Build up the renewable energy industry and phase out fossil fuels.
- Incentivize less mono-crop agriculture. A lot of our crop yields go to animal ag feed or exports; less than 40% is harvested for food. We should diversify our crops to grow more food for domestic consumption.
- Regulate and disincentivize excessive emissions by corporations.
- Phase out single-use plastics entirely.
- Establish composting programs nationwide. The resulting product could be used for personal or community gardens, or provided to farmers.