A Liberal Platform

Stop Destroying Our American Dream

Let’s learn from our opponents. Conservatives have demonstrated the success of continually expressing their various mantras. Our major mantras should be End Our National Nightmare and Stop Destroying Our American Dream. Don’t let their YOYO (You’re On Your Own) ideology destroy our American dream of cooperatively enhancing freedoms and opportunities for all. Don’t let them make take away our security and prosperity, while dividing us and violating our moral values.

Attack them. Attack Them. ATTACK THEM with our mantras. Throw them on the defensive. Then play offense to show how we will cooperatively expand freedoms and opportunities for all, especially those among us with fewer freedoms and opportunities.

A Liberal Platform

Various Liberal political strategists have noted that the general public is not impressed by platforms. Voters are impressed by stories which begin with how conservatives are harming their values and liberals will realize them. We continue to struggle to realize our American Dream opposed by conservatives who want to replace it with one in which a few Americans dominate the rest of us.

So why publish the following platform? Because we need to know what we are trying to do and be able to respond to questions about it. This doesn’t mean we will publicize our platform, which only opens it up to distorted attacks, deflecting attention from the failures of our opponents. Instead we will publicize value-based stories oriented to impressing them that we are on their side in fulfilling our American Dream.

The proof is in the pudding. If you read and consider carefully its many details, you are weird. You are like only a tiny minority of voters. If you carefully look through the platform to find details with which you disagree, you are part of the problem. You are dividing us rather than uniting us. By proposing such detailed proposals, I have enabled our division. Better to keep our proposals general, since the details will be worked out legislatively anyway. And such detail gives our opponents the same opportunity to attack.

Avoiding such detail is why most politicians – both liberal and conservative – don’t respond to detailed questionnaires from Vote Smart which then publicizes any responses. Politicians realize that detailed responds don’t turn on most voters; They simply provide ammunition for opponents. As you read the following platform, which I laboriously drafted several years ago, imagine how you as a conservative would attack it, making it look like a subversion of our American Dream. It’s easy, isn’t it?

POLITICAL PLATFORM 2002

Dave Thomas

Basic Values

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ------That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, . . . The Declaration of Independence

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America. Preamble to the United States Constitution

Our basic American values are (1) Liberty with Responsibility, (2) Democracy with Justice and (3) Common Welfare.

Liberty with Responsibility

People should be guaranteed many liberties, including thought, expression, behavior, movement, self-improvement, enterprise, earnings, ownership, and association. These liberties should only be limited by not infringing upon the liberties of others. Our liberties depend upon fulfilling our responsibilities. To avoid infringing upon others, we are responsible within our capabilities for caring for themselves, for others and for our common heritage. We must support a common climate, of tolerance, trust, personal privacy, and general welfare which is vital to maintaining our liberties.

Our government must protect our liberties from infringements by persons, private enterprises and governments It must define responsibilities for each. Any restrictions upon liberty should occur only through cautiously and equitably applied due process of well-defined laws. Boundaries between liberty, infringement and responsibility must be continually redefined making political participation a major responsibility.

Democracy with Justice

Our political decisions must result from democratic processes in which all affected persons have an equal opportunity to participate, often through selection of representatives. Yet these political decisions must not be allowed to infringe upon our basic human liberties. Thus, our democratic processes occur within a constitutional context which protects these rights.

Common Welfare

Our capabilities are often inadequate for our care. We begin life dependent upon others and to various extent remain so throughout our lives. We must provide for our public safety (including defense from foreign threats), health care, education and economic opportunity. As circumstances make one or the other more effective and efficient with fewer restrictions upon our liberty, we delegate these roles to private enterprises or governmental bodies.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Our Common Defense

We have long been culturally, economically, politically and militarily dominant over the rest of the world. Our non-imperial reputation and political alliances which have sustained this dominance are recently weakening. No other country can harm us militarily without suffering massive destruction. But cooperation with other countries is necessary for protection from environmental destruction, economic instability, and politically inspired violence.

Conflicts between and within countries are being settled. Democracy, justice and prosperity are increasing globally. But many are experiencing little or no progress. To provide environmental protection, opportunity, liberty, justice, and peace for all people, a strong democratic global system is needed.

Our General Welfare

We are a prosperous country. We have much freedom. Yet compared to other modern societies, we have greater disparities of income and wealth. Many of our people lack access to quality health, education, financial support and other services necessary to their welfare. Our health, education and other indicators are often worse than those of less prosperous countries. Many of our citizens do not participate politically.

