This topic will be about what policies you feel are important for this new political party. Don’t be afraid to downvote to disagree, but remember: more can be done with discussion, debate, and constructive criticism than downvotes alone.
Electoral reform
The choice of Electoral System is one of the most important institutional decisions for any democracy. Therefore, I believe it’s important to achieve proportional representation, and I’d also prefer to have an election method that meets good criteria like independence of irrelevant alternatives.
The electoral systems commonly in use in the USA naturally lead to only having 2 choices where neither really represents the majority of the population. Any political activity that isn’t focused on electoral (or constitutional) reform will, at best, manage to replace a party (but any institution replacing a party will become similar to the one it replaces in the process).
“First-past-the-post voting” has deprived us of a legitimate decision-making body. Without that, accomplishing other goals will be difficult.
Single-winner systems
Academics agree that the most important influence on proportionality is an electoral district’s magnitude, the number of representatives elected from the district. Because of this, I suspect the method for electing representatives to the Senate of the USA should be changed (whether that be by increasing the number of senators, or changing the electoral districts for the Senate, or something else), and that the method for electing executives should also be changed.
A particular problem is posed by executives, since it seems natural that every system has one person that is at least slightly more important than all others. However, this is addressed to some extent by making sure that the primary executive is one that can be supported by a majority of the population, whether that be through a popular election using a system that selects the candidate that is offensive to the smallest number of voters, or investing executive power in a prime minister that must survive a vote of no confidence from a legislative body, or some other method.
I support any policy based on the idea that there is such a thing as too much.
I love all these points people have posted. I don’t see much disagreement even though we all have our key issues that are deeply important to us for personal reasons. There’s a real hunger for deep change out there.
You know what’s really personal and also universal?
The feeling of vulnerability and humiliation that comes from someone higher up in the tree dropping a shit on you.
Excess wealth is the problem. Outside of our Lemmy bubble, there isn’t even a general discussion on this, even though there seems to be widespread agreement that murdering people from your office desk is evil.
There’s a significant cultural tendency of deifying and hating the rich. We are confused, case in point the huge groundswell of support for Luigi Mangione. People instinctively crave and are often simultaneously repulsed by wealth.
So my personal policy is to make it widely acceptable to express righteous anger at the way we are being soiled.
It is the memory of being shit upon that gives me anger, the anger acquires friends, together we issue a warning, It is by willful anger alone that we set this thing in motion.
Because being screwed (or knowing someone who was screwed) by an insurance company, Luigi Mangione’s action seemed to gain universal support.
One of the things that I wonder is: how can we get people pissed at the right people about things like price gouging, predatory landlords (especially those large rental companies), and the baking systems. Everyone is being screwed by their grocery stores and the banking systems, and many by their landlords. Yet, it seems like we can’t get traction in the right direction regarding these things. Companies blame grocery prices on inflation and people believe it. The housing market is a mess, and many companies have bought up house to rent so there are less for people to buy, but there’s not much talk about that. And banking is predatory af and has been for a long time, and relying on credit unions doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s just accepted as part of life.
Well, this is probably better for the messaging post. In a nutshell, we find a drum and beat it endlessly for a generation.
There is such a thing as too much, and it’s okay to say so.
Message discipline is what turns diffuse anger into focused actions.
prisons, MIC, rail, overuse of government contracting are all also worth addressing
Universal healthcare, including gender affirming care! Abortion rights! Freedom of, and from, religion!
Climate change reversal, funded (in part*) by upending Reaganomics (tax those who have too much; trickle-down is a myth and doesn’t help the >99% who’d need it).
Oh, and preventative measures against floods, droughts, storms, etc. and other infrastructural damages from climate change; since it’s already (partially) to late. This is mostly a global problem too.
*Also fundable by ending subsidies on any technology or practice emitting greenhouse gases, but that has to be done in consideration of production and not screwing over the working class, whether with regard to their job security or when buying groceries.
