The platform I’d like to see…..

Term limits for Congress people – 5 terms for Senate, 15 for the House (30 years):

Anyone in Congress must put all stocks in a blind trust and nobody in Congress, or immediate family members, can buy or sell stocks while in office;

Anyone serving in Congress cannot work as a lobbyist for 10 years after leaving office;

Corporations are no longer “people” and corporate money contributions to elections prohibited – individual contributions only, limited per donor, PACS forbidden;

Election Day becomes a Federal Holiday;

People are registered to vote at birth, when they receive their Social Security number, and automatically enrolled when they reach the age of 18

Electronic voting machines are removed and all ballots are paper and counted by hand;

There is a universal two year National Service requirement for all citizens, either military or equivalent work (such as aides in mental hospitals, conservation projects, assisting in schools) with everyone subject to military draft as one of the service components;

For the next 5 or 10 years virtually prohibit immigration except for those fleeing desperate conditions such that US residents or national service workers will fill available openings while at the same time increasing the Federal minimum wage to, first, $ 15 an hour and in 10 years at least $ 20 an hour

Create as much manufacturing domestically as possible using aggressive “buy American” standards on conditions favorable for workers to organize or establish worker-owned enterprises;

Return to the graduated tax structure as under Eisenhower in the late 1950s – According to records compiled by the Tax Foundation, a single person making $16,000 in 1955 — that’s $178,000 in today’s dollars — had a marginal tax rate of 50%; compensation of $50,000 ($559,000 today) moved you into the 75% tax bracket; and an income of $200,000 ($2.3 million today) put you in the 91% tax bracket. (Jan 30, 2019 figures adjusted by 19 percent inflation since then to today);

Remove Social Security taxation income limits;

Reduce military spending and establish Medicare for all for everyone in the United States;

Tax any religious organization that engages in politics;

Carry Federal judicial ethics standards to all US Federal courts including rhe Supreme Court;

Properly fund the IRS to adequately collect entitled tax revenues;

Return civics courses to all public schools;

Embark on national program to develop safe and sustainable hydrogen energy systems as a way to maintain our energy-intense modern society with the most abundant fuel source we have;

Close nearly every overseas U.S. military base;

Apply existing anti-trust and regulatory rules to maintain competition and avoid monopoly capture;

Re-establish affirmative action fir those groups suffering systematic racism and re-establish through legislation Roe v Wade conditions.

Some further thoughts:

Public school tax receipts limited to public schools, not charter schools;

Only those who can pass the citizen test immigrants must pass to become US citizens are allowed to vote in US elections; ie voters should study and take the test, too;

Establish tight control of AI development similar to that now used to oversee and control nuclear development;

A need to establish and implement a decades-long program to repair and maintain dams, piping systems, water infrastructure, forest fire safety, water supplies, possibly using national service workers, among others;

In all cases work to establish an economic system based on sustainability, re-use, minimal resource extraction, and assurance that tail-end impacts of actions are the responsibility of those taking those actions.

Author: Charlie Sheldon

Charlie Sheldon studied at Yale University (American Studies) and the University of Massachusetts (Master’s Degree in Wildlife Biology and Resource Management). He then went to sea as a commercial fisherman off New England, fishing for cod, haddock, lobster, red crab, squid, and swordfish. Active in the fight for the 200-mile Fisheries Conservation Zone, he later worked as a consultant for Fishery Management Councils, developing fishery management plans and conducting gear development projects to develop more selective fisheries. He spent 28 years working for seaports (New York, Seattle, and Bellingham) as a project and construction manager and later as an executive. In addition to overseeing habitat cleanup projects, he worked with Puget Sound Tribes establish a system whereby tribal fishing could coexist with commercial shipping in Seattle Harbor and Elliot Bay. Then, nearly ancient, he returned to sea, shipping out with the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific as an Ordinary Seaman, Able Bodied Seaman, and Bosun. Starting with commercial container vessels, on the New York to Singapore run, he finished his career aboard naval ships for Military Sealift Command. His last gig was as bosun aboard USNS Shughart, New Orleans to New York, in 2016. Always a writer, he published Fat Chance with Felony and Mayhem Press in 2005. He began working on ideas for Strong Heart long, long ago and began serious research in 2010. These days he hikes in the Olympics whenever he can, cooks for his wife, and continues to write tales in Ballard, Washington.

2 thoughts on “The platform I’d like to see…..”

  1. As for term limits,I’d suggest 4 in the Senate and 10 in the House? And, some limits of the office staff as well.

  2. I would add funding to REMOVE old or damaged dams that are preventing fish migration. There are many thousands of useless dams from former industries that are impeding rivers all over the US. I like most of your ideas, though not sure about ceasing immigration 5-10 years.

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