Demands - A Second Pass
Howdy folks!
Here is the new and refined super-duper, non-partisan, all-weather list of demands to lob at people who propose to represent us.
To review, briefly, these are (intended to be) populist (things that resonate across parties and ideologies), medium-term demands.
I tried to focus on demands that, if realized, would put power back into the hands of the 99% such that a larger transformation of government is possible for us.
I winnowed the list down to 10 demands, reduced some of the wordings where I could and added a few things that people suggested in the comments a couple of weeks ago.
For this round of comment, if you feel that something vital is missing, please suggest either folding it into another demand or replacing one of the demands.
When we've got some sort of general consensus on the list of demands, we'll put it up as a document that can be linked to, tweeted, facebooked or printed out and mailed or distributed at candidate events, etc. I'll also write a short introduction that can be posted by way of explanation for people who don't regularly participate on C99 about the demands and how to use them and we'll post that for linking as well.
Refined Proposed List of Demands
General principles (unchanged)
From time to time, a people creates a government to perform functions that no other institution is able to. It is vested by the people with significant powers to promote their common interests and the people retain the right to have that government respond without favoritism to the governed. A government should be judged by the quality of life that all of the governed experience, especially those at the bottom of the economic order. Government officials should be ashamed to find that there are citizens that are hungry, homeless, poorly-educated, without means to support themselves, lacking access to healthcare or other necessities of life - and such a government and its officials should be held accountable. Such conditions in a wealthy country are inexcusable.
Demands
1) Fair elections Public financing of elections/return to a reliable, transparent voting audit trail. In any election where a candidate elects to privately finance, all candidates relying on public finance will be granted equal financing. All licensees that occupy the public airwaves are to be required as a condition of their licenses to provide a certain amount of free airtime to candidates that meet a threshold of signatures, as well as free airtime for a set number of debates in the month prior to the election. Faith in elections is slipping; voting processes need to be transparent, verifiable and reliable, even at the cost of slower result reporting. (reworded)
2) Universal health care Single-payer health insurance/Medicare for all. The marketplace has failed. There has never been adequate healthcare for all Americans despite the vast sums of money spent and the decades that the private sector has had to accomplish this task. It is time for US citizens to have what is available in virtually all other first world nations. (unchanged)
3) Fix Social Security Fix Social Security the right way. Index the Income Cap on the OASDI tax rate such that it applies to 90% of all income every year in perpetuity. This should create full funding for Social Security benefits going forward. (reworded)
4) Regulate banking Break up the big banks/re-impose Glass-Steagall and regulate derivatives by repealing Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. End the revolving door between government service and Wall Street banks. Since the vast greed and corruption of Wall Street bankers crashed the economy in 2007, no serious re-regulation of the banks has occurred, no penalty has been imposed on those who created the failure and Americans are still at risk of another crash. (reworded)
5) Living minimum wage Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. Implement it now, not incrementally or in full after a period of years. Index it for inflation going forward based on 2012 dollars to diminish the premium for foot-dragging. (reworded)
6) End harmful free trade deals Withdraw from or renegotiate all free trade agreements that include an Investor-State Dispute Settlement "feature." Remove this unconstitutional, anti-democratic, illegitimate legal system dodge. Remove all other, anti-worker, anti-environment provisions or scrap the agreements. (unchanged)
7) Address climate change Address climate change on an emergency basis, it is both a survival issue and a matter of national security - you choose which matters more. End all subsidies for fossil fuel extraction and production, freeze the permitting process for new fossil fuel infrastructure and expedite the conversion to renewable energy sources. Retrain and deploy workers from affected industries to support an expedited national program to manufacture, install, maintain new renewable infrastructure and mitigate the effects of climate events. (reworded)
8) End wars End the war in Afghanistan and all other current wars and actions for regime change/repeal the 2001 AUMF/close Guantanamo/require the President to respect the con stitutional role of Congress in declaration of war. The primary remaining adversary in Afghanistan, the Taliban, are a local movement and have not exhibited ambitions to attack the US in its "homeland." Continuing this war serves no purpose that is greater than the recruiting value it creates for jihadi movements. Guantanamo is similarly a recruiting bonanaza for jihadis, the military commission trials system should be abandoned and those remaining in Guantanamo should be tried in US courts or released. During the so-called "war on terror," the executive branch has failed to respect the limits of the War Powers Act and international law. (unchanged)
9) End militarization of police End the practice of using military methods and equipment on the domestic civilian population. Stop providing surplus military equipment, surveillance equipment and military training to domestic police forces and peace officers. Stop the practice of spreading military propaganda through domestic US media, repeal the portion of the 2013 NDAA that allows this practice to continue. Repeal the Patriot Act and end all warrantless surveillance of US persons (including by the NSA). (reworded)
10) Open media Reverse media consolidation/Repeal Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012/maintain net neutrality. Media ownership is concentrated into far too few hands with just 5 companies controlling 90% of all US media. This is too much power in too few hands, which facilitates the spread of fake news through a system with too few competitors presenting challenges to the narrative of consolidated media. (reworded)
Well, there it is. I am still working on a list of things to organize and/or agitate for on at the state level including an end to gerrymandering, open primaries for states that don't have them, a level playing field for ballot access, ranked choice voting, public funding for state and local elections and legalization of marijuana. I'll try to get to that one of these days soon.
