Hey Left. Wanna Have More Power?

[BeFree]

I do.

The rest of the country wants to know what will it look like when we do get complete control.

What are some of the big changes we would see as we take over the government and the right becomes a real tiny minority?

[Jensen]

1. We can fight to bring jobs back to the USA! You know USA, USA!!!

[BeFree]

2. They'd like that. Its a winner. More Jobs.

[Cleita]

3. I'd like handing the corporations their asses back to them.

Laws I would like to make to do this.

1) No foreign corporations should be allowed to mine our resources, oil, coal, ores, other minerals and lumber. I want these resources nationalized so our country can mine them safely, environmentally and to sell them on the open market to pay for social programs and pay down the national debt.

2) Banks should go back to being chartered in one state only like it used to be so you wouldn't get banks too big to fail.

3) I would like to see large corporations like Wal-Mart and Monsanto to have to pay a big corporate tax if they want to operate more than, let's say ten branches or stores. I believe this would encourage small businesses and farms to become important again. I believe the taxes should go to education. After all it's the corporations that benefit from an educated work force. They should pay for it.

4) All imports that can manufactured here should pay high tariffs so that we can compete with them and start making things here again.

5) All workers by law should belong to a union or a professional guild.

6) Insurance companies should be forbidden to offer basic health care. We need a national health care system that cuts out the middle men and the fat in the system and allowing insurers to be part of it will doom it to failure.

[Lyric]

4. Crap. I unrecc'ed this, sorry.

Stupid buttons. Anyway, I don't want our side to have "power" for the sake of power, of course, but I'd like to see the people who aren't (1) religious fanatics, and (2) greedy and unscrupulous actually have a chance to govern without constant obstruction and electioneering.

The one thing this country lacks most sorely is generosity--of wealth, of spirit, of everything. We are stingy with our dollars, stingy with our praise, and many of us would literally rather die than to see someone we dislike get a government benefit of any kind--whether in the form of a respected right, a civil right, or some kind of financial assistance.

When the right-wing whines about losing their "rights", what they MEAN is that they've lost the right to control other peoples' lives and behaviors. They hate welfare because it allows poor (and often black) women to raise children OUTSIDE of the "traditional" cultural taboos and norms that used to regulate behavior. When women have a guaranteed source of basic income, they don't have to be married and submit to a husband in order to survive. They don't have to attend church in order to build community ties for survival--and thus, they can live outside of the paternalistic influence of the church if they choose.

When women have the secular right to get an abortion, their sexuality is seen by the right-wing as uncontrolled-by-the-church (a.k.a., MEN), and therefore dangerous. When gay people and transgendered people have the right to get married, to NOT be fired for who they are, and to basically live OUTSIDE of the traditional "religious" rules, then religion loses power--and the right-wing HATES that.

And most of all--charity is no longer dependent upon "good behavior". The jerks on the right can no longer choose NOT to help someone that they consider "unworthy". Everybody gets help, regardless of their "worthiness", and traditional-values-freaks just HATE that. When they say, "I like charity. I just don't want the government FORCING it on me!", what they really mean is "I want to decide who's worthy of my charity dollars, because there are SOME people that I'd rather not help, thanks much." They want the right to deny help to undesirables. They want the right to deny social acceptance to groups of people that they personally dislike.

Really, all of our biggest social "wedge issue" conflicts have their roots in sexism, racism, and homophobia. We're not fighting about whether or not abortion and gay marriage are "morally wrong". We're not disagreeing on whether welfare is a "hand up" or a "handout". What we're REALLY disagreeing on are the fundamentals of society--the very framework of our civilization. They want the old framework where SOME people are "better" than others, and therefore have more power. We want a new framework in which everybody is EQUAL, and everybody shares power.

So what I'd like to see are more efforts in pursuit of the latter--of constructing a new social framework that's built upon the basic premise that all people ARE equal, and that power should be shared amongst us all, not consolidated in people who have more wealth/the "stronger" gender/better morals/the "right" religion/etc. The amount of power you wield in a society should not be based on how rich you are, or how well you conform to the arbitrary moral and social norms of the ignorant majority.

[Cleita]

5. You aren't the only one who unrec'd. I rec'd your

unrec and it's still at zero. I can't believe anyone would unrec this post deliberately.

[TheKentuckian]

6. Those aligned with wealth and power want no vitality in the left.

Too many notions that slow down the money being funneled to the top.

[BeFree]

8. Kick

Thank you, Lyric.

Your ideas were in the back of my mind and as I read further they all came rushing forward. My cup runneth over. Wow. That rarely happens on DU anymore.

And when you frame what 'being left' means in the way you did, I am even more proud of us Lefties.

What a beautiful society this could be, eh?

[billlll]

7. ZERO unemployment forever

Permanent WPA

www.njfac.org

[comtec]

14. I counter that...

There is a "need" for a small amount of unemployment.

There are also people who ave no business being in the labor market.
bear with me for a moment i'm not as heartless as you think.

There should be a dole for people who are simply useless (don't pretend they don't exist)

Also artists should be free from having to work, as such.

an artist on the dole would be required to produce something to continue to receive the extra (above dole) monies to support their art.

This would make artisans available for buildings, churches, towns, etc.
This was something that all civilizations (until 200- years ago) had - support for the arts.

The dole (welfare to some) should be enough to subsist on. Rent on a small apartment/house (think trailer) and access to higher education (J/C courses and university of their grades justify it)

Here's the rub... anyone taking the dole is REQUIRED BY LAW to be infertile. For women this means either norplant, a tri-monthly contraception shot or voluntary sterilization. yeah I know it's sexist, but it's also reality. Anyone on the dole should not be allowed to breed.
Men on the dole will have their own "tubes tied". Both procedures are reversible, but it is important that their number NOT GROW!

Is it brutal? yes of course it is. But we as a species can no longer continue with this false idea that every life has meaning and every person is a diamond in the rough.

Some people just suck at life, and 100+ years ago they'd have died.
I'm just suggesting they be taken out of the gene pool and allowed to live out their lives such as they are, with opportunity to improve their lot.

Granted I'd also require that every citizen serve the state in some way for at least 4 years (this does NOT mean military service is required, only social service) as thanks for being permitted to be a citizen of our fair country.
a small (paid) price to pay i'd think.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Clean food

grown on clean land.

[LWolf]

10. Universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health CARE.

The repeal of NAFTA/CAFTA and the institution of fair trade based on labor and environmental standards.

A giant wpa-like jobs program.

New, stricter, and better-enforced anti-trust laws.

Universal, FREE, PUBLIC education, pre-school through college or trade school that is fully funded, that is not structured on the business or factory model, that puts reforms in the hands of educators.

Re-regulation of everything that has been de-regulated. Reversing all of the privatization of public services and resources.

A living wage.

Election reform: 100% public financing, with mandated equal, and equally neutral, media time, and debates required to ask every participant every question, with enforced equal talk time. And some form of IRV.

Some sort of Fairness Doctrine, or something else, to keep the airwaves open and free of propaganda and control of the message.

How am I doing?

[BeFree]

12. Doing great

Hope is we can seize power from the thieves who have stolen from us the good things you have listed.

Do you ever get the feeling that the elites just don't want to share?
That they are supremely greedy?

That's the reason for the 'seize power'.

[LWolf]

13. Supremely greedy? ABSOLUTELY. nt

[Bonobo]

11. Living wages, health care, money out of politics, massive defense cuts,

gay rights, increased education spending, mass transit, decentralization of agriculture (strengthening local agricultural infrastructure), etc.

[lame54]

15. education and raise in I.Q. - and dare I dream?...

we actually teach the metric system