I’ve been reading and watching a great deal of political material lately, trying to figure out how genuinely progressive candidates can distinguish themselves from the business-as-usual corporate Democrats. What should be in a candidate’s platform, even before the Democrat (or Green or Libertarian) Party platforms are created? I would want a candidate to pledge agreement to some or most of the following ideas before giving her or him any money or other support.
As a candidate for federal office, I _(name)_ pledge:
While I am running for office, I will not accept direct or indirect campaign donations from any corporation that earns more than $10,000,000 per year.
After the elections, whether I win or lose, I will join with other candidates in sueing the voting machine manufacturers and the Secretary of State in every state where final voting machine totals differ by more than 3% from the results of the major exit polls.
Once in office, I will vote to provide federal campaign funding for all elections for federal office, to put a maximum $1000 contribution per private person or corporation to any candidate’s campaign.
Once in office, I will vote to require, and provide federal funding to, the states for the purchase and maintenance of electronic voting systems if and only if those systems provide verifiable paper trails of all votes cast.
Once in office, I will vote to revise all federal election laws that hinder the ability of third, fourth, and other political parties to participate on an equal footing with the two major parties.
Once in office, I will vote to establish an independent federal prosecutor to investigate impeachable offenses by George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, as well as violations of federal law by other members of the Bush Administration.
Once in office, I will vote to investigate war and disaster profiteering since September 11, 2001.
Once in office, I will vote to recall home all American service members now on duty in the Middle East as quickly and safely as possible.
Once in office, I will vote to establish a war tax on the total income and assets of all American citizens in the top 5% of wealth, until such a time as the “war on terror” is declared over by the Congress.
Once in office, I will vote to cancel immediately all tax cuts for the wealthiest 5% of Americans enacted within the two Bush administrations.
Once in office I will vote to tax all major oil companies operating in America on their windfall profits of the last six years, and to revoke all tax incentives previously granted to them.
Once in office, I will vote to revoke all tax incentives for American-based corporations who outsource American jobs to other nations and/or who move the majority of their banking assets to foreign tax-havens.
Once in office, I will vote to defund all “faith based” grants to nonprofit organizations who discriminate against employees or clients on religious grounds.
Once in office, I will examine all past or proposed legislation dealing with social, educational, or scientific matters based on mainstream scientific values rather than extreme religious agendas.
In general, once in office I will work to return our nation to the community-centered values of our ancestors rather than the greed-centered and theocratic values that have dominated it through the last forty years, so that government of the people, by the people, and for the people—not wealthy corporations or powerful religious institutions—may once again become our ideal.
I know that even a handful of these promises would strike terror and rage in the hearts of all Republican (and most Democratic) politicians and their owners, but they could also ignite a prairie fire in the grass roots across America. We’ve all seen what “business as usual” has done to our schools, our public health systems, our jobs, our environment, and our ability to respond to national emergencies. Rather than starving our government of the funds it needs to do its jobs, it’s well past time to make the wealthy and powerful start paying their fair share of dues to provide the economic, educational, and infrastructural services their empires require.
I have other liberal goals, of course. A nationalized healthcare system such as all other civilized nations enjoy is one. An “Apollo Project” approach to making the entire world free from fossil fuels is another. So is full employment through infrastructure repair, wetlands restoration, mass transit extension, and other longterm solutions to the mess we’re now in. We need to derail both Al Queda’s and the Religious Reich’s dreams of world conquest—and the eternal Crusade/Jihad those dreams require. We also need to depose the obscenely wealthy elites who have managed to sucker millions of people into believing that college professors, conservationists, and honest journalists are “the real threat” they should worry about.
But all those changes first require an influx of honest people in office to create fair and honest election laws, to start taxing the Power Elite the way Franklin Roosevelt did so long ago, and to stop pandering to religious extremists. We can undo the Republican Revolution of 1994 in 2006 if Greens, Libertarians, and other disgusted Independents work with the democratic wing of the Democratic Party in all the state and federal election campaigns. And then we’ll have to hold the winners’ feet to the fire to make sure they keep these promises—but that’s another story…