So, the floor is yours...
Comments
I had only silly demands to add - like
1. get all the overseas US military bases closed .
2. throw out everybody in Congress who is over 75 years old or limit the terms they can serve, if elected, to 4 for Senators and to 12 for Congressmen.
3. free education from kindergarden to master's degrees and all trade schools.
4. Get rid of lifelong terms for Supreme Court Justices and get more Justices. Limit the terms to 16 years. Rotate Justices in and out one every two years.
Forgettaboutit. All reasonable demands though. Just for your laughs. me:
afternoon mimi...
i toyed with term limits and lifelong free education on demand as possible options, but discarded them in favor of other priorities. closing all foreign bases is also something that i would like, but may not work across party lines, though demanding a congressional base justification review process would probably be a good thing.
This is brilliant work, Joe.
Thanks for the magnificent effort. I'm still reading and will be chewing on this for a while but it's great stuff, and beautifully expressed. Thanks again for your work, brother. This is important stuff. This is how to forge ahead.
thanks opol! n/t
Number 8
Right now we are bombing in seven or eight countries. Bombing is war.
why are these other wars not addressed? I may have missed comments on your previous essay that deal with this. The other issue is overseas bases which allow us to conduct clandestine operations in countries where we are not bombing. For example, Africa.
I know that the military is a big issue to try to condense into a demand. I just wish we could address all of these military operations somehow.
Otherwise, I am cool with your list as of my first reading. Thank you for trying to tackle this, Joe.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
afternoon gg...
i tried to get to that done by demanding the repeal of the 2001 aumf (which is how george w. obama and barack trump have been justifying their wars of choice) and that the war powers act be honored, it would mean that those wars would be illegal under domestic law. (they are already illegal under international law, but it seems that the international community isn't going to stand up and do anything about it.)
that said, i am not entirely satisfied with the demand either, since it falls well short of what i would like to demand, which is an end to the failed "war on terror" and all other imperialist military interventions.
i think that if we're going to demand that, we are going to have to do some fancy talking to get huge numbers of teevee-brainwashed americans on board with us.
I thought that was what you tried to do
What I wonder is if by repealing the AUMF, will that make all these current wars retroactively illegal? I don't know. The whole scope of our military is mind boggling.
Thank for your prompt answer.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
i edited my comment...
after posting it to add a little more rationale and to indicate that i am completely open to a better wording or a more clearly stated demand.
all these current wars are illegal...
they are wars of choice.
if they are a response to an imminent attack, the word imminent is devoid of value.
further, they stretch the 2001 aumf well beyond any reasonable interpretation of its scope.
@joe shikspack I think Americans are
I think Americans are mostly pretty sick of these wars. It's clear by now that they do nothing but waste both money and lives, and that's from the most selfish perspective.
Remember, even Trump ran on the idea of stopping this ridiculous regime change/pre-emptive war policy (not that I think he intended to go through with it, but it played well, and that was to the right wing).
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
evening cstms...
now that you mention this...
that does make a good case for making a blanket demand of ending all of the wars.
i wonder, though, if while gaining some of the trump supporters and libertarian repubs, that would be balanced by a loss of centrist republicans and mainstream, warmongering democrats. bah, we probably won't be able to get the centrists anyway.
i'm going to look at rewording the "wars" demand.
