Imagining government of the people, by the people and for the people.
If we had a functioning democracy we would own our energy supply. We would build publicly-owned solar & wind and provide the electricity to each other and our businesses for free. Our economy would BOOM.
We would tax & redistribute the highest incomes & profits that result from this. Healthcare, education, transportation…
Imagine a government run to do good things for its people and work alongside other countries for the betterment of all people.
I was very moved reading Isaiah Poole at Campfire Politics, writing, “What, to the American Black person, is the U.S. 250th anniversary?” Please go read the whole piece!!!
We will not “get over it” until the nation commits itself fully to the work of healing our collective wounds and reconciliation. The first step, in fact, is the recognition that the wounds of some affect the health of all. The ethos of Trumpism is individualism, that each person rises or falls on their own and no one owes anyone else anything. Your successes are yours alone, and so are your problems and failures. But the same Bible hoisted by Christian nationalists tells a different story. The apostle Paul said that we are all part of one body, and each part depends on the health and well-being of every other part. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians. King made the same point when he said, “All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
It is so brilliant and spot-on: “the wounds of some affect the health of all”. It is one of the best analyses of America’s situation I have read.
This line really resonates and says so much about why the US is where it is: “Instead, we are the cancer patient who took too low a dose of treatment and stopped the treatment too early.”
I would add that after every attack by the disease the nation refused to exercise and take other preventative steps to ward off the next one. They could have stamped it out after the Civil War but the warfighters were so relieved thinking the fight was over and stayed home while the South rose again. Rachel Maddow’s Ultra series talks about how America just forgot about fighting its internal Nazi collaborators after winning WWII, allowing them to grow into what we are seeing now.
As he wrote, “We will not “get over it” until the nation commits itself fully to the work of healing our collective wounds and reconciliation.”
A “moral revolution”. The country needs a full Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Full accountability for the crimes and corruption. Preventative measures to protect the future.
And finally, the country must come to full recognition of the “disease,” coming up with a preventative prescription to fight inevitable future attacks from the fascists, monarchists, psychopaths and the rest of that crowd that infect humanity. Maybe use tests at birth and move them to a well-guarded, secure island where they can enjoy being cruel to and fighting with each other. Maybe give them toys to accumulate and hoard and fight over. That is MY vindictive “light that shows the way forward.”
The old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. – FDR
In 1932 FDR campaigned asking for help so he could win and “restore America to its own people.” After taking office his administration began working to help the population start to recover from the ravages of depression caused by unregulated banks and stock market speculation. Campaigning for reelection in 1936 he delivered his final campaign speech at Madison Square Garden. He talked about the changes his government had made, and the struggle that lay ahead to continue with that struggle. He described the struggle he and the public faced, saying,
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.
The old enemies of peace are back. Business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism and war profiteering.
Let’s welcome their hatred and send them off.
I haven’t posted here at Imagine Democracy for a while because it is hard to imagine democracy with everything that is happening. I’ve been writing a LOT over at Government Cheese: Chronicling the collapse of democracy because … the collapse of democracy.
So imagine democracy. Suppose We the People manage to get control of the United States again. What’s it going to take to get America back on its feet?
The World Will Need An Ironclad Guarantee It Can’t Happen Again
We the People are going to have to make changes that provide the entire world with an ironclad assurance that this all cannot happen again. Can. Not. The level of systemic reform required before any country, business or anyone dares to trust the US again will be enormous. The damage done by tariffs, threats, withdrawal of assistance, bombs and otherwise is just huge.
Why would any country agree to any kind of arrangement with the US without some kind of ironclad guarantee? This is real. Right now the EU is talking to the UK about deals opening up more trade, and a few other things. In those talks the EU is asking for the agreement to include reparations payments if the right gets control of the UK again and undoes these agreements – again.
Even domestically. Suppose you’re thinking about joining (or rejoining) the Dept of Justice. Without such a guarantee you are not only facing the possibility of being tossed out in 4 years if the nutcases get control again, you are also facing the possibility of being indicted for trying to help the country recover! Suppose you’re a scientist thinking of coming back to help fight the climate crisis. Same deal. You could get indicted for that – or worse – if they get back in.
That’s a lot of work there to undo the ways the system is rigged against the public. How do you get government back under the control of We the People? Most important: Get money out of the election system. Ban it. Ban corporate money from being used for any purpose other than running the corporation! Getting the money out might give the public a chance to start righting the ship.
