No more kvetching! Tonight we’ll be talking about solutions to political, domestic, and foreign policy issues. Join us!
Fellow co-host Keith Boyea sums it up:
We’ve noticed that our discussions have sometimes degenerated into “bitch sessions,” so instead of complaining about things, we wanted to do an episode where we talked about potential solutions.
He and our third co-host Steve Hynd blogged about three areas where we need solutions. That’s what we’ll be talking about, on what will probably be the first of several podcasts on these topics.
Political reforms
- Campaign finance reform so access becomes fair and equal for all, This is crucial
- Genuine access for third parties. Level the playing field
- More members in the House (and maybe the Senate too.)
- Ending officials abusing journalistic stenography
Domestic reforms
- Cut unemployment drastically, probably by a real job plan that employs millions.
- View Energy, Transportation, and Housing as an integrated issue by simultaneously:
1)Â Investing in nationwide freight rail and high-speed rail in regions where it is best suited.
2)Investing in nuclear energy now, even though it has a long development time because breakthroughs in alternative and clean energy are probably decades away.
3)Â Encouraging the development of higher density housing and zoning policies which make communities walkable and ride-able. This allows the development of work/eat/sleep communities that require shorter commutes, less energy consumption, and better utilization of mass transit.
- Budget changes so that the big spenders like Defense don’t eat all the pie and the national debt doesn’t just grow forever, tax reforms so that everyone pays their fair share instead of the share an army of tax-dodging experts can get them, ending the too obvious culture of privilege – where laws get ignored for specific sets of people (banking fraudsters, government torturers and government gun-runner to name but a few), infrastructure spending to repair American competitiveness, long-term thinking about climate change, energy, education and innovation.
- Smart grid, conservation, decentralizing power distribution (and political power.)
Foreign Policy reforms
- A resurgent Peace Corps so that practical things can again be done by people who don’t carry guns, ending wars and occupations that don’t address core interests, realistic “future threat” and “core interest” assessments, not always reaching for the bigger hammer as soon as possible.
- Divest ourselves of “ownership” of the Middle East in part by developing the energy policies listed above. It is no secret that much of our interest in the region derives from its abundance of oil. Especially divest ourselves of our relationship with the Saudi monarchy–the same one that makes all our claims of caring about human rights hypocritical.
- Make a sustained and serious effort at encouraging reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. If, after 2 or 3 years of sustained effort, progress cannot be made, divest ourself of support of BOTH sides.
- Don’t view China’s rise as zero-sum. It is not something we can “manage.”
Join us tonight!
Listen to the show live, at Polizeros Radio on BlogTalkRadio. You can also listening by dialing in at 626-414-3492. The show is tonight at 8:00 PM PT (9:00 PM MT, 10:00 PM CT, 11:00 PM ET.) You can download it or listen to the archive on BlogTalkRadio after it’s done.
Don’t forget proportional representation, civics education, town meetings, congressional watchdog groups based in each district, alternative voting systems (IRV, range, etc), and other democratic reforms that complement each other!
Hmm, nuclear? And nary a mention of either the smart grid or conservation, both of which would cut our energy waste and eliminate the need for new power plants. If we cut our energy waste by 2/3, we could shut down all our coal plants today without building a single replacement plant!
You also missed redistribution of power. So long as it’s concentrated at the center, the federal government will be prone to abuse and corruption.
Just added it. Thx!
Haven’t seen “Perky” in a while 😉
“Cut unemployment drastically” is a bit problematic – we spoke a week or so ago about the misconception that a WPA/CCC like project will employ “millions of people”. The project that come to mind are massive dams and interstate highways that once upon a time did indeed employ thousands if not tens of thousands, do jobs that due to modern technologies today employ a few tens, perhaps a hundred.
Of course, as a third generation “Socialist” (read Wobblie), I’m all for a radical redistribution of power.