@joe shikspack No point in going
No point in going after fascists, I mean corporatists, I mean centrists.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
made a slight modification in the wording...
take a look upstairs and see how you feel about it.
@joe shikspack Quite good. If you
Quite good. If you want to up the appeal a notch, maybe consider including the words "and invest those resources back home"
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@joe shikspack I think Americans are
I think Americans are mostly pretty sick of these wars. It's clear by now that they do nothing but waste both money and lives, and that's from the most selfish perspective.
Remember, even Trump ran on the idea of stopping this ridiculous regime change/pre-emptive war policy (not that I think he intended to go through with it, but it played well, and that was to the right wing).
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
My sense is that the people I see on the bus
basically have no idea that any of these wars are going on. Among my work colleagues there's a bit more awareness, but most feel there's nothing that can be done. While making more than $15/hour the best of them are working nonstop and booked months ahead with almost no time to do things like change the sheets.
@gulfgal98 I agree that stopping
I agree that stopping these wars is paramount. It's both a moral and pragmatic imperative. We can't make ourselves whole without doing this.
I would add to #7
As part of the effort to manage and mitigate Global Climate Change is the need for an infrastructure program to make all homes energy efficient, and, to the extent possible, all business structures. "Homes" being a generic reference to everywhere people live, no matter the type of dwelling.
Dear Dems: You lost the WH, Senate, House, dozens of governors, state level SOS and AG and about 1,000 state legislative seats. Maybe...you're doing something wrong.
afternoon colorado...
how about if i modify this sentence:
to say this:
Retrain and deploy workers from affected industries to support an expedited national program to manufacture, install, maintain new renewable infrastructure and mitigate the effects of climate events.
Hi Joe, don't know if this is too specific or wordy, but other
countries are addressing this and we are not. A smart grid. Yes it's part of the infrastructure, but it's like the interstate highway system: big. And will need trained people forever. Training as part of the schooling either for the infrastructure bit or under education.
Technical careers can be gratifying and provide worthy employment.
Thanks to Joe and everyone participating. It is something we have to do.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
hi lch...
i'd like to be more specific, but i'm still trying to get the word count down, if possible.
perhaps, if this goes well and gets some traction we (as a site) might post some position papers to flesh out demands in some specificity at a later date. i don't know if we could manage this, but it might be cool to put together working groups for each item which would generate specific proposals around each issue in some depth for the smaller portion of the population that might want to get into the weeds.
Excellent idea!
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
@coloradoblue Excellent!
Excellent!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Nicely done, joe!
Basically a page, succinct, well-phrased, in language practically everyone can understand. This is something that people could get behind, could email, could post on every corner electric pole. And don't just make politicians or would-bes respond; make corporate and institutional boards and the MSM respond, too. Make this the conversation, the way Occupy made the 99% the conversation.
An excellent addition to this site!
thanks dance! n/t
List is turning into "Ninety-five Theses". Nail it to the door.
Great list. Defines the core policies of progressive agenda. Don't know why, but it reminds of Martin Luther's "Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences". Regardless of one might think of Luther, his list was a rant against the corruption of the Church and indulgences. The current situation with a corrupt democratic party seems to have some historical echoes with Martin Luther.
Not much to add. Getting any items on the list would be a major victory for the country.
heh...
if only martin luther had been creative enough to come up with 99 theses. now that would be a number.
It’s the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses!
(♪ ♫ theme from The Magnificent Seven plays in background)
Come to where the Savior is. Come to Luther Country.
Would it
be better if it explicitly mentioned homes so readers pick up on it more quickly. I read it and didn't realize that we were saying the same thing in different ways.
Dear Dems: You lost the WH, Senate, House, dozens of governors, state level SOS and AG and about 1,000 state legislative seats. Maybe...you're doing something wrong.
i don't know colorado...
i could write pages about each one of these items, my challenge has been to condense the prose to the point that all of the demands could fit on a page.
what would you propose as a wording?
Education and Immigration Reform
Forgive student loans. Make university education a right for all eligible students.
(Canadian universities are now filling up with US students (welcome to Canada!) because education is too expensive in the US.)
