Hey, I Just Fixed American Politics!
Okay, not really — but, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I think this article makes a damn good effort…
In case you couldn’t tell, the title of this article is intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Obviously, I know I can’t just snap my fingers and magically solve the complex problems layered across our American political landscape.
Still, America is in dire need of workable solutions on the most crucial issues we face.
Last month, my Medium piece entitled “What Do Both ‘Sides’ Want?” explored the dynamics of fear and inaccurate assumptions from diametrically-opposed political rivals:
Now, I’m going to tackle this concept on an issue-by-issue basis. I realize I don’t have every single ideal solution at my fingertips. But I do believe this can serve as a basic guide for squashing the deception of extremists while finding remedies that most people could support.
Climate Policy
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY
Far Right Position: Individual farmers should have maximum leeway to innovate their crops and output however they choose, and the free market will sort out the rest.
Far Left Position: The USDA should decrease subsidies to livestock ranchers, and promote plant-based commodities with the goal of getting farmers the highest prices possible.
Middle Ground Position: The federal government must treat this as a national security issue, subsidizing expanded technology to diversify America’s agricultural output; the USDA should give farmers the option to join regional co-ops that will maximize agricultural competition and food access for consumers.
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
Far Right Position: We need an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy policy that utilizes fossil fuels alongside of new innovations; but we should be conservative when investing in those alternative energy sources.
Far Left Position: Our energy policy should expedite the transition to 100% clean and renewable energy sources as quickly as possible, even if it creates economic and logistical hardship for consumers.
Middle Ground Position: We should ramp up major investments in a more diverse array of alternative fuels, while still drilling for oil and gas to fill gaps during the long-term transition to a buffet of energy choices.
NATURAL RESOURCES
Far Right Position: Water and land should be subject to minimal federal oversight, rather than “regulating puddles.”
Far Left Position: The federal government has an existential role in being a responsible steward of water and land; we should consider turning ownership of national parks back over to Tribal Nations.
Middle Ground Position: Governmental oversight of land and water sources should be grounded in biological science and health data.
POLLUTION
Far Right Position: Carbon emissions are largely weaponized as part of a climax hoax, and climate change is a naturally-occurring phenomenon.
Far Left Position: We must do everything in our power to reduce carbon emissions, even if it causes financial pain for consumers.
Middle Ground Position: The approach needs to be holistic; more diverse food and energy sources will go a long way toward greenhouse gas reduction.
Self-Sovereignty Policy
ABORTION
Far Right Position: State legislatures and local activists have a duty to protect the life of a child, and the mother’s life and well-being must be secondary in order to stop this infanticide.
Far Left Position: Abortions should be 100% at the discretion of a pregnant woman, at any point in time in all scenarios.
Middle Ground Position: Abortion should be made legal in all 50 states and territories at least for the first 12-15 weeks of a pregnancy; individual states could regulate abortion beyond that point, but there must be federal exceptions to protect doctors and pregnant women when abortive procedures (even late-term abortions) are medically necessary — as accounted for in my RAFSA proposal.
GUN CONTROL / GUN OWNERSHIP
Far Right Position: The Second Amendment guarantees all qualified citizens an inherent right to own most any types of firearms they choose without federal interference.
Far Left Position: Private gun ownership should be banned (or heavily taxed) for most citizens, with the exception of specialized individuals who have proper training.
Middle Ground Position: Gun ownership should be granted, tax-free, to any citizen who is willing to be licensed and properly trained. Any firearms included in a federal assault weapons ban should be evaluated by apolitical forensic experts rather than by pro-gun or anti-gun lobbyists.
HUMAN SEXUALITY
Far Right Position: Transgender and nonbinary identities ignore the biological realities of male and female sexes.
Far Left Position: Gender-based labels are entirely up to the individual, and such medical support and public access must be accommodated at any age according to the whims of every person.
Middle Ground Position: Transgender and nonbinary people deserve respect, compassion, and an equal voice at the table; all sexual orientations and gender identities should be featured in public education, and age-appropriateness of these discussions will be an ongoing debate between educators, parents, scientists, and medical experts.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Far Right Position: The legality of same-sex marriage and acceptance of gay & bisexual people should be determined by families, churches, and state legislatures.
Far Left Position: Any church or business that refuses to accept same-sex marriage must be penalized and defunded by the federal government.
Middle Ground Position: Same-sex marriage should be legal everywhere for all secular purposes, while churches and private businesses reserve the right to decide whether or not they’re going to honor these unions within their own walls.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Far Right Position: Churches, other houses-of-worship, and private entities should be able to assert their religious beliefs wherever and whenever they want, including when constructing new public policy.