Very well put, thank you for your post
First and foremost, this should be about implementing a huge shift in economic policy.
We need to increase taxes on corporations and billionaires
Put an end to their various loopholes they use
Mandate that the federal minimum wage be set to be on par with what it should be, given the median output of the workers and keeping up with inflation. (Should be somewhere around 25 bucks an hour by now)
Hold accountable (civil forfeiture of all assets. Or death penalty) the billionaires who wrecked the climate and economy, fucked over the worker and rigged the system to make sure they stay in power.
Divest from fossil fuels
Outlaw the legal bribery of elected officials (lobbyists), anyone caught bribing or taking a bribe should be severely punished.
End the for-profit medical system
These are just a few things, and I want to build on the other points made here as well
Not in order, just quickly wrote these out:
- Supreme Court term limits. Nobody should be above the law
- More cost-effective public health insurance. Eliminate the middle-men and force big pharma to actually compete instead of robbing patients
- Repeal citizen’s united and force elections to be grassroots funded, no more corpo doners owning candidates and their platform
- Federal gun control modeled after NY and VT laws with background checks, references required, magazine limits, and laws with real teeth for possessing illegal weapons (assault weapons banned)
- Free tuition to federally funded secondary education institutions
- Increase teacher and professor salaries at non-private schools & universities
- Federal elections all vote by mail and voting required by law enforceable with a tax penalty and audit by IRS
- end TurboTax and move to IRS version for all taxpayers making under $250K annually
- Defund the police and use that budget to fund a new department of public responders that handle non-emergency situations
- Invest in small modular nuclear reactors for base load power on the electric grid
- Bodily autonomy enshrined in the constitution as an amendment
•Free tuition to federally funded secondary education institutions
•Increase teacher and professor salaries at non-private schools & universities
Where will the money to fund these things come from? How can we involve a robbing from the rich here?
(Edit: one way would be to) Provide funding and power to the IRS so they can chase after big fish. Turns out, the IRS has [a really good return on investment] (https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57444), so giving them the power they need to close loopholes and track down corporate tax evasion would be a boon to the nation’s coffers.
Defund the police and use that budget to fund a new department of public responders that handle non-emergency situations
What about emergency situations?
Bodily autonomy enshrined in the constitution as an amendment
What does this entail?
We really need to look at the gun regulation more closely.
There’s no way we’re going to end the gun problem in America. But what we could do is try what Switzerland does, which is to mandate military service if you want to own a firearm, do annual proficiency and safety tests with your firearm, mandate that they must all be stored in a gun safe, hold parents accountable for their children’s gun crime if they used the parents’ weapons.
I’m more wary of implementing full on bans, we shouldn’t disarm the working class, lest the billionaires have the monopoly on violence. They need to know that we can still reach out and touch them if need be.
I’m more wary of implementing full on bans, we shouldn’t disarm the working class, lest the billionaires have the monopoly on violence. They need to know that we can still reach out and touch them if need be.
This is my concern as well.
I’m afraid that to solve the guns issue we need a deep cultural shift, not necessarily policy changes. Humans can be violent, but most humans are not violent usually. My best realistic hope is to build a culture that keeps that violence to a minimum and kept small in scope.
One of the most peaceful and friendly experiences I have had lately was at a gun show. It was a total lark for me, I don’t want a gun. I wanted to see how many LGBTQ+ people I could spot. There was a notable minority of people with the sartorial trappings of ‘family’ and a couple of gorgeous closet-cases. No one cared, everyone was friendly and willing to make random stranger-talk.
Even an anarchist utopia full of fully realized human beings will have crimes of passion and crimes motivated by mental, social and emotional problems, such as greed. There will still be need for violence in cases of self-defense and to discourage the establishment of hegemonic ideologies.
Implementation of a universal basic income
Put an end to predatory student loans
Mandate that public tertiary education should be affordable and accessible to all.
