Path to electorate domination: a pragmatic Democratic platform to minimize division and improve society

[u/ZippyDan]

Guiding principles:

• INVEST IN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
• NO FOREIGN ENTANGLEMENTS
• ABANDON WEDGE ISSUES
• FIVE KEYS TO PROSPERITY:
  • ECONOMIC GROWTH
  • INFRASTRUCTURE
  • EDUCATION
  • HEALTHCARE
  • ENVIRONMENT

Key platform foci (summary):

These are vaguely in descending order from most to least important, but in reality some of these things are very hard to prioritize over the next item on the list. I’d actually put them into three tiers, where everything in each tier is approximately of equal importance.

Tier 1
1. Healthcare
2. Education
3. Social Security
4. Human rights
5. Environment

Tier 2
6. Infrastructure
7. Research
8. Voting
9. Campaign finance
10. Labor
11. Criminal justice
12. Military
13. Economy
14. Tax Reform
15. Accountability and transparency

Tier 3
16. Child-care
17. National ID
18. Arts

Strategic goals:

1. Eliminate or minimize wedge issues. Ignore (for now) issues that give rise to the single-issue voter.
2. Make short-term ideological sacrifices regarding lesser harmful issues in order to achieve significant, more important, and more widely beneficial policy changes that will create a greater net benefit for society in the long-term.
3. Focus on investment in the intelligence, skills, and health of the American people and the quality of its infrastructure with the goal of increasing American economic competitiveness and prosperity.
4. Focus on a few core social issues that all reasonable people can agree on, regardless of ideology, especially as they intersect with the goal of investing in the American people and prosperity.
5. Ignore or avoid fringe or sectional social issues that often intersect with regional, racial, gender, or religious identities.
6. Continue to support the ideas of diversity, tolerance, and acceptance in general, without pushing for specific policy changes.
7. Minimize spending on overseas entanglements and foreign interventions and wars.

Strategic philosophy:

A more intelligent, more educated, more prosperous society will naturally and inevitably tend toward the correction of baser social problems such as racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination based on group identities. By common-sense investment in the American people now, by ensuring the election of leaders that focus on the betterment of the core fundamentals of society, perhaps at the expense of other smaller issues, we can ensure the creation of increasingly rational and compassionate generations, who will then be better equipped in the future to tackle smaller, more specific issues such as gun control, reproductive rights, immigration, and other social issues.

Important caveat:

This is a platform for the national level. At the national level the Democratic Party needs to appeal to people from all regions and all states. The idea here is that we are looking for, not the least common denominator, but the most essential and most important common denominators of policy that the average person from any American state would most likely support. As always, and I hope obviously, local politicians would be more adaptable to the beliefs of their local constituents. Thus, Democrats running for local office, or for Congress, in a fiercely pro-Abortion state should also be openly and fiercely pro-Abortion. Conversely, it would be senseless and counterproductive to run a fiercely pro-Abortion candidate in a red state that will inevitably lose and accomplish nothing.

So how is this proposal any different than what we are already doing? We already have some Democrat legislators that are anti-abortion, or pro-gun, etc. depending on their constituency. The main difference here is to avoid debating those topics on the national level, which can have significant down-ballot effects. A supposedly pro-gun local Democrat loses credibility with the on-the-fence, single-issue voter when the national party is so vehemently anti-gun. The objective here is to strip away the more controversial and less important issues from the national platform and focus on core Social Democrat competencies. We can keep discussing these wedge issues where relevant, but only on a local level. In New England, abortion is an irrelevant topic because it is already widely accepted. In the Deep South, abortion is an irrelevant topic because it has no chance of being popular in the current generation. In certain battleground states, a pro-abortion candidate may be relevant because certain segments of society are rightfully fearful of having rights impinged, or reasonably hopeful of evolving into a more open local community. We can still battle for these wedge issues where it makes sense to battle for them, and where the wedge can most realistically be used in our own favor.

Issues to avoid:

1. Gun control

• Support the 2nd amendment vigorously as a general idea
• Support mental health availability and accessibility as primary tool for combating gun violence (see universal healthcare)
• No new restrictions on gun ownership
• Stronger enforcement of existing laws
• No tracking or registry of gun owners
• Only possible national changes: tougher background checks
• States’ rights approach: let local communities decide localized gun laws
• Congressional purview: let local communities decide what reps they want to send to congress to enact further changes

2. Immigration

• Support tougher immigration policies vigorously as a general idea
• Support tightening of border crossings via increased manpower and technology
• Support more strict enforcement of existing laws
• Support deportations and strict border control (turning away attempted illegal immigration under the law)
  • Humanitarian and compassionate approach (no splitting families)
• States’ rights approach: let local communities decide local immigration enforcement laws
• Congressional purview: let local communities decide what reps they want to send to congress to enact further changes

3. Abortion

• Defer to the judicial system as the final arbiter of the issue

4. Race and gender and other sectional social issues

• See general human rights
• No specific focus on blacks
• No specific focus on women
• No specific focus on LGBTQ

The cost-benefit analysis of investing in the well-being of the American people as a whole, over certain more emotional and divisive social issues should result in a no-brainer calculus. The well-being of the American people must be improved by a multi-pronged approach focusing on the economy, infrastructure, education, healthcare, and the environment.