Our Crony Capitalism

Insufficient government regulation allows stock market corruption, monopoly pricing, corporate mismanagement, threats to consumer and workers safety, pollution and exploitation of public resources. Our taxes are low, leaving insufficient revenues for social services. Our federal deficits will impose enormous taxes on future generations. Our wealthy people and major corporations have undue influence over our government decisions through their lobbyists and campaign contributions.

Low taxes on consumption, energy and pollution encourage Americans to use far more than our share of the world’s resources in ways that harm our environment. High payroll taxes and employer-paid health care reduces our competitiveness and discourages employment. Unsustainable trade deficits make our economy dependent upon foreign investors.

Our payroll taxes and employer paid health care reduces our competitiveness with other countries and discourages employment. Our lack of a value added tax stimulates undesirable consumption and usage of natural resources.

Political Proposals

1. Return Government to the Voting Public

· Provide government funding for campaigns. Limit donations from other sources. Prohibit corporate donations. Prohibit bundling. Limit size of individual donations.

· Shorten political campaigns by limiting primary elections and caucuses to no more than six months before the general election.

· Require media to provide time for forums and candidates.

· Elect political convention delegates and electoral college representatives from congressional districts, thereby eliminating statewide winner-take-all systems

· Incorporate Washington D.C. into Maryland and Virginia.

· Adopt instant run-off system (with voters expressing 2^nd and 3^rd choices) for deciding election. Voters can then vote for their favorite candidate without assisting one that they dislike.

· Allow minority party candidates to participate in election campaign forums

· Create Elections Commission independent of political parties to make and enforce rules concerning elections (including primary elections).

2. Increase Government Openness

· Require registration of lobbyists and reporting of their activities and expenditures

· Mandate transparency in all branches of government, especially concerning who officials meet and communicate with.

· Initiate stricter procedures to limit classifying documents as secret

· Create a Federal accounting system similar to those required of private enterprises, with separate accounts for operational, capital and transfer expenditures. Issue annual Income-Expenditure and Net Worth statements.

· To increase understanding of trends and options, create simulation of national economy, including government operations, which can be used on desktop computers

3. Reform Taxes, Subsidies and Expenditures

More than other countries, we allow capitalists to obtain the value of production that results from our institutional and capitalization heritage. We often do not adequately limit or tax businesses for the costs that they cause the public. We often do not require capitalists to pay market rates for their use of publicly owned resources. The wealthy are allowed to give their heirs enormous financial advantages.

· Recover that proportion of production which results from our national heritage, including our institutions and social and natural resources, through creating a VAT tax as the primary source of income for government transfer spending, instead of employment taxes

· Extend FICA tax to all income, then lower FICA tax rate as VAT tax increases

· Counter market inequities by making taxes more progressive

· Create flat income tax (perhaps 40%) with exemption up to medium income, few deductions and an alternative minimum tax (all indexed to inflation)

· Maintain progressive estate tax for wealthiest five percent of estates, with provision for time payments necessary to preserve ownership of family enterprise

· Public resources should be sold or leased by auction to capture full market value

· For transparency, support should only be done by subsidies, not tax credits.

· Wealthy enterprises should not be protected from normal competitive risks Subsidies for farm, ranch, log, mine and other enterprises should be limited.

· Encourage states to initiate environmental, health, education, economic development and other programs, without limiting them to Federal standards

4. Reform National and Government Accounting System

· Operational spending should not exceed revenue, such that operational accounts are balanced

· Capital spending may be funded through borrowing from operational and transfer accounts and through issuing bonds.

· Transfer accounts, such as social security, may be allowed to build reserves in anticipation of increased future transfers. These reserves may be loaned for capitol spending, but not for operational spending

· Report annually how loans by transfer accounts to the capital account will be obtained when needed

5. Regulate Enterprises, Industries and Markets

People form enterprises in order to earn money through creating and providing goods and services. Both producers and consumers benefit when these can operate efficiently. But enterprises are tempted to create externalities in which they infringe upon the rights of and create costs for others. To prevent enterprises from infringing upon the rights of employees, consumers, suppliers and their communities and upon everyone’s environment, regulations are necessary. These regulations should minimally interfere with economic efficiency.

