The people tying down the Democratic Party’s leadership seats haven’t produced a genuinely new idea for decades. They effectively forfeited the 2024 presidential election by continuing to ignore the nation’s paramount economic issue: lower-income voters’ wages continue their steady decline as a percent of rising national wealth. With long-stagnant incomes facing ever-rising prices—and of course another Trump lie that he would improve their incomes—their votes were the election’s edge. Given a probability that his mouth and behavior will alienate everybody alive by next year’s mid-term elections, Democrats can expect to win a landslide—but only if our leaders and our platform address peoples’ real priorities.

 

With negligible exceptions, our Party’s posture has been little more than constantly reacting to Republican initiatives ever since Reagan began dismantling the New Deal in 1980. The 45-year record is stark on Republican success in un-doing vital social programs and Democrats’ failure to stop their doing it. FDR is dead—our Democratic Party desperately needs dynamic fresh leadership with truly innovative new ideas on how to make America a better place to live. So long as poverty and homelessness exist, we’re not there yet. The New Deal gave us the most innovative systemic changes in American history. They worked because they responded meaningfully to critical needs—and fixed deep wrongs at the very foundation of our economic system, notably the deep inequalities separating a few extreme rich and many extreme poor. Democratic leaders’ Republican-like fixation on big money donors is a study in irrelevance. Our real need is for a whole new batch of New Deal-style innovative, practical SYSTEM CHANGES—SUCH AS:

 

1. GUARANTEE THAT EVERY AMERICAN CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN AMERICA

    -Guarantee Economic Rights and a Living Wage for every American; plus a safety net protecting all Americans from disasters and all federal agencies fully funded equal to their assigned missions.

 

2. RESTRAIN PRICES WITH A 5% RULE TO ENFORCE GENUINE COMPETITION

    -For all businesses that control more than 5% of U.S. market for anything they sell, subdivide them into new enterprises each controlling less than 5%; Outlaw foreign ownership of any business in the United States to ensure priority on American interests; Place every natural monopoly (pipeline-, rail-, wires, etc) under strict governmental controls, and outlaw all other monopolies.

 

3. ENSURE AVAILABILITY OF JOBS FOR ALL WORKING-AGE AMERICANS

    -All businesses created under the 5% Rule will vote to proceed as 1) a “Worker-Owned Co-op” dedicated to public needs or 2) a minimally regulated private enterprise “Small Entrepreneurship”; Give a Life Opportunity Voucher (LOV) redeemable for college education, equipped 200-acre farm, or a business startup, to every young American who serves 3 years in a new Service-to-America Corps; Government shall create additional useful jobs as needed to fully eliminate unemployment.

 

4. FAIRLY DISTRIBUTE THE COSTS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

    -Re-enact graduated personal income taxes up to 94% for households making over $2 million annually; Limit inheritances to $2 million; All business taxes will be calculated and billed quarterly by the IRS; Promote equivalent state laws as a condition of any (meaning “any”) federal funding.     

 

5. GOVERNMENT LEAD PROJECTS THAT LACK BUSINESS PROFIT INCENTIVE

    –With wartime urgency:  Decentralize smart-grid power generation with tube turbines along the banks of all major rivers to exploit perpetual currents and end fossil fuel use within 5 years; Make small electric cars affordable by all in 2 years; Meet 100% of nation’s need for affordable housing within five years; Reverse all egregious damages inflicted on American society during 2025-2028.

 

6. FEDERALLY FUND TEACHING OF DEMOCRACY, CIVICS AND HUMAN VALUES

    -Teach “Personal Adequacy, Civic Values and Responsibility” in grades 1-12 plus college; All candidates must pass a qualifying exam for the office they seek; Require all Americans to register and vote, with fines for unexcused failure to vote in any election; Outlaw all political donations…

 

*    for details on all 95 fixes, see Populist Corrections (book) at fixypopulist.com    *