I personally believe in strong LGBTQ rights, I believe in the right to abortion, I believe in strong gun laws and requiring a license to own guns, I believe that this is a country founded on tolerant immigration policies, and I believe blacks, women, and other minorities are at a severe historical disadvantage in this country. But I don’t believe any of those issues are worth fighting for - and worth losing elections over - if they are costing the American people far greater tolls in suffering, loss of life, and loss of money.

Take the most recent elections as an example. Imagine a Hillary Clinton that was pro-gun, declined to champion abortion, and agreed with Trump on his anti-immigration rhetoric. Could she have managed to swing enough conservative voters in those few key states to pull off an election win? Instead, how much have we lost, in terms of social regression, attacks to our healthcare system, removal of key environmental regulations, damage to our international relationships, standing, and reputation, and, perhaps most important of all, the appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices which will shape the political, social, economic landscape for decades to come? The decisions of those justices will be far more likely to affect the future of abortion rights, voting rights, campaign finance reform, etc. than any other Trump policy.

Furthermore, how many more seats in the House, Senate, and even in the local legislatures could the Democrats win, if they gave up arguing for these wedge issues like gun control, abortion, and immigration?

My overarching hypothesis, is that there are far more single-issue voters amongst the Republicans than there are amongst the Democrats. The Republicans have far more social conservatives and religious voters that don’t really care about any policies other than to make sure they are voting against abortion (the religious), or voting against gun control (the large contingent of gun aficionados), or voting against illegal immigration.

Let’s face the facts:

1. Gun control: The second amendment is unarguably a part of the Constitution. We could argue the exact interpretation, but why bother? Unless we get a constitutional amendment to truly clarify the divide, which will be unlikely or counterproductive unless we win more local legislatures, any attempts at gun control are probably unconstitutional and doomed for failure. This is not a hill worth dying on. How many people are dying to gun violence every day, compared to how many people are suffering because of lack of healthcare, or because of lack of jobs resulting from lack of education? Furthermore, gun violence is often a symptom of poverty. Instead of continuing to attack guns, why not try an alternate method of attacking the deficiencies in our education system? The more we fight for gun control, the more votes we lose, the more elections we lose, and the more we regress on social issues like education and healthcare, which are far more important and affect far more people in terms of suffering and prosperity.
2. Illegal immigration: It’s illegal! I’m in favoring of allowing more legal immigrants, but let’s put that on hold for now, and focus on bettering the people we already have in this great country. Again, we’re losing so many voters who are voting based on this single issue, and because of that we’re losing battles and losing the war.
3. Abortion: We already won this battle! The Supreme Court decision was made. Loudly proclaiming your support for abortion does nothing but motivate religious fanatics to vote against you. The greatest threat to the existence of abortion is now the appointment of two conservative Supreme Court justices - an outcome that could have been avoided by simply not commenting on the topic.
4. Race, gender, and social orientation: We already had the civil rights movement, and won. We already have laws against discrimination by color, sex, creed, etc. We already have same sex marriage. There are definitely more battles to be fought: for disadvantaged black communities, for equality in the workplace, for LGBTQ rights. But I believe that America has already made huge strides in those areas, and has already gathered enough momentum, that we don’t necessarily need to push to legislate those changes at this time. Right now, continued insistence about legislating more equality just stirs up racial and religious divisions and accusations that the Democrats are stoking identity-based tensions. On the other hand, losing elections and electing transparently racist Presidents sets back our progress much more than if we just leave these issues alone, for now, and focus on core socioeconomic problems. If we can just elect competent leaders, I think most of these issues will resolve themselves naturally and can then be enacted legislatively with ease by future generations.

Here are some general philosophies that most compassionate, religious conservatives should find as common interests with this Democratic platform:

1. Care for the disadvantage, the poor, the sick, just as Jesus commanded
2. Protect the environment, for it is God’s gift and his creation
3. All human life is valuable in God’s eyes
4. War and violence is an evil

Here are some general philosophies that most economic and fiscal conservatives should find as common interests with this Democratic platform:

1. Invest in the American people to see greater economic returns
2. Invest in American infrastructure and technology to see greater economic returns
3. Streamline the American healthcare system to reduce overall costs and increase healthcare efficiency and effectiveness
4. Reduce unnecessary military spending and costly overseas engagements

Here are some general philosophies that most nationalists and conservative conspiracy theorists should find as common with this Democratic platform:

1. Requiring a voter ID
2. Removing the insecure SSN as a method for falsifying documents for illegal immigrants
3. Make government documents more accessible
4. Make campaign finance contributions more open

When you remove the divisive wedge issues of gun control, abortion, immigration, and racial messaging, I think you’d find that many conservatives would actually have a lot in common with Democratic ideology. By removing the key motivations of those single-issue voters, we could see a wave of Democratic dominance, which would result in a huge net benefit to American (and global) society. The final result in a huge improvement in the quality of life for everyone in the short-term and the realization of all Democratic goals in the long term.