And immigration reform is needed because refugees, especially from countries damaged by US military action, need a safe haven.
To thine own self be true.
thanks marilyn...
those are both things that i'd like to include. i'll see if i can come up with a way to fold them into the document without increasing the number of demand categories or extending the length too much.
We have to take care
not to alienate the conservative sensibilities and strive to keep common goals, as Joe noted. Immigration reform is a touchy subject with them, even though badly needed.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@MarilynW Well, once we have
Well, once we have control over our own government (if ever) what really is needed is to stop the wars there and invest lots of money rebuilding the place--so that people don't need to become refugees, or can repatriate.
Asylum is like taking medicine to bring down a fever--good and necessary, but doesn't address the underlying problem. Just my .02.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
stanch the bleeding...
was my thought. the us has created millions of displaced people and refugees in pursuing its war of terror and is making more every day.
the us absolutely needs to assist those it has harmed, but stopping the attacks needs to happen most urgently.
I think
you're rewrite is better than the first effort. Thanks.
Dear Dems: You lost the WH, Senate, House, dozens of governors, state level SOS and AG and about 1,000 state legislative seats. Maybe...you're doing something wrong.
I love your list.
It seems like a great place to start the process of reform. Thank you for spending the time and energy it takes to come up with concrete solutions.
thanks joliberal! n/t
I am comfortble with the wording and vote to accept as a
national platform.
Thank you for putting together our most of our ideas ant thoughts into 10 points.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Very nice work! n/t
thanks gustogirl! n/t
I think it should be up to the people of this country to decide
whether we should have single payer, a higher minimum wage or even a war, so I only have one demand - democracy.
works for me, al...
i think that most americans would like single payer, a higher minimum wage an end to wars of choice and democracy and that's what the list is aimed at. i mean, as long as we're demanding, why not ask for the stuff that most folks seem to want?
I flat out believe now that we will not have any of these
demands met without a new political system.
Actually, I could boil it down even further - freedom.
I want freedom joe, freedom for me and my family. That's it. I want the deep state and the criminal mafia at the top removed from power and a new political system installed to prevent oligarchy and plutocracy. I want justice against these fuckers at the top who kill, steal and lie.
I agree, while we're demanding why not go for broke.
al, i'm certain that you're right...
about the need for a new political system.
i have spent a lot of time thinking about how we get there. i am aware that the people that currently run the system are not very nice people who would not think twice about squashing anybody who threatens their grip on power.
i can see only one way of peacefully obtaining democracy, which is to get vast numbers of people to demand to have their vote count for something and overwhelm every level of government with activism.
that's what the ulterior motive of putting forward this set of demands is.
I definitely agree with the large number of people thing,
it's what we demand that is the issue. I think in the end this has to be a global thing and the demand has to be, literally, an end to the bullshit. The bullshit being rule by the rich, that's what it boils down to in nearly every country on earth. I was reading earlier about the English and French elections and how their oligarchies were involved in making sure the elections turn out their way. You look everywhere and it's those leading the governments who are the problem. In the last century, over 300 million were killed by democide, death by government. It's time in human history to change (try to) this once and for all.
Everybody knows the deal now. It's simple, end rule by the rich. The same as it's always been.
@ Big Al @ Joe Shikspack
may be it would help if the 99 percent of people wouldn't have to vote for a party, but could vote for blocks of issues separately and independently from each other.
If you have ten demands of certain issues in your list and you ask for ten working groups for each of them, why not asking for a system that most probably would reflect democratic, fair and representative the will of the people best, if you allow the people to have ten separate votes, for each issue a single vote. Politicians could offer themselves as representatives for an issue-group and people would then vote for those, instead for a party.
I could imagine that technologically that would be doable.
@Big Al Well, that's why I wasn
Well, that's why I wasn't participating as much in the first go-round--my fundamental demand is more or less like Occupy's one demand, too, which was "End Corporate Control of the Government."
I'd go farther now and say "End Control of the Government by the Unholy Alliance of the Wealthy and the Military and Return It to the People."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
End "Rule by the Rich"
Can and should money, capital, and property rights be redefined?
What would democratic control of a monetary and banking system look like? Would it still depend on a central bank with unelected Wall Street banker-governors whose operations are cloaked in secrecy?
