What two things would you do to change the country?

I was sitting at the bar the other night and got into a political conversation with a group of fellow revelers. Shocking, I know. At one point, one fellow asked me, "What two things would you do to change the country?"

"Overthrow two Supreme Court cases," I replied.

Got a furrowed brow in response. "What two cases?"

"Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad from 1886, and Buckley v. Valeo from 1976."

Furrowed brow in response.

"Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific granted corporations 14th Amendment rights," I explained. "In other words, they made corporations into people. Corporations have the same rights as everyone in here, but without anywhere near the same level of liability as everyone in here. The whole point of incorporating anything is to shield liability."

Furrowed brow.

"Buckley v. Valeo was the case that enshrined the giving of zillions of dollars to candidates and officeholders as being free speech," I went on. "In other words, it leagalized bribery."

Furrowed brow.

"Put these two together," I said, "and you create a race of corporate super-citizens. They have the same rights as you and I, but without the liability. They have 100,000 times more power to press those rights, thanks to their incredible bank accounts."

Eyebrows raised.

"Just about everything wrong with this country," I concluded, "can be traced back to the creation of super-citizens who can bulldoze everyone else with their incredible power to squeeze, coerce and outright buy whatever they want from those in power. War without end, the degrading environment, our dependence on oil, everything, can be traced back to these super-citizens using their power to get what they want. Everything else since those two Supreme Court cases has been fallout."

I think I ruined his night.

Anyway, that's what I would do.

What two things would you do?

Edit for #2: Change election day to election week and record all votes on paper.

of my mutual funds first?

We have excellent public schools in Iowa. It's the State Legislature that sucks!

and outlaw political parties.



And, if I may have a third, drink in the same bar as you. :toast:

Not a one of 'em have any common sense any more.

...if you can find it. :)

Finding it is easy. It's south of north.

make it so presidents cannot pardon wrong doers in theirs or past administrations.
Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon was wrong, and Bush I pardoning the Iran/Contra fellows was wrong. Many of the perps are still doing wrong.

My two.

1. Universal health care--everybody in, nobody out, no exceptions.

2. Public, transparent election process with voter verified paper ballots.

also would initiate reliable, affordable, energy efficient mass transit in every city, day care to all working families and health care for all families.

I can't count!!!!!!!!!:blush:

but in this case I'll just say Ditto. There are no two more central issues underlying why we are where we are today.

The third thing (if I got a third) would be to restore the fairness doctrine in the media.

to changing things for the better. Corporate personhood needs to be abolished.

are the two for me .

A major manhattan project into alternative energy and conservation.
We are going to be at war in the middle east till the oil runs out otherwise.

Next a fair trade and sound economic policy that also recognizes that for national security we need to have a thriving manufacturing, farming, and R and D base here within this country.
Cause if things keep going the way they are there will be a major breakdown in society as the standard of living continues to drop and we as a nation will go bankrupt.

Can you tell that I am stuck mentally on the lower rungs of Maslov's hierarchy this evening?

If they want to use the law to rip down people and exploit them, I say turn the law on them and change the rules of the game.

No consecutive second terms allowed. No lame ducks. No having to campaign for reelection.
Also equal rights for ALL American citizens: Women, men, white, black, brown, yellow, red, green, gay, straight, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, atheist, witches, etc:, short folks, tall people, disables, elves, giants, paraplegics, jock kings, drag queens, politicians, ordinary joes, indigent, richies, teachers, garbage collectors, kids, octogenarians, presidents, peons, nice guys, assholes. (Did I leave anyone out?)

And what sort of joyous noel did you have that brought on such a post at such a late hour? :)

Deep question, and one that will have me thinking for days.

For now, though, I offer my shortsighted (or is it short-term/practical) thoughts:

1. Create a fully funded Broadcasting Network capable of fully competing with the best FOX, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, in most aspects and blows them away in terms of investigative news in support of (a) educating the public, (b) communicating the facts or "the truth", and (c) providing perceptive analysis of the issues, news, events, policies, government, society, foreign policy, etc. Just providing the service of actually seeking out the facts about what's going on, who's doing it and why in an honest, factual way with real "fair and balanced coverage" would be sufficient--but, I would also like it to provide a proper "Liberal" interpretation and viewpoint.

2. Immediately restore Taxes on all Americans to the F.Y. 2000 level with greater increases on Corporations (especially those who export jobs). Perhaps with additional temporary increases for several years to make up for the revenues lost, with interest, as a result of the Bush Tax-Cuts. Plus even more increases to reflect those that would naturally have occurred over the Bush terms as a result of inflation and special needs (such as increased foreign aid (tsunami, africa, pakistan's earthquake), domestic catastrophes (Katrina/New Orleans, other hurricanes, etc), preparation for avian flu/vaccine production facilities, and war costs for IRAQ/Afghanistan (unfortunately)). It should be made to reflect whatever would have been likely under a Democratic Congress/Presidency as much as possible.