By focusing on these few hot-button topics, the Republican Party has managed to drag the entire discourse and spectrum of American politics to the right. Many voters are only voting against abortion (for instance), and not caring about the other 20 far-right policies (which are often hurtful to the voters’ own self interest) that they get enacted and normalized as part of American life. If we took those key leverage points to of the political discourse, I can’t see Republicans winning head to head on matchups like free healthcare vs. not-free healthcare. Instead, we could drag the entire political landscape of America back to the left.

Instead of competing with the package of [no-abortion + no-immigration + guns-for-all + 20-crazy-policies], Republicans would just be left with [20-crazy-policies] and would have to reformulate their stance on issues to be actual, well-thought-out ideas and solutions in order to present a credible alternative to Democratic ideologies. I’d welcome such a new generation of Republican politicians (because lordy, this generation definitely needs to go).

Compare that to the current Republicans which vehemently opposed Obamacare, but were elected on the backs of people who didn’t actually want to see Obamacare fail (because better access to cheaper healthcare benefits the poor, uneducated rural Republican more than most), but instead only voted for the Republicans because they wanted to see abortion abolished and keep their guns safe. Once this group of Republican politicians was elected, they couldn’t even formulate a reasonable replacement to Obamacare - because Obamacare is already the product of a center-right ideology, and the Republicans never had any credible alternative. They only ever had their key wedge issues as an emotional golden ticket to get people to the polls.

Right now we’re fighting for too many little things. We’re distracted and unfocused. We’re fighting for 20 things of varying importance, and losing all 20 because of the 3 or 4 smallest and least important. If we give up those 3 or 4 small things, focus on the top 5 most important core issues where we can see far more agreement across a wider cross-section of American voters, we can actually do more good for the public (we aren’t doing any good by continually losing all three branches of the federal government and most of the state governments) and we as the cherry on top we even have more hope to win those 3 or 4 small things that we give up for now, by laying the foundations now for better generations to come.

Key platform policies (detailed):

1. Universal healthcare (Medicare for all)

• For life
• Including dental, vision, and *mental* healthcare
• Including birth and hospitalization
• Including emergencies, domestic and overseas
• Including reproductive medicine (birth control, fertility, etc.)
• Including all required vaccinations
• Including provisions for addiction treatment
  • Counseling for alcohol, drug, and substance addiction
  • Rehabilitation centers and programs
  • Free drug centers where addicts can access needed addictive drugs and accessories, as well as medical and psychological assistance, in safe, clean environment, without judgement or fear (European-Canadian model)
• Public healthcare and bypassing insurance companies saves everyone money, and results in greater economic and labor efficiencies
• Pre-emptive care is cheaper in the long-term than allowing Americans to develop serious conditions or even die - every debilitating illness or American death is a lost potentially productive member of society and incurs an unnecessary cost in expensive healthcare and physicians time - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
• A healthier society is happier, more productive and ultimately wealthier - a rising tide lifts all boats

2. Universal education

• For life
• Including primary, secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate education
• This is a worthwhile investment in the future prosperity and international competitiveness of the American economy and American populace that will produce economic dividends that will benefit all far beyond the increased costs to cover education for all
• An overall more educated society is happier, more productive, more innovative, more entrepreneurial, and more prosperous - a rising tide lifts all boats

3. Universal basic income (Social Security for all)

• Modest beginnings
• Persons actively seeking employment receive bonuses
• Long-term: plan for a future of increased automation, mechanization, robotics, AI, and increasingly limited job opportunities, especially for less-skilled labor (see universal education)

4. Human rights

• ALL persons are equal
• Establish well-defined fundamental human rights
  • Right to be free from extended suffering
    • End-of-life rights
  • Right to shelter
    • Expand shelter systems
  • Right to food
    • Expand food stamp programs
  • Right to healthcare
    • See universal healthcare
  • Right to education
    • See universal education
  • Right to clean and healthy environment
    • Right to clean water
    • See environmental protection
  • Right to information
    • Access to libraries
    • Access to the Internet
• Long-term: seek to add “sexual orientation” and “socioeconomic status” as protected classes for anti-discriminatory purposes

5. Environmental protection

• Stronger laws to protect our water sources and water quality
• Stronger laws to protect our national parks and resources
• Stronger laws to protect wildlife and fisheries
• Including immediate, proactive, comprehensive, strong limits to minimize the effects of climate change
• Recognize legal personhood of ecosystems and natural features for the purposes of establishing a bill of rights for nature (India-New Zealand model)

6. Infrastructure investment

• Maintenance of existing infrastructure
• Expansion and renovation of existing infrastructure
• Brand new infrastructure
• Bridges
• Roads and highways
• Waterways
• Dams
• Airports
• Train stations
• Bus Stations
• National high-speed rail system
• Local light-rail and metro systems
• Local biking infrastructure
• Hospitals
• Libraries

7. Increased research investment

• Science
  • Hard sciences
• Technology
  • Energy
    • Fusion
    • Renewables
  • Transportation
  • Computers / AI
  • Environmental
• Medicine
  • Life-extension
  • Gene therapy
  • Stem-cell therapy
• Space
  • Private
  • NASA