Get rid of the Electoral College – it’s a leftover from the slave-state system. Make the Senate represent their share of the population instead of two senators for a state with the population of one county in a state like California! Bring in some kind of preferential/ranked-choice voting system to stop current vote for the lesser-of-two-evils system. Get corporations under control – re-regulate them and put “stakeholders” on Boards. Completely reform and expand the corrupt Republican Supreme Court. Somehow restore an honest system for the public to get reliable news & information that stops the ability to propagandize the public. (Maybe a super and expanded version of Public Broadcasting? Govt funding for news outlets and local news outlets?) Implement ironclad ways to make sure democracy is understood, respected and protected, including a Department of Democracy.
So many things will have to be done. But seriously why should anyone trust the US “system” again without this level of real reform?
After what happened with Japan and Germany this is the level of change that had to happen. Complete transformation. It didn’t happen after the Soviet Union fell, and look where they are now!
Why is it called “public” transit if it’s built by the government but charges people money to use it? Shouldn’t the public be able to just use public transit?
What would democracy do? Aren’t “We the People” supposed to be in charge?
I think it’s hard for regular people to imagine having no empathy or guilt or any use for other people whatsoever, beyond as vehicles for getting what they want. Even at my age I am still constantly astonished to know there are people who target the elderly with scams, or beat people up to get their wallet, and celebrate themselves for getting one over on them.
But isn’t that the whole point of the ideal of the America we are fighting for. Monarchies were based on that thinking, and they had the right to do anything to peasants. We overthrew that. That’s why the first three words in the Constitution are so BIG. We the People.
Wealthy landowners had slaves! We had a Civil War that overthrew that. Capitalists made people work in mines until they died from it. We formed unions that made that better – and FDR strengthened them. The South had apartheid. We had a Movement that stopped that. Tobacco companies convinced people to kill themselves slowly while handing over their money and energy companies are knowingly destroying the planet. What we are seeing is the reaction to our trying to stop them.
“Welfare” and “entitlements.” These words are examples of the power of propaganda over reason.
For people who didn’t learn what a dictionary is: ‘Welfare’ means the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group. Putting it in the US Constitution’s first sentence was a way of providing a clue as to the point of the country they had founded. (The first three words being HUGE was another.) The POINT of the Constitution was to form a self-government that took care of the public (and protected the public from the rich and powerful.)
‘Entitlement’ literally means things We the People of the United States are entitled to from our shared prosperity – the fruits of self-government that protects the people from having their wealth drained by the rich and powerful.
How could ‘welfare’ and ‘entitlements’ have come to be applied negatively? You’re supposed to be ashamed if you – and look down on people who – benefit from the fruits of democracy? Decades of well-crafted “Conservative movement” anti-government, anti-democracy propaganda reversed people’s understanding that the POINT of the founding of the United States was to STOP the world’s long history of systematic oppression of regular people by those who would seize control of the systems of power for their own benefit.
Words from one of the better summaries of the POINT:
“… a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal … that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
And another:
Building on Public Investment Is The Way Forward For The UK:
The first task of the new government is get people back on their feet. (And get them fed.) Fast. Send “stimulus” checks ASAP. Then inject funds into the economy through public investment, rebuilding infrastructure (including potholes). Seriously invest in rebuilding the NHS and in a big hurry. Get things moving. Fast. Big.
That will bring the return that “funds” it.
The alternative is to fail, and usher in fascism, which is happening in so many countries that refuse to “spend” on making people’s lives better.
I have spoken.
The UK has ended an experiment in “conservative” governance. Backed by private investors, the government withdrew support for public services, public investment, public everything. They pretended “private” investment would pick up the slack. Instead and of course the wealthy staged a “bust-out” of the country. “A fraud tactic, commonly used in the organized crime world, wherein a business’ assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of insolvency.”
The privatized water companies are a good example of how the country was managed under conservative governance. Public assets were turned over the private “investors.” The “investors” borrowed heavily with those assets and their income stream as collateral. They paid themselves handsomely with minimal investment in maintenance and capacity. Eventually there was insufficient water supply to support increasing housing stock and raw sewage was being dumped into the country’s rivers. Of course there was no government enforcement of rules that would have prevented this – or prevented the resulting pollution. That would be labeled “interference” in the private sector.
Private investment does not provide public returns. The only interests of private investors is private return.
The Only Way Forward For UK Governance Is Public Investment
The way forward for UK governance is public investment in infrastructure, education, healthcare, services, law enforcement, addressing inequality. Investment.
Over time public investment will result in a booming economy and a prosperous public. It always does, everywhere. Look at the countries that follow this formula. The infrastructure is maintained and modern; education and healthcare are first-class, the economies prosper. The people are more equal, happier and prosperous.
Take all the propaganda labels (socialism, capitalism, neoliberalism, etc) out of this equation and look at it for what it is. PUBLIC investment pays off for the PUBLIC. Private investment only pays the already-wealthy private investors.
For The Many, Not The Few
Investment pays dividends down the road. Let the public collect those dividends.