These enterprises create and operate within industries and competitive markets. As industries mature, standards become necessary for economic efficiency. Without regulation, markets often tend toward too little or too much competition, resulting in inequitable earnings. Markets that produce inadequate earnings should be regulated to reduce competition. Markets that produce excessive earnings should be regulated to increase competition. If competition cannot be regulated without excessively harming economic efficiency, then earnings should be regulated or adjusted through taxation.

These balances can best be adjusted through democratic processes that enable decisions based upon the values, opinions and wisdom of our many people. The major threats to these democratic processes come from powerful enterprises, which differ from people in being primarily means to efficient economic production. To protect our democracy, we should limit the political participation of powerful enterprises. Depending upon their scope, enterprises should be chartered at local, state or national levels, with their rights and responsibilities defined appropriate to their scope.

· Distinguish between human rights and corporate rights, such that corporations do not have the same rights to freedom of speech, cannot refuse to disclose their transgressions, etc.

· Require corporations engaging in multi-state trade to obtain federal charters

· Require some outside directors

· When competition is insufficient and can’t be increased, institute price controls

· Require arms length audits, ban on certain types of consulting by accounting firms

· Greater accountability and higher standards for auditors

· Steps to prevent conflicts of interest among stock analysts

· Reforms to prevent "insider trading" by corporate executives, force insider traders to disgorge ill-gotten gains and suffer real criminal penalties

· Reforms of stock options to prevent hidden corporate costs and manipulation of options by corporate executives for personal gain

· Much tougher federal oversight of publicly traded companies, including new resources and powers for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

6. Promote Stable Economic Growth

· Support development and adoption of new technologies (genome, nano, etc.)

· Maintain the successful federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership

· Promote lower trade tariffs and other barriers. Stop protecting tobacco, sugar and other producers

· Use less fossil fuel instead of increasing its production. Any left in the ground will become more valuable.

· Clarify responsibility of Federal Reserve to publicize irrational exuberance and non-sustainable financial bubbles (i.e. 1980’s savings and loans collapse, 1990’s dot.com collapse, excessive federal deficits and debt.)

· Provide additional monetary tools to the Federal Reserve, including the power to adjust taxes upon loans and other monetary transfers and to set margin requirements

· Maintain a set of quickly implemented economic stimulus programs including revenue cuts and spending increases. These should be targeted at those most affected by a slowdown and limited to the duration of the slowdown. Many of these might include funding projects proposed by states.

· Assist enterprises and employment through lowering FICA taxes and federalizing health care

7. Protect Environment Globally and Domestically

· Support environmental research and development

· Co-operate with other governmental and non-governmental organizations

· Participate in efforts to stop global warming

· Create emissions markets

· Require attaining measureable results, while letting polluters choose means

· Continue to increase mileage requirements for motor vehicles

· Discourage sprawl development through growth management regulation

· Require power plant environmental upgrades

· Encourage development and use of renewable energy

· Buy or otherwise protect important ecosystems

· Maintain protection of endangered species

· Restore rivers and lakes for fish and fowl

· Pay farmers and other land-owners for conservation (Leahy & Reid farm bill)

· Stop logging in roadless areas

· Budget full cost of park operations

· Regulate use of snowmobiles and airplanes in national parks

8. Facilitate Transportation and Communication

· Encourage development of high-speed communication

· Create hi-speed regional rail services

· Initiate low-cost measures to reduce traffic congestion

· Instant car-pooling with drivers picking up passengers at bus stops

· Allow commercial delivery vehicles to use HOV lanes

· Consider regulating monopoly telecommunications services

· Consider regulating air transportation services

9. Employment and Income Support, Social Services

· Expand voluntary national service programs to provide public services (including civilian and military at home and abroad), training and work experiences for participants, and educational assistance or other rewards

· Stimulate creation of local volunteer bureaus that assist public and private enterprises to create volunteer programs and recruit, train and places volunteers.