These are the two things I would do asap to attempt to save the country's future. Creation of a valid "fourth estate", an honest broadcast (and print) News/media would serve to help American citizens to make the right choices including rejecting the current self-destructive Republican policies (and lead to restored balance in elected office-Congress/Presidency and even subsequently the Supreme Court). Tax Restoration would serve to help prevent the inevitable economic damage or collapse associated with enormous debt while preventing the harm caused by attempting to handle the problem by cutting spending--thus maintaining appropriate social assistance programs.

If I could, I would tack on the implementation of a National Healthcare System--if nothing else, a model of Canada's would do. This is a problem whose time has come as it's causing enormous economic competitive disadvantage (and Corporations agree) in addition to the human costs of the current system. Alas, the limit was two.

Now then, if I were to consider larger potential changes... Or perhaps changes that don't seem even remotely do-able (or that would require almost magical changes), the list might be utterly different. Of course, there are also other potential and potentially possible changes that might be of serious value... Consider creating term limits for Congress--so that none there can become so powerful (remember power corrupts), meaning each state is fairly and equally represented (not gaining an advantage from having a "senior" member), as well as offering more Americans the chance to serve their country. Perhaps that's flawed in that Congressmen wouldn't necessarily have the time needed to become highly skilled--but then again, don't we just want them to go there and honestly represent our best interests--without expecting our representative to develop exceptional "power" or "influence" over others... any intelligent, well-spoken person can do the job of Congressman/Senator (it's not even close to brain surgery/rocket science). Also, relatedly, our Congresspeople spend MOST of their time in Washington seeking to obtain funding for their next election campaign--including catering therefore to special interests and Corporations! Therefore, some form of "real" Campaign Finance Reform is urgently needed--but it's a problem that's inordinately hard to fix and we almost cannot hope Congress will fix themselves... Additionally, as it is, it takes millions of dollars to run for Congress--most Americans, no matter how qualified, intelligent, honest, hard-working, etc. they are cannot hope to ever participate in Congress (or the Presidency). It's true, we seem to have a natural bias--that our leaders "should be" "Successful", ie. "Rich" (which may not be so wise after all). However, if the Finance Reform also managed to change the way campaigns are not only financed, but how they're run to ensure that they don't either "cost" or "waste" millions of dollars--in so doing, we would have changedthe make-up of Congress (for the better!) by allowing many, many more "real" Americans (who are more likely to understand AND care about what affects most of us) to both run for and participate in Congress! This would be a worthy change.

Well, that's enough for one go round.

And welcome to DU!

to political candidates.

with compunded interest, and penalties, and fines, and fees...

pay all overdue wages due the descendants of African slaves - and bonded laborers of all ethnicities - including compounded interest, penalties, fines, fees...

for STARTERS!


peace and solidarity!

If these "laws" had actually to be legislated they never would have passed.
So it seems they use the court(s) to undermine fair government.

We have a problem with the court making laws, including abortion. If we had
a referendum, abortion would be legal full stop... but because we swing on
a precarious court decision, the rights are always 1 centimeter from being revoked.


I agree with your 2 choices Mr. Pitt. They are the flaw that is spoiling the
experiment... outside of all the other flaws of a white slave owners' constitution.

ceuticals. (others to be named later such as transportation)

End soft money and other bribes and make the election season two months long.

(If I could have three, I would kick the news media in the nuts. And regulate ownership next.)

...better because they go to the root of the problem instead of just whacking off the part of the noxious weed that's above ground.

Sad to say, I think we actually have a better chance of getting Cheney and Bush impeached than of overturning those two Supreme Court rulings.

Hekate

But, seriously, the first thing that came to my mind was abolishing corporate personhood -- but you covered that.

In my mind, it's all about the media. So ...

1) Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
2) Reregulate media ownership, limiting any particular company's ownership in terms of total numbers of TV/radio stations owned nationwide (it used to be a very low number, like 8 or something like that) and prohibit monopolies in local markets and cross-ownership of newspapers/TV/radio stations in a given local market (that used to be the case, but the rules have been relaxed or maybe even aboished).

but here are my other choices of top five.

Proportional representation in elections (hence opening the way for more than two parties)

Funding of elections by the state.

Create national health care that ahem works.

Of course your two USSC decisions are also up there, but any of these would be a good start

rights to ex-convicts who've served their sentences.

and require that 50% of all purchases be of locally produced goods, including food, music, clothes.

And require every person to serve in the carpentry business building houses for their neighbors for 3 years of their lives between the age of 20 and 60.

So that is 3.