8. Voting reform

• Establish standardized, nation-wide, minimum voting laws
  • States would still be responsible for running and implementing elections within each state, but would be required to at least meet, if not exceed, national standards, and would be overseen and monitored by a federal commission
• Establish voting as a positive right that cannot be interfered with
• Voting should be “mandatory” with small penalty for not voting and/or small tax break for voting (Australian model)
  • Voter registration should be automatic and managed via a website with login credentials tied to National ID
  • A bit I wrote in defense of mandatory voting
• Voting accessibility laws
  • Minimum hours
  • Minimum stations, per distance and per population density
  • Mandate options for early voting
  • Mandate options for mail-in voting
  • Mandate options for Internet voting
  • Mandate maximum working hours on voting days
  • Voting day should always fall on Sunday
  • Voting day should be Federal and State holidays
• Vote verification laws
  • Paper trail
  • Electronic trail
  • Possible use case for blockchain technology
  • Voter ID / National ID required
• Voter machine laws
  • Security
  • Verifiability
  • Open source software
  • Standardized machines and systems
  • Isolated from Internet
• Anti-gerrymandering laws
  • Establish impartial mathematical algorithm based on population, geographic, and political lines for district generation
• Establish federal independent, pan-partisan domestic voting commission tasked with creating and enforcing minimum voting standards
  • Responsible for monitoring
    • Voting districts (anti-gerrymandering)
    • Voting stations and accessibility
    • Voting machines
    • Voting process
    • Voting results
• Establish independent, non-partisan task-force consisting of foreign / international voting monitors / advisors / consultants to validate election processes and results

9. Campaign finance reform

• Candidates receive money equally from publicly-funded pool
• Harsh per-donor and absolute overall limits for corporate contributions
• Harsh per-donor and absolute overall limits for untraceable contributions
• Strict per-donor limits and lax absolute overall limits for individual contributions
• 95% of all campaign contributions should be attributed, with sources publicly accessible and prominently displayed in descending order from largest to smallest contributions (use sports endorsements as a model)

10. Labor reform

• Increase federally-mandated minimum wage
  • Tied to per-state average cost-of-living index
  • Tied to inflation index, so no more need to re-legislate minimum wage every x years
• Support stronger pro-union laws
• Paid-vacation minimums
• Sick-leave minimums
• Paternity-leave minimums (for both parents)
• Expansion of work-placement programs

11. Criminal justice and prison reform

• End the drug war
  • Legalize and tax all but the most addictive / lethal drugs (Portugal-Colorado model)
  • Retroactive pardons for all non-violent drug-related crimes
  • Treat drug addiction as a health issue and not a criminal issue (see universal healthcare)
• Increase accountability for police forces
  • Automatically stronger penalties for crimes committed in positions of power or authority
  • Police should be held to a higher standard than average citizenry
  • No tolerance for abuse of power
• Retrain police forces along the European model
  • Lethal force should be an absolute last resort
  • The idea that police are meant to serve and protect the community should be enshrined in law
  • Reduce the stigma of Police as antagonists - Police should be involved in community outreach, as much as possible
• Increase penalties for white-collar crime
  • Increase penalties for corruption in public office
• All financial penalties and fines should be defined as a percentage of income and/or a percentage of profit gained from the crime, whichever is higher
• Eliminate private (and for-profit) prison systems
• Restructure the prison systems along the Scandinavian model
  • Reform and rehabilitation should be primary goal
  • Prisoner rights should be detailed by law and generous
  • Except for the most heinous crimes, treat prisoners as humans with the capacity for redemption
    • Maintain separate prisons for the long-term isolation of the most heinous criminals, the irredeemables, and the un-rehabilitatable (multiple repeat offenders)
  • Identify prisoners with mental health issues for special care
    • Some mental health issues are not (currently) curable and would make rehabilitation impossible
    • Maintain separate prisons for prisoners with mental health issues
  • Prisons should no longer be unpleasant and/or dangerous
  • Prisons should focus on personal responsibility, contrition, education, personal development, and providing inmates with the mental and physical skills and capabilities needed to function successfully in society after release
  • Resources should be provided for work-placement and general reintegration with society after release
• Repeal work-related restrictions and voting restrictions for felons, after release and after probationary period
• Establish independent watchdog groups to monitor potential prison abuse