Far Left Position: The federal government should have no role in promoting or acknowledging individuals’ religious beliefs whatsoever.
Middle Ground Position: Religions should voluntarily learn to have compassion for beliefs that aren’t heteronormative or ciscentric, but the government shouldn’t impose this process upon them.
RACIAL JUSTICE
Far Right Position: Black Lives Matter wishes to establish a new system of supremacy dominated by People of Color through means such as abolishing the police and decriminalizing dangerous offenses.
Far Left Position: Black Lives Matter wants White people to acknowledge white privilege, link it to every single aspect of life, and publicly repent for it while trying to self-improve.
Middle Ground Position: Black Lives Matter seeks to ensure that Black and Brown people receive the same fair and equitable treatment that so many of their White counterparts currently enjoy.
DRUG ABUSE
Far Right Position: The government should do everything possible to minimize the spread of addictive recreational drugs, while harshly punishing anyone who enables illegal sales of those substances.
Far Left Position: A vast majority of recreational drugs should be 100% legal and unregulated for usage amongst minors and adults alike.
Middle Ground Position: Recreational drugs should be made completely legal (or at least decriminalized) for adults unless they pose serious harm to human health, but the FDA still has a responsibility to educate the public about dangers of addictive substances.
Public Conduct Policy
POLICE REFORM
Far Right Position: Law enforcement is here to protect us, and civilians should obey them unquestionably in all cases.
Far Left Position: The police need to be abolished entirely, replaced with social workers and other professionals who can nonviolently intervene during conflicts.
Middle Ground Position: Police officers need to be held accountable when they brutalize citizens and abuse their power, but we should still utilize policing to protect innocent parties and build stronger communities.
ELECTION INTEGRITY
Far Right Position: Voting in America should be difficult, with IDs required to prevent citizens from voting fraudulently; maintaining the Electoral College prevents urban tyranny.
Far Left Position: Anybody should be allowed to cast a vote in a majority of scenarios, and the burden of proof should be on election officials to determine if an individual ballot needs to be disqualified.
Middle Ground Position: Voting should be as easy as possible for anyone legally eligible, with safeguards to cross-check against potential voter fraud; the Electoral College should be abolished to prevent theocratic tyranny; we should implement Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), Approval Voting (AV), or Range Voting (RV).
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Far Right Position: Employment and college admissions should be determined strictly based on merit; it should be illegal to take into account race, sex, or any other nonacademic or non-merit factor when evaluating an applicant.
Far Left Position: Affirmative action in all of its forms should be supported; we should always do everything possible to boost applicants based on race, sex, or other marginalized identities, even if the process isn’t perfect.
Middle Ground Position: Affirmative action programs should be reviewed, reevaluated, and optimized so they work effectively to remove barriers faced by underserved groups who endure hiring/educational obstacles.
CENSORSHIP
Far Right Position: Parents and schools should protect young people from harmful words and ideas, whether they’re from book shelves or the Internet.
Far Left Position: Free speech should be absolute, unless it falls under the category of “hate speech” which needs to be prosecuted in order to protect minority groups.
Middle Ground Position: Potentially-harmful speech should be combated with more (and better) speech, including libraries and cyberspace.
IMMIGRATION
Far Right Position: Immigration into the U.S. should be difficult, and we should be highly selective as to who is allowed in.
Far Left Position: Borders should be open, and issues of deportation should be handled after a non-American person has already entered the country based on their individual situation.
Middle Ground Position: The federal government should make a legal path to citizenship as easy and expeditious as possible for noncitizens.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Far Right Position: Most criminal offenders should face stiff penalties, usually involving imprisonment when they threaten the peace or knowingly violate laws.
Far Left Position: We should be intentionally trying to reduce the overall prison population by decreasing the severity of criminal offenses in favor of broader rehabilitation, counseling, and mandatory community service.
Middle Ground Position: Proportional sentencing and rehabilitation should fit the individual crime committed, based on time/manner/place and context.
Commerce Policy
HEALTH CARE
Far Right Position: The highest quality of a health care system necessitates competition and private enterprise; this will prevent medical rationing and death panels.
Far Left Position: The highest quality of a health care system would be publicly funded, uniform in structure, and mandatory for all so our society avoids a Darwinian “get-sick-and-die” model.
Middle Ground Position: The highest quality of a health care system offers a wide variety of options from which citizens can choose — including, but not limited to: federally-funded public health insurance plans, savings accounts, catastrophic coverage, supplemental private (“boutique”) plans, life insurance, treatment fee benchmarks, and/or more public hospitals.
FOREIGN AID
Far Right Position: The U.S. should only administer foreign aid when it serves our national interests.