What about so-called “capital markets” like the stock exchange, the bond market, or currency and commodities trading?
Public banking, many have written about it. Ellen Brown for
one I'm sure you've read. Absolutely, the federal reserve system has to go and public banking has to be instituted. The BIS, IMF, all of it has to be done away with. These are the tools the rich use to rule us and maintain their power and wealth.
I would demand abolishing all of Wall street, the stock exchanges, commodity exchanges, derivatives and create something else that serves all people. That's one of the problems I have with people advocating the Wall St transaction tax, like Sanders and Dean Baker I saw recently. Fuck that. We have to address this out of control capitalist system, not pretend to reform it with taxes. The way the rich are gaining wealth has to be stopped and the systems they've put in place to enable that have to be abolished.
Well, if we don't demand what's really needed we'll certainly never get what's really needed.
I think this is what
Joe meant by resonating across parties and ideaologies. Seizing back control of our government with common goals of both parties and THEN chopping away at the other issues through compromise, not with tptb or Corporate America, but with other people struggling like us.
I have to agree with Joe, regaining control of our elections, voting rights, getting money out of the political process or mitigated, and having the ability to elect candidates who will represent all of us is key.
If really needed to draw in the maximun support from all sides, we could shorten this list to just five demands, all involving regaining control.
One, six, eight, nine, and ten would be the five I would choose. Those five would give us the broadest support.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Well you can count me and a whole lot of people out if
when it comes to electing more and better politicians. I'm done with that and anything involving the democratic and republican parties. I don't care what kind of platform they promise to back.
or perhaps...
it's a matter of demonstrating conclusively to the american people that if they want democracy and a better life, they are going to have to dump the existing parties and change the system that allows those parties to monopolize power.
@joe shikspack I believe most of
I believe most of them know this, or at least they knew it round about Oct/Nov of last year, before the latest round of psy=ops went into high gear.
I'm not sure the establishment can afford to impeach Trump; he's their only justification for existence. And I don't just mean the Dems. Things have gotten so bad that too many people can see how bad the system and its owners are, and are (after decades of refusing to see it) finally seeing that the problem is systemic. When people in large numbers started seeing that, all the propaganda machinery went to 11. And it worked better than I could have imagined.
Trump being awful is the miracle drug that will enable the establishment not to be perceived as intolerable. I really don't think they can do without him.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Getting rid of SuperDelegates and the Electoral College
would be go a long way. Also, getting rid of the very notion that corporations are people should be a priority.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
evening sparky...
superdelegates are an internal mechanism of a (private) political party. as such, the federal government probably cannot constitutionally legislate how they go about their business.
i propose that we address this at the state level. in testimony in the carol wilding et al vs. dnc services corporation dba democratic national committee, the democratic party asserted the right to choose candidates in smoky back rooms.
given that a) it is clear that the 2016 primaries were rigged, making the primary process superfluous, and b) that states spent in excess of $427 million on primary elections, states should refuse to use public resources for a primary election that is not free, fair and utterly transparent.
the electoral college is an issue that while i and many other people feel that it should go, many people from smaller population states are (for obvious reasons) quite attached to and, hence, makes for division rather than the unity of demand that we are hoping for.
This is a great list, but as usual
I'm gonna throw one potential improvement out there--but it's as a question, because I'm not sure exactly where we're going with these demands.
What if, rather than demanding Medicare for All, we demanded a fully-funded National Health Service? What if, rather than demanding $15/hr minimum wage, we demanded a universal basic income? or at least full employment? Or, failing that, a minimum wage actually adjusted for both inflation and increases in productivity, which would place it, I think, somewhere around $21/hr? What if, rather than breaking up the big banks, which have been accused of crimes including money laundering for drug lords, we demanded nationalizing the big banks and having their future administrators, whoever they might end up being, under the oversight of a board of citizens, lawyers, and experts in banking (there's still a few around not wholly corrupt)?
What if we took all these demands and used them to shove the Overton window solidly left, instead of asking once again for the things we asked for before? Maybe these things that we want should actually be compromise positions?
I'm putting this out there as questions because I really don't know what impact we want to have.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It only takes a match to start a forest fire
Always ask for more than you require, so that you obtain what you really want.
"Compromise" is the Obama cowardly way. To him that meant surrender (although in reality he was already tainted and deceitful).