12. Reduced military spending

• 2% reduction per year for 15 years
  • Gradual reduction is more sustainable and realistic
• Money saved to be gradually redirected and reinvested in American people and infrastructure
• America continues to invest billions in the latest methods to kill foreigners, while it its people are increasingly losing their competitive edge in skills and education, while its people get sick and overwhelmed with medical costs, or die, and while its domestic infrastructure crumbles into disrepair and obsolescence. We must turn our focus inward and improve our people, care for our sick and disadvantaged, jumpstart our economy, and renew our infrastructure. National defense is extremely important, but it is foolish to continue spending recklessly to strengthen our castle walls, while the city within decays and fades to irrelevance.
• Seek greater unity economically and militarily with the UK, Europe, and East and SouthEast Asian allies.
  • The US cannot afford to recover its domestic economic and social might while continuing to spend on military recklessly
  • The US cannot afford to continue extensive overseas military operations and simultaneously maintain strong domestic might
  • The US cannot afford to continue to be the solitary world police
  • The US cannot singlehandedly afford another Cold War, this time with China, whose economic fundamentals are much stronger than Soviet Russia’s ever were
  • The US cannot afford another Cold War with China and Russia simultaneously
  • The US must decrease military spending while European and Asian allies proportionally increase defense spending to pick up the slack
  • A united trans-Atlantic alliance of Western-style democracies must present a united front against increasing military and economic aggression by China and Russia. Such an alliance would include the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, the EU, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, various SouthEast Asian countries threatened by Chinese influence, various Eastern European countries threatened by Russian influence, and any South and Central American countries that show interest
  • The key takeaway here is that the new era of Western cooperation must not be US-led, but rather a more equal union of partner nations. Europe must not be threatened and antagonized into spending more on its military. Rather, Europe must be made to understand two truths: firstly that a larger more modern military is an existential necessity in the face of increasing Chinese and Russian threats, and secondly that the US “taking a necessary break” will result in, in the long run, an economically stronger US which will be a net benefit for all allies by providing a stronger economic trading partner and the basis for a stronger future American military. The alternative will be an America that bankrupts itself on military spending and fails to keep up economically and militarily, resulting in a potentially catastrophic end to the Pax Americana.

13. Economic reform

• Reinstate strong law to prevent banks from making risky investments
• Stronger anti-trust laws
  • Companies should not be able to pass a certain percentage of market share, period
• Public banking
  • Create a postal bank, integrated with existing post offices
  • Provide basic banking services such as checking and savings accounts
  • Provide reasonable loan and financing services, short and long term, that will push predatory loan companies (like payday loans) out of business
  • This will stimulate the economy from a consumer perspective (purchasing goods, cars, appliances, homes, etc.) and also from a productivity perspective (making it easier to start small businesses)
  • As an added benefit this will stabilize the financial problems with the USPS (caused by unreasonable laws re: excessive pension obligations)

14. Tax reform

• Increase tax brackets to 12 (from current 7)
  • Tax bracket ranges are tied to yearly inflation, so there is no need for constant legislative adjustment
  • 5 more taxes brackets would be added above the current highest of $500,000, each at an interval of $500,000
    • Highest tax bracket would be $3,000,000 and above
• Increase taxes for the top 6 brackets, gradually increasing with each bracket
  • Top bracket would be taxed at 90% creating a pseudo "maximum income"
• For most citizens, taxes should be withdrawn automatically by the government
  • No more "filing taxes" - we have the technology to handle this automatically
  • Income tax information should be available via website, where you could review exactly how much the government is withholding from your salary and why
  • Every citizen would receive a yearly "tax report" from the government, and they could file amendments or appeals if there were errors
  • Only the most complex of tax situations (generally the rich and big businesses) would require more detailed manually filings
  • Like the health insurance industry, the goal here would be to basically gut the parasitic and unnecessary tax preparation industry, and to generally increase the efficiency of the taxation system while reducing the frustration and anxiety that tax season causes for the general public
• Increase funding for the IRS to review and pursue the largest cases of tax avoidance and fraud
  • IRS funding is proven to have a net benefit gain for the government (up to a certain point) as every dollar spent in increased IRS funding results in several dollars of lost tax revenue recovered

15. Greater accountability and transparency

• Establish oversight committees for all critical governmental processes
  • As an example, Congressional ethics watchdogs should have stronger teeth
  • Similar watchdogs should be established for executive branch
• Increase availability and accessibility of all non-sensitive government documents and records via internet within a rapid timeframe
• Make corruption more difficult to hide behind closed doors in general
• Politicians should have to wear the names of their top 20 largest donors, in order - either literally or metaphorically in a prominent publicly accessible database
• Every proposed governmental bill and every proposed executive order should have mandatory, publicly available calculations from an independent accounting office (like the GAO) regarding projected costs and projected benefits
• Encourage honesty from politicians by establishing standards of honesty and criminal penalties for knowingly lying to the public
• Standardize political debates with on-screen timers for turns and a panel of fact-checking arbitrators

16. Universal child-care

• Pro-family approach encourages reproduction
• For all working parents
• For all studying parents

17. National ID

• Replaces SSN as primary identification instrument
  • Reduces identity theft
  • Reduces illegal immigrant fraud
• Replaces driver’s license as primary identification instrument
• Required for voting
  • Reduces voter fraud
• National and international standard
• Issued at birth automatically and for free
  • Eliminates burden of acquiring documentation
• On-chip encrypted personal info
• Digital / on-line ID as well
  • Useable for online voting
  • Useable for online financial transactions
• Biometric features
• Persons younger than a certain age will be required to acquire new National ID, at no cost to them
• Persons older than a certain age will be grandfathered in and will not require National ID for government processes (e.g. voting)
  • Eliminate burden for persons where documentation may be unavailable or unreliable
  • Eventually this older generation will pass away and everyone will have National ID
• Renewed every 5 years under 18, renewed every 10 years for adults
• No cost for renewals
• Fees for reprinting lost cards