· Create guest worker programs, which include legal registration and progress toward permanent residence

· increase and index minimum wage to reduce number of working poor

· Maintain adequate earned income tax credit to reduce number of working poor

· Encourage volunteer tax consultants using public (library) computers to assist quick correct filing of simple returns

· Reform unemployment insurance to assist part-time, temporary and other types of current employees

· Substitute comprehensive unemployment adjustment program for many present programs

· Support financing for small enterprises

· Encourage employee-funded medical and family leave financing

· Assist availability of affordable childcare for employed parents

· Enforce collection of children support payments from fathers

· Provide full range of social services (including counseling, training, child care, transportation, etc.) necessary to assist persons who cannot otherwise obtain needed employment, income or care

· Support home financing and financing of lower income housing

· Provide assistance based upon need rather than race-ethnic criteria

· Support and cooperate with voluntary non-profit organizations which offer social services, when this will not aid their religious activities

· Maintain public social security system with sufficient funding

· Create universal pension system to substitute for IRA and 401k programs, including control by owner and portability

· Provide sufficient insurance to protect people against unemployment, crop failure, and other unforeseeable misfortunes without subsidizing wealthy nor allowing insured to take unreasonable risks

10. Reform Health System

· Provide universal coverage

· Limit what is covered instead of who is covered

· Use cost benefit analysis to decide ranking of coverages and cutoff point

· Provide a few easily understood options

· Eliminate third party expense

· Bargain with providers to contain costs

· Allow importation with quality controls of medicines from abroad

· Reduce patent protections for medicines until the pharmaceutical industry has p/e ratios similar to other retail providers

· Consider encouraging creation of a comprehensive system for testing new medicines and medical technologies

· Adequately support medical and health care research

· Encourage comprehensive evidence-based coordinated care

· Transform Medicare and Medicaid from pay for treatment to pay for performance

· Provide rewards to reduce teen pregnancy

· Monitor persons with chronic illnesses to enable them to avoid breakdowns in their ongoing prevention of serious and expensive consequences

· Provide comprehensive public health services, including prevention and emergency response

· Our emergency health system should include a comprehensive information-driven network which enables responses by local public and private health providers (Pioneering examples are Detroit, Denver and Baltimore)

· Encourage home treatment of patients

11. Stimulate Quality Education

· Support research concerning educational practices and systems

· Keep school administration at local levels

· Encourage performance standards and testing

· Certify teachers through tests instead of completing education courses

· Encourage mentoring in public and private organizations in which new students, teachers, employees, etc. are advised by someone other than their supervisor who assists them to perform successfully

· Finance education equitably through national system of student vouchers, usable at certified public and private schools, which must provide no religious indoctrination or influence

· Increase teacher salaries to be commensurate with similar professional jobs

· Fully support preschool education with extra resources for serving culturally disadvantaged

· Ensure that appropriate educational opportunities are available for all qualified students

· Provide significant monetary reward to students for academic performance, including rewards annually and upon graduation from high school. The job of a young person is to become educated.

· Encourage students to become more involved in school maintenance and development from grounds and buildings to computers

· Encourage students to do community service

· Encourage students to participate politically

· Provide life long educational allowance (with extra funds for disabled and disadvantaged), substituting for many politically motivated separate uncoordinated training programs

12. Protect Liberties

· Maintain privacy of home and information files from private and public intrusion

· Prohibit unsolicited sales pitches to private phones and email addresses

· Prohibit enterprises from using information for any other purpose than that for which it was collected, without express permission, which cannot be required

· Remove barriers to email and web capable computers that cannot be invaded. These would only receive solicited input and no input could alter the operation of the computer. No spam. No viruses.

· Maintain freedom to discontinue pregnancy

· Regulate marijuana and tobacco the same as alcohol (apart from producing better results, this will lower law enforcement and penal costs)

· Create nationwide information systems for law enforcement

· Continue to support Community Oriented Policing (COP)

· Implement proactive information-driven (Detroit-like) home defense system

· The primary role of state-based national guard forces should be home defense followed by their support for Defense Dept forces

· Encourage community policing

· Intensively supervise released convicts

13. Provide Leadership toward Democratic World Government

A just and global government is needed, with the ability to make and enforce laws and mediate disputes. No such global government now exists. Just as 13 independent states formed a constitutionally based United States of America, our many nations should form a human-rights-based, democratic global government, with authority to deal with issues that transcend national borders. The global government should include agencies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization and others that presently result from treaties among nations. It should charter multi-national corporations.

The United Nations could become more representative of our world’s people, by eliminating the Security Council and as an interim step, making the General Assembly’s decisions binding when the supporting nations represent, over half of the world’s people, governments and wealth. Reform should continue in the direction of direct election of General Assembly members to replace their appointment by governments. Wealth should become less important, as the percentage of the world’s wealth necessary to a binding decision becomes less.

· Change UN governance to include more democratically based binding decisions

·