@Alligator Ed Another possibility
Another possibility that just occurred to me:
how about replacing the minimum wage with a living wage law, and setting it at $25/hr? Well, I guess adjusted for where you live, but $25/hr could be a good start.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
heh...
i chose $15/hr because there is a popular movement named after the struggle for that particular wage rate. the fact that many unions are involved in that struggle and the demand will resonate with them may have crossed my mind.
$25/hr sounds great to me, though it would probably be very off-putting for people coming into this effort from the right.
there are other things that i've put into the demands that will probably be off putting for people on the right, too - like the climate change demand, so that's not a reason not to include it. i'm more than willing to go with what the group comes up with. if a lot of people want to fight for 25, i'm with 'em.
great point...
these are all things that i would want. however, the constituency for a fully-funded national health service or a universal basic income that is more than a lame excuse to cut funds to social programs is far smaller than for single payer or a living wage (which $15/hr was deemed to be in 2012).
the point of these demands is that they have broad appeal among the 99%. the education groundwork to popularize these demands has largely been done, most of these demands have been polled or election-tested and found to have very broad support.
if this set of demands manages to catch on and perhaps even go viral, the greatest likelihood is that it will sharpen the contradictions that gilens and page have pointed out. i think that sometimes an object lesson is helpful.
Health care, not insurance
Yep. Universal health care. Not health insurance.
In general, get off their playing field, and onto our own. Stop trying to fit into the framework established by the corporate oligarchy. Create our own, from the ground up, based on the kind of world we want to live in. That's real power.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
@Centaurea This is the point:
This is the point: what are we trying to do? Joe says we are trying to start a big mainstream movement, with things people already know. That's a worthy goal, and perhaps it's what the time demands. OTOH, it's been a mighty long time since we were the ones altering the discourse.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
One other thing--
the legal justice system is a problem. Thinking about the big banks made me reflect that the Attorney General and his DAs and the current nature of the Justice Dept basically precludes any real rule of law applying to the rich or powerful.
But I know I should have thought of that earlier...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i thought about it...
but it seems to me that it's not the sort of thing that we can get at before we have a better hand on the levers of power. the court system is remarkably well-insulated by design and the power elites have means to protect it until we can claim the other branches of government for leverage.
just my $.02
Formatting
Just a suggestion here on the formatting. If each demand had the first sentence or a header in bold, it might be more eye catching. I used to use this technique in my reports to elected officials and it worked for those who normally would just skim. It is not necessary, but it does act as an attention getter for each demand.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
i added italics...
i will reformat the final version differently, probably with bolding as you suggest since when i create the list as a pdf, there will be more formatting options.
Great!
I was just trying to add from my own experience.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
And I'm sorry--
I neglected to thank you for all this work. Thank you, Joe.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
thank you for participating...
you and others have given me a lot of grist for thought and improvement of the demands.
Great list Joe!
Being minimalist, I will try my hand at condensing the 10 into bite size chunks. The descriptions are great for flavoring the morsels. Maybe a short list followed by their descriptors? Or a link to a full discussion?
Keep up the good works!
I suggest a modification to #4
should be broadened to preclude further involvement of former cabinet members in industries they once regulated following completion of government service. This would also preclude stock purchases in such industries.
Excellent essay, Joe!
good point, ed...
i broadened the wording by replacing "regulatory agencies" with "government service."
I feel bad to not have said Thank You for your work, Joe,
so can we have now a new movement / party / group around your demand list? I want to have something to do. Can't wait.
soon mimi...
it may take a week or two because i am enormously busy right now, but it's coming.
My preference regarding single payer language is
Birth to death health care. not coverage.
Birth to death health care for all citizens, anyone here legally on a visa.
For education, free for all citizens, regardless of subject or degree level.
End subsidies to all corporations and remove corporate bankruptcy protections.
No death penalty, no mandatory minimum sentencing, improve funding for public defender.
Re-instate inheritance taxes.
Make the CIA accountable to the people.
I am making things worse for you, joe. I will stop now, dear.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
in other words..
womb to tomb
@on the cusp A fully-funded National
A fully-funded National Health Service with high standards for care.