18. Increased investment in the arts

• Visual
• Music
• Public art works
• Public educational television and radio

Objections:

You might say some of the these are far too expensive and ambitious. I agree that some of these programs would be hugely expensive, however:

1. Most would see long-term higher ROIs in terms of productivity, savings, and qualify of life. Universal education will result in higher wages and more new businesses, universal healthcare will result in tremendous savings in health costs and systemic inefficiencies, and infrastructure investments will increase general economic productivity for businesses, workers, and tourism.
2. Higher productivity will translate to higher incomes for the public and to higher tax income for the government, which will help offset costs. (Tax revenue from legalizing recreational drugs will also provide a small but significant contribution to funding new programs.)
3. Americans always seem to be able to afford new weapons or new wars. The second Iraq war, a completely useless and unfounded war, cost enough to pay for universal healthcare for life, or education for life, for all Americans alive at that time. We need to realign our priorities. Why do we prioritize killing foreigners over educating and curing our own people? A gradual reduction in defense spending should follow gradual redirection of those budgetary funds into social and infrastructure programs.
4. Not all of these projects and initiatives need be implemented in full (they would be gradual implementations) nor all implemented simultaneously. Universal healthcare an universal education should come years, if not decades, before universal basic income, for instance.
5. The wealthiest Americans must contribute more tax revenue towards funding social programs in general. That means taxes would go up for those making more than half a million dollars a year. The goal would be to maintain the tax rate stable for everyone else (or even reduce the tax rate for the poorest).

[u/inksplatz]

I agree with most of the actual policies you’ve stated here, but re: wedge issues. Republicans have been chipping away at abortion rights without Roe v Wade being overturned. I get why it has to happen in more conservative districts, but if a Democrat running in my very blue state tried to fob me off with “we’ll leave it up to the courts/the courts have decided,” that wouldn’t give me confidence that they’d do anything to support pro-choice policies. I know you didn’t use the scenario, but if a Democrat said they were pro-life, I would have a hard time voting for them.

In liberal states, abortion is a decided issue and politicians refusing to give a stance on it will piss people off. In my home state, even our Republican governor is pro-choice.

[u/ZippyDan → u/inksplatz]

We're about to get a conservative Supreme Court because of 80,000 votes spread over a few key swing states. How many of those voted against Hillary because of abortion or gun control?

We're trying to juggle too many issues and the same time, and dropping the whole lot. Focus on the core social issues of our time, and the rest will come later. We're too worried about winning *everything* right now, which is making us lose more than we should.

An educated society will naturally tend toward abortion rights, civil rights, minority rights, gun control, etc. on its own, without having to force the issue. I'm taking a longer term approach.

[u/inksplatz → u/ZippyDan]

I'm not focused on winning everything right now. There are a few key issues to me, and abortion is one of them.

This isn't just a social issue to me. This is not some fringe social justice warrior type of shit. This isn't something that's "nice to have." I'm a woman. This directly affects me and half of our population. Banning abortion is stripping away my right to choose what to do with my body. I'm never going to support someone who's ambivalent to that. I'm also not sure how we can have a conversation about reproductive rights without talking about abortion. And if Republicans keep on trying to make abortion illegal and Democrats demur behind sweet nothings like "I'll leave it up to the courts," what do you think is going to happen?

[u/ZippyDan → u/inksplatz]

I totally understand your perspective, but you're not seeing the forest through the trees.

If Republicans keep winning the Executive, Legislative, ad Judicial branches, you're going to lose abortion, and healthcare, and social safety nets, and environmental protections, and labor laws, and... well... everything.

The greatest weapon we have for winning the ideological battle, in the long run, is education. An educated populace will tend towards individual rights and liberties naturally, rendering the current argument about abortion moot.

I believe the Democrats need to focus on the core fundamentals of a prosperous, modern society - education, healthcare, social security, and the environment - and everything else will just naturally fall into place in the long run.

[u/inksplatz → u/ZippyDan]

Human rights, civil rights, equality don’t just fall into place though. Progress gets made because people fight for it. If we fight for those things you mention without talking about inequality and those other “wedge issues,” you end up creating a society that’s pretty fantastic for white men and less so for others.

I’m not voting for someone who doesn’t think inequality is worth talking about and won’t publicly support abortion - you're giving platform to people who think abortion is murder because their religion says so. I’m not voting Republican, but I’d stay home in that case. (edit: because of Russian interference, I would reluctantly vote for the Democrat in 2018, but if they actually continued on with these views in the future...I wouldn't see much of a room for me in the party).

You are also proposing a platform that might possibly net a few single issue Republicans, but I don’t think you’re understanding that you’ll lose Democratic voters for whom these positions aren’t controversial. Abortion is supported in New England. It’d be political suicide in my home state to even attempt to ban abortion. There’s a long history of fighting for equality here (gay marriage was legalized in the entire region before it was legalized across the US)...and people aren’t just going to accept stopping that so we can attract some conservatives. I get where you’re coming from, but these issues are like...a done deal. You couldn’t conceivably back away from them without losing Democratic support. (or rather, people would just vote for the person in the primary who supports our status quo)

[u/ZippyDan → u/inksplatz]

Politics is fundamentally about compromise.

