Politics | Democratic Party |Congress | Eight Things to Save America

Eight Things Democrats Must Do to Save America

A Congress and White House United in Power and Purpose Will Have But Two Years, 2021 & 2022, To Rescue the Government from What Trump and McConnell Have Made It.

Democrats will have a unique opportunity to save America if they capture Congress and the White House in November.

That opportunity may last but the two years until the next congressional election. For, having once stirred and raised themselves above the pool of lethargy and disinterest that is their perennial abode, Democratic voters are likely to subside back into the abyss for want of sufficient passion to keep them roused. Two years with Congress and White House united in purpose and power may be all the time Democrats will have.

These are eight things that Congress and the White House must do in those two years to put into place the machinery that will save America. These are not the only things on Congress’ docket, just eight must-haves.

Remake the Federal Judiciary

Enlarge the Supreme Court to 13 seats. Do it without hesitancy, without apology, and with dispatch. Fill every seat with strong, liberal, young, multi-cultural, humane, female justices.

Enlarge the lower federal judiciary by 200 judgeships; fill every one with like jurists.

Investigate Brett Kavanaugh. If he lied or made misstatements in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee or its staff, or if he is of insufficient moral character, impeach him.

Re-establish the Paramountcy of Congressional Oversight

Enact legislation institutionalizing Congress’ constitutional, governmental-oversight powers and implementing Congress’ constitutional authority to investigate the Executive and Judicial Branches. Formalize the congressional subpoena power and make it enforceable.

Enact rules for expedited judicial review of challenges to congressional subpoenas.

Limit the time to file a notice of challenge to 10 days after service. Require that all grounds for challenge be given in the one notice. Provide penalties for advancing specious, bad-faith, or meritless challenges and for dilatory tactics. Foreclose any ground not stated in the notice.

Limit the time to brief the challenge or to brief an appeal from a dispositive order, and the time to file an opposing brief to 10 days. Provide that oral argument must be had within 10 days of completed briefing. Require that a dispositive order must issue from the trial or appellate court, including the Supreme Court, within 15 days of oral argument. If a timely order is not filed, the subpoena shall conclusively be considered valid and fully enforceable.

Give the United States Marshalls’ Service jurisdiction to enforce such subpoenas.

Curb Executive Power

Increase the number of federal inspectors general. Give them lifetime tenure with removal only for cause and then only by impeachment.

Strengthen the federal whistleblower act. Authorize private suits by the whistleblower or his heirs or assigns for reinstatement and/or damages. Provide substantial statutory damages independently of traditional compensatory and punitive damages.

Provide for an award of actual attorneys’ fees to a successful complainant but for none to a successful defendant.

Enact legislation prohibiting bad-faith fillings of Advice-and-Consent offices by temporary appointment. Empower congressional oversight committees to sue to terminate unlawful, temporary appointments. Provide for judicial power to enjoin such appointments and to order an offending officer’s removal. Give the successful complaining committee authority to fill the vacant position by appointment. Provide that such appointed person’s term in office shall be for the remainder of the president’s term.

Give the United States Marshall’s Service enforcement power.

Secure and Expand the Popular Vote

Kill, cripple, reform, or bypass the Electoral College.

Enact federal legislation invalidating state “winner-take-all” electoral-college-votes schemes as disenfranchising the minority voters and, therefore, infringing their civil rights.

Prohibit voter suppression. Criminalize individual participation in voter suppression.

Federally fund nonprofit organizations lobbying for the implementation of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Fund federal drives to enroll voters, including massive media/social media campaigns to increase voter participation.

Deny federal relief funds and “safety-net” support funds to repeat non-voters. Meaningfully tax repeat non-voters.

Create and fund a federal department to combat foreign state actors’ interference in federal elections. Provide for meaningful penalties against complicit state and state-supported actors, including criminal penalties.

Enact an Omnibus Civil Rights Act

Strengthen the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Outlaw gerrymandering as a voter-suppression tactic and a civil-rights violation. Authorize private suits against gerrymandering entities. Provide for substantial statutory damages and federal judicial injunctive relief. Award prevailing plaintiffs expenses and actual attorneys’ fees; grant no expenses or fees to prevailing defendants.

Define other voter-suppression tactics such as selective polling place closings and restrictive conditions to absentee ballots. Establish federal jurisdiction over state governmental defendants. Provide the same remedies

Create and adequately fund and staff federal civil rights watchdog entities such as the EEOC.

Attack Systemic, Institutional Racism

Implement a broad-based attack on systemic racism in policing.

Establish a national commission with authority and power to investigate and penalize state and local police forces by withholding federal funds to violators.

Authorize federal lawsuits by adversely affected individuals for statutory, compensatory, and punitive damages, and for injunctive relief. Award prevailing plaintiffs their actual expenses and attorneys’ fees; deny fees and expenses to prevailing defendants.

Institute massive federal prison reforms.

Implement Progressive and Massive Wealth Redistribution

Radically reform the tax code. Substantially raise corporate and capital-gains taxes. Implement an excess wealth tax. Recoup the 1.4 trillion dollar tax giveaway of the 2017 tax cut.

Massively fund the IRS. Double its number of auditors and investigators. Redirect its primary efforts to auditing the multi-national and giant corporations and the mega-wealthy. Give it sufficient manpower to do that in a timely fashion. Modernize its computer systems.

Implement some form of Universal Basic Income

Implement some form of universal access to quality and timely health care.

Forgive all outstanding student loans. Make higher education at all levels of nonprofit educational institutions free to applicants with sufficient qualifications. Set minimum but not prohibitive performance standards.

Implement Aggressive Measures Combating Climate-Change

Rejoin the Paris Accord

Implement stricter vehicle and industrial emissions standards at an accelerated pace.

Fund research into and implementation of alternative energy sources. Quickly faze out coal-powered electrical plants. Provide for a program of safe nuclear power plant construction. Provide for safe storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Outlaw the use of chemicals that adversely affect the Ozone layer.

Federally fund efforts to clean up the oceans.

Fund state and local compliance with clean air and clean water programs. Fund plants for the incineration of non-biodegradable refuse. Fund state and local recycling efforts.

Democrats must implement these measures in the first two years and in meaningful and effective ways if they are to save America from self-destruction.