Fuck this insurance nonsense. It's just a protection racket. And if capitalism requires a protection racket to make it livable for about 95% of the people living under it, that looks like a failed system to me.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Exactly. Take all
Exactly. Take all insurance out of the system. And a big FUCK YOU to Big Pharma while we are at it.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh,
that works for me. as i understand it, the proposal (hr 676) for single-payer does take private insurers out of the picture:
A necessary correlate to the Healthcare insurance coverage
is to rein in Big Pharma. Allow price negotiation. Allow importation of similar or biosimilar drugs (with quality testing of course). Eliminate the FDA-Pharma collusion. Forbid the stifling of negative clinical trials from being published or suppression of evidence of adverse drug side-effects. Quite a mouthful.
This is worth the read. Conyers has introduced this bill
every year for a long time. It has the most co-sponsers so far in its history.
No co-pays and negotiation on pHarma supplies. It is automatic enrollment also.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
This would be fantastic.
It never fails to amaze me that so many people see this as a bad thing, especially those who have nothing good to say about their insurance providers!
Insurance
is just a middleman. Why do we need a middleman in our healthcare system?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
From Facebook
That's nice but there's three demands which must be met for any party to even discuss these with me:
1. No superdelegates. Democracy or nothing.
2. Open primaries. No exceptions.
3. Do away with the council on presidential debates and return to the league of women voters.
Then we can talk policy.
Caucus99percent: I love your additions. Please join the discussion at c99 and share your comments with Joe directly. We'd love to have you join us.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
@dkmich Well, this is a good
Well, this is a good point that kind of opens a can of worms.
The reason I didn't get very involved at first is that I thought a list of policy demands would be of limited use. I reconsidered that position. It occurred to me that a list of such demands might be of use in rallying people and taking some discursive territory, and that Joe might be thinking in that direction, so I wanted to support his work.
However, my original problem with it does stand: we are actually facing a political problem, not a policy problem; the policy problems are to the political problem like a fever and nausea are to an infection. It's a good idea not to ignore the symptoms, but you gotta address the infection, and the infection is political.
I feel like a list of political demands would look different than our list of policy demands. Maybe we should have one of each, or maybe we should incorporate more things into item #1 in Joe's list.
Taking last year's debacle as an example, isn't the real problem that the myriad instances of fraud by Hillary Clinton 2016 and the DNC were not punished under the law? Isn't the real problem that candidates, if they are sufficiently powerful politicians, can do whatever the fuck they want with the vote and the legal justice system of this country yawns and scratches itself?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@dkmich And then there's
And then there's questions of the security of our voter registration data. I personally feel queasy about having it even exist in the digital realm, after the crap we've been through for the past 17 years.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
That’s an important point. Look at what happened to mortgages.
Every jurisdiction used to have strict requirements for a paper trail documenting real estate transactions and ownership.
Then the finance industry lobbied for and got legislation allowing them to put everything into a centralized computer database called MERS. This was to give banks the ability to easily transfer mortgages to other financial players who “sliced and diced” them and repackaged them into mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Homeowners, instead of paying their local bank every month, sent payments to some service center which rerouted the money to the repackager (the MBS issuer).
Well, after a while MERS got fouled up, and when homeowners started to default, in many cases banks found that no one had the papers needed to foreclose. Too many banks in this situation opted to forge the missing papers. This led to the huge and well-known mortgage fraud and bogus foreclosure scandal of a few years back (for which Obama and Eric Holder declined to prosecute anyone, negotiating a slap-on-the-wrist industry-wide “settlement” instead).
Auditable paper trails are still indispensable for important things. Computer systems suffer failures and are far too easy to manipulate or “hack” without leaving any trace.
The country didn't just yawn when the DNC rigged the election,
they also yawned during the mortgage fraud. I read comment after comment saying that people bought houses that they couldn't afford and they deserved to lose their homes.
I don't know how much of this is true, I do know that many people lost their jobs or had other financial difficulties and they tried for mortgage re modification and while they were working their way through the system, the banks were foreclosing on them. Even after that was found out, Hold and Obama did nothing to stop them. As with letting Bush and Cheney skate on torture, no one that committed financial crime were prosecuted for them. Our government sat by as over 4 million people lost their homes.
Thanks for this joe and everyone who has suggested how to fix what is so wrong with our government. There are many good suggestions here and I hope that there is a way to implement them.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
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