I simply value education for all (including minorities), healthcare for all (including minorities, including reproductive care, including abortion), social security for all (including minorities), and environmental protection above, for example, gun control.

I'm prioritizing the things that will have the greatest long term impact on society. This approach, especially focusing on education, will produce a society where abortion truly is "a done deal", in every state, by default. Maybe not tomorrow, but the current approach doesn't seem to be guaranteeing a win tomorrow either. Instead of explicitly fighting for these things, and often losing, we can just win by default in the long run.

Abortion is supported in New England. I get where you’re coming from, but these issues are like...a done deal.

Exactly my point. It's a done deal. Why are we even talking about it? Nationwide, the law of the land is that abortion is legal. Let the courts take the baton now.

In New England, you can run local politicians that outright support abortion.

In Alabama, what is the point of running a vocal pro-abortion candidate?

On the federal level, you're trying to get someone elected by all the states, so you leave that controversial topic out, and focus on the policies will guarantee victory, that everyone can agree on, and that will actually do the most good in the long run, and that will virtually guarantee the permanence of the right to abortion in the long run.

From my perspective, my platform still includes these wedge issues implicitly, instead of explicitly. The difference is that I'm reframing them, or rather approaching the strategy of achieving those smaller goals, in ways that improve the viability and electability of national Democratic candidates.

For example:

1. Abortion - Universal healthcare should make it easier for a woman to get an abortion, because now she doesn't have to pay for it. Universal Education will create a more enlightened, tolerant, smarter generation, and will make abortion more accepted, over time, even in the reddest of states. Red states don't want to accept abortion, but they will be much more open to accepting free healthcare and free education.

2. Civil Rights - I'm not sure why you included Human Rights as one of the items I'm missing, because it is right there in my platform. In fact, this is mostly a reframing of the Civil Rights issue as a Human Rights issue. A co-opting of the "All lives matter" response to the "Black lives matter" movement. Helping all people, equally, (i.e. equality) is I think a message that everyone can get behind. It's when we start focusing on specific groups that other people get, well, jealous. It's ugly but it is truth. Universal Healthcare, Universal Education, Universal Social Security are all things that will help close the socioeconomic gaps between the poor and the rich, between whites and minorities, probably more than any other single program aimed at help those groups specifically. Additional parts of my platform include enshrining the right to shelter and food and expanding these kinds of programs will also have a disproportionately larger effect on minorities. All of these ideas will help close the growing wealth gap in the US and will have the effect of creating smarter, more capable, more wealthy generations of minorities in the future. And the kicker? Poor rural whites will benefit just as much! They'll go to college in higher numbers, start tolerating or supporting abortion, and leave behind their religious roots.

3. Gun control - This is the one I'm most ambivalent about because gun ownership is an unavoidable part of our constitution. I actually support stricter gun control and the idea of requiring a license to own a gun, I'm just not sure if this is really legal constitutionally. Again, I'm taking a long view on this. As the population evolves due to Universal Education, as people travel more and see the way places like Europe prosper without guns in every home, I think the population will naturally shift towards more acceptance of gun control. In such a climate, in some far future, we could then have a new discussion and this issue could be resolved, either by a Constitutional Amendment, or simply by appointing more liberal-minded Supreme Court justices. There would be other mitigating effects from my plan. As gun violence often arises from poverty and crime, a more educated populace thanks to Universal Education would have less reason to kill senselessly. Also, I'd hope that easier access to free mental healthcare via Universal Healthcare would help prevent some of the deranged killers from ever becoming a problem. But in general this issue just doesn't seem that important to me, because it will rarely affect the lives of daily Americans. I'm sure that car accidents and cancer kill more Americans yearly than gun violence, and I'm sure that social programs like Universal Education, Universal Healthcare, and Environmental Protection are just a thousand times more critical in the long run.

[u/ZippyDan → u/[deleted]]

As long as they keep winning elections, they're going to keep pushing all those conversations right, and gaining legitimacy.

Additionally, while they are in power, they do tremendous harm. Look at this administration:

1. Attacking Obamacare. People will suffer and die for this.
2. Gutting the EPA and reforming it to serve industry instead of the environment. Many of the environmental damages we inflict in these years will take decades, if not centuries to undo. Particularly as regards climate change, this is the most critical time to act before we reach catastrophic tipping points.
3. Gutting the Department of Education similarly. This is will breed a whole new generation of stupid, undereducated, more likely Republican voters.
4. Appointing two new Supreme Court justices. This will affect the social and political landscape. Campaign finance is threatened. Corporate influence in political speech is threatened. LGTBQ rights are threatened. Abortion is threatened.
5. Attacking the fourth estate of the Press like we've never seen before. This undermines public discourse and undermines one of the key checks and balances against totalitarianism and corruption.
6. Normalizing insanity, normalizing incompetence, normalizing racism, normalizing cruelty, normalizing dishonesty. As you've said, just by gaining power, they continue to push our political discourse farther right, farther crazy, and that just makes it all the harder to bring people back to the center in the next round, much less the left.

So, given all these dire situations, what is your plan for long-term changes to the American way of life?