Far Left Position: The U.S. should lend a helping hand to less-developed nations whenever feasible.
Middle Ground Position: The U.S. should be more cautious about its humanitarian spending and defense allocations by assisting underserved nations when there is a long-term socioeconomic alliance formed between America and that foreign government.
TRADE POLICY
Far Right Position: Laissez faire free trade is the ideal that encourages maximum competition and will keep consumer prices competitive.
Far Left Position: Trade policy must be structured based on a framework of human rights, economic justice, and sustainability — even if it results in higher consumer prices;
Middle Ground Position: Free Trade should be regulated to the extent that it protects consumers against corruption and inflation, and fair trade practices should be subsidized by the federal government if based on an economically-sound blueprint.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Far Right Position: Unions have outlived their usefulness, and are generally too prone to corruption and short-sightedness; this is why we need right-to-work laws.
Far Left Position: Unions are sacred, and they must be defended and supported in all situations; unless we fully stand with each and every union, corporate tyranny will continue to run amuck.
Middle Ground Position: Unions are essential for improving safe and equitable conditions on behalf of workers; however, they must be kept in check by oversight from economists and consumer advocates to curb the whims of those union leaders who are corrupt.
SCHOOL CHOICE
Far Right Position: Tax dollars should support public, private, charter, and parochial schools alike, while cracking down on the liberal indoctrination found in most public schools.
Far Left Position: Public schools should be prioritized when it comes to educational funding, and K-12 teachers should be given 100% academic freedom.
Middle Ground Position: More investment along with qualitative evaluation of public schools should be made to keep improving them; if charter schools are going to receive any tax dollars, we need to reevaluate which consistent standards they must meet.
Budgetary Policy
CAMPAIGN-FINANCE REFORM
Far Right Position: People and companies should be able to spend their money, in unlimited amounts, on political campaigns however they see fit.
Far Left Position: There should be strict limits as to how much money campaigns are allowed to spend, while we publicly fund campaigns and eliminate all dark money.
Middle Ground Position: We should overturn Citizens United to bring back modest campaign contribution limits, along with requiring full disclosure and transparency of all money spent on political ads/expenses regardless of the source.
CORPORATE REGULATION
Far Right Position: We need to minimize most business regulations so that corporate innovation is allowed to flourish.
Far Left Position: Federal regulation must hold corporations responsible (and financially liable) for their greed and deceit, whenever it manifests.
Middle Ground Solution: There should be a modest amount of regulations of entrepreneurship as it relates to safety and consumer protection; corporate responsibility should be incentivized by the federal government, but not mandated.
DEFENSE SPENDING
Far Right Position: Increased defense budgets are always central to our national security.
Far Left Position: The federal defense budget should be slashed wherever and whenever possible, aside from the bare minimum of national defense needs.
Middle Ground Solution: Obsolete defense appropriations should be eliminated across the board and reallocated for social welfare programs; a clean audit of the Pentagon and Department of Defense should be followed up by making the defense budget smarter and more efficient.
THE NATIONAL DEBT
Far Right Position: We must do whatever it takes to pay off the national debt if we have any hope of preventing our economy from falling and scattering like a house of cards.
Far Left Position: We don’t need to worry about the national debt as long as we keep generating more economic revenue.
Middle Ground Position: We’ll probably never pay off the national debt entirely, but we can prevent economic collapse by lifting the cap on Social Security & Medicare taxation and making better economic investments.
WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION
Far Right Position: The best ways to alleviate poverty are through entrepreneurial partnerships, faith-based initiatives, and teaching better work ethic to younger generations.
Far Left Position: Universal Basic Income (UBI) and governmental redistribution of wealth will be what lifts most everyone out of poverty.
Middle Ground Position: We should gradually increase economic aid to people in the lowest tax brackets, while facilitating more federal entrepreneurship avenues for Americans in the middlemost tax brackets.
TAXATION
Far Right Position: People shouldn’t be punished for their success, and the government should only collect the taxes it absolutely needs (across the board) while deemphasizing the income bracket into which a person falls.
Far Left Position: People should be taxed in proportion with what they earn, because doing otherwise is regressive against working-class Americans.
Middle Ground Positions: Tax brackets should be more evenly dispersed along something akin to a sliding scale (with a cap on the highest tax bracket), similar to the proposed FAST Tax.
IN CONCLUSION…
None of these problems are going to be easy to solve. But to have any hope of solving them, we need to sift through the noise and propaganda so we can hone in on the most practical and achievable solutions.
What are some political topics on which you believe the Far Right and the Far Left are each hyperbolic in their rhetoric, while a logical compromise is being widely overlooked?
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