13. Defense budget: We shall bring home the enormous, costly, unknown numbers of U.S. forces now deployed at more than 1,000 locations around the world and station them in military bases established along the entire Mexican border, with any (likely) overflow going to the Canadian border. We shall mandate U.S. military capability to deploy in force anywhere on earth within 24 hours, and in full force within 48 hours, provided that in event of such deployment the Congress shall within five days enact into law a termination date by which all such forces shall be returned to their U.S. bases. We shall launch an unspecified number of new state-of-the-art submarines and aircraft carriers to patrol the world oceans. Each year for the next twenty years not less than five percent of the 2020-equivalent Defense budget shall be shifted to combat global warming.

 

14. Fair and democratic elections. One Person One Vote with Civic Responsibility: A new independent agency shall establish demographically fair and equal voting districts for all federal elections immediately after each decennial census. Gerrymandering shall be declared a felony and outlawed forever in the USA. A new Responsible Citizen Law patterned exactly after the military draft shall impose fines for unexcused failure to 1) be registered and 2) to actually vote in any federal election. State governments shall be presented with compelling incentives to adopt comparable laws for all in-state elections.

 

15. Reverse population growth. Too many people, everywhere, are fast using up all the earth’s natural resources that all our lives depend on—including mined ores and minerals, fertile soils, the oceans’ food fish, clean fresh water, wildlife habitat, species diversity and much more. Our combined sheer demand is fast driving it all, everywhere, toward collapse. We shall reverse this demand by engaging every peaceful means at our collective disposal to reduce human population, beginning in the United States and proceeding elsewhere through diplomacy and ample financial support for birth control.

 

16. Immigration: We shall immediately enact into law: 1) Immediate unconditional U.S. citizenship for all persons brought here as children, the only life they have known; 2) a one-time last-ever amnesty and citizenship offer to the millions of longtime illegal immigrants who willingly apply and comply with all requirements of the amnesty;  3) deportation and lifetime debarment for any immigrant who enters our nation illegally or otherwise violates our fair and just immigration laws and procedures including those of the one-time amnesty;  4) severe fines for U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants, with truly vile penalties for employers who exploit poor, vulnerable workers and pay slave wages while protesting that they can’t find Americans willing to work for what they pay;  5) implementing new “U.S. Regional Population Carrying Capacity Assessments” to guide regional planning and policies of federal and state agencies through this century.

 

*          *          *

 

These sixteen fixes exemplify the “third options” I have advocated throughout this book in hope of moving us a step or two away from the stultifying curse of conservative versus liberal, Republican versus Democrat,  unity versus versus, division upon division grown dire among us since 1980.

 

First you figure out what things the people in a freedom-loving democratic republic really require to continue being a freedom-loving democratic republic. Then you make damn sure those things get implemented in logical sequence. First you identify what’s too big, what’s too monopolistic, what’s not needed at all and is causing more trouble than it’s worth. All the natural monopolies—power lines, pipelines and suchlike get put under control of governments—and I mean with a heavy, innovative thumb. Then all the things that have outgrown their britches and got too big to control get broken up into small pieces of the right size to serve communities, regions at most, and make sure they can’t ever grow too big again. The truly useless monopolistic time wasters like Facebook simply get abolished and good riddance. That’s the structural stuff. Then you deal with the really necessary stuff, like Economic Rights and Living wage, and abolishing profit, and advertising, and economists. Such changes are easy once you think about them for two or three days—or decades—and get your mind opened up.

Elmore Bland, General Advisor to the President