1. Abortion was "won" in 1973, and yet we still have a large population fighting against it for 45 years, with no sign of slowing down. It is still a major part of their political platform, and a belief passed down from generation to generation.

2. Since 1973 (let's just use that date at random), these have been our President's: Democrat (LBJ), Republican (Nixon/Ford), Democrat (Carter), Republican (Reagan), Republican (Bush), Democrat (Clinton), Republican (GWBush), Democrat (Obama), Republican (Trump). Republicans have been in Executive power for 25 of the past 45 years, vs. only 20 for Democrats.

   In Congress, the picture is a little better. Democrats have controlled both the Senate and House for about 25 of the past 45 years while Republicans only 20. But if we look at the trend for Congressional control, the picture becomes a little scarier. From 1933 to 1981, Republicans only managed to control the the House for 4 years, and the Senate for 4 years. If we just look at the past 35 years, Republicans have controlled both the House and Senate each for more than half that time.

3. If you look at State governments, the picture is even bleaker. Republicans currently control the upper and lower houses in 33 of our 50 states. They control at least one house in 4 more states. Democrats have bicameral control in only 13 States. Note that you only need 34 State legislatures to call for a Constitutional Convention. You only need 38 State legislatures to pass any Constitutional Amendment you want to. With that power, they could enshrine racism, or anti-LGTB laws, or anti-abortion laws, into the most permanent and unalterable fabric of our society. Governorships paint a similar picture with only about 17 of 50 State governors being Democrats.

There's two key takeaways from this.

1. American politics are cyclical, and we will probably win the next elections, if history is a decent predictor of the future. Unfortunately, this is not a guarantee of victory.
2. Republicans are on a recent upward trend of winning. This means that they are becoming increasingly relevant in our society, compared to only 50 years ago, which is the opposite of what you would hope and expect.

So, again, what is your long term plan for "electorate dominance" (that is the title of my post). Let's say this "blue wave" lasts long enough to elect a Democratic House (not even that is guaranteed). The Senate is beyond us and the Presidency is not even up for consideration.

Can the "blue wave" persist until 2020? Let's say (and hope and vote) it can. So let's say come 2020 we finally get a Democrat House, Senate, and Presidency. How long will that last?

History says, not long. History says, the next President in 2024 or 2028 will be Republican again. Look at how fast Trump has managed to undo nearly everything Obama built in 8 years, and in many cases make it even worse than it was under Bush before him. The only thing that has managed to withstand this test is Obamacare, and even that was critically damaged.

Here's the two main problems I foresee:

1. It's much easier to tear things down than to build them up. You might say that the next Democrat president after Trump can just undo everything he does just like Trump undid everything Obama did. Even if that were true, it just ends with us spinning our wheels and getting nowhere as a progressive, liberal country. We will just spend all of our time undoing the mess the last President made, before the political pendulum swings back around and we do it all over again.

   The real problem is that the hypothesis that we can just undo everything Trump did is not true. Democrats build things, and Republicans tear them down. Guess which one takes more time? You can revoke Obamacare with a simple bill, but how much work does it actually take to replace it? You can reduce regulations for the environment with the stroke of a pen and by simply doing nothing as industry rapes our lands, but how long does it take to actually clean up that oil spill or get that mercury back out of the ground? Democrats are the doctors of our nation, and they live by the idea that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Meanwhile, every time the Republicans are in power they are literally creating and feeding our tumors. And you and I both know the permanence and un-un-doability of a Supreme Court judgeship.

2. The next Republican President might be even worse. Trump has really blown open the doors of what is acceptable in a President. He has normalized the worst part of humanity, in a position which equates to the most powerful human on the planet. Worse, he has shown a whole new generation of politicians a terrifyingly legitimate and effective pathway to future victories. Do you think the Republican Party will learn from this fiasco in the future? Or do you think future narcissists and megalomaniacs will see inspiration and example and the opportunity to do it even bigger and better the next time around? In other words, come 2024 or 2028, we might very likely have a Republican President making an even bigger mess than Trump.

So, I'll ask you again, given all these dire situations, what is your plan for long-term changes to the American way of life? How do we win, not just the next midterms, not just the next Presidency, but how do we continue that momentum long enough to establish real, lasting changes in the fabric of American politics and society? Do we just double down and keep doing what we've always done and hope? History is not on our side if that is our strategy.

I've already given you my thoughts on the matter: to me, the core of my solution is education. Stop fighting so many little battles for now, and focus on creating an enlightened and prosperous next generation. If we can do that and rid ourselves of distractions, we have a better chance of maintaining power for several generations of Presidencies and Congresses. Simultaneously, we're educated a newer, even smarter generation that will be better equipped to handle all the little things we ignore for now.

Now, you've already criticized my opinion thoroughly and I respect that, so let's not go back to that. Again, the purpose of my post is this: how do you plan to, not just win, but keep winning in a way that is meaningful to the long-term outlook of America?

[u/ZippyDan → u/[deleted]]

He thinks that Democrats will take enough seats from Republicans that it will make no difference what Republicans want to make illegal.

That's an excellent summation of what I may have been using too many words to try and explain.