A Plan for Winning, not Whining

Updating my list of suggestions for the Democratic Party on how to win future elections.

Democrats will:

1 –Aid and protect you with:

- access to quality, affordable health care

- free adult vocational education of any kind, including:

    - classes on job-related computer skills, from spreadsheets to coding

    - classes at community colleges 

    - hands-on job-training in the fields of plumbing, electrical, mechanical, HVAC, etc.

2 - Reduce the strangulating power that corporations have over our lives that keep all of us from a better life

3 - Reject corporate welfare (subsidies and tax credits to companies and industries unrelated to the common good)

4 - Incentivize corporations to share their profits with their workers

5 - Remove limits on contributions to Social Security accounts so high earners and their employers pay their fair share

6 - Put American citizens’ needs ahead of anyone entering our country illegally

7 - Limit the power of investment houses to buy up houses and hold them from the market in order to force an increase in the price of housing 

8 - Pass laws requiring term limits for all federal and state level politicians

9 - Institute age-limits for Supreme Court justices

10 - Nominate justices who will overturn Citizens United reducing the role of money from billionaires and corporations in politics

11 - Only involve our military in fighting wars that have an impact on our own national security

12 – Reduce unnecessary overseas military installations and use the money to strengthen our factory towns

13 – Commit to a full audit of the nation’s drinking water systems and make repairs a top priority, giving everyone access to clean water

14 - Oppose hate speech toward people who have different political opinions from ours, no matter how much we disagree. Our fellow American citizens are not the enemy within.

15 - Do everything we can to keep the government out of your life…unless you actually need or want its help. If the private sector can do it better and for less cost, the government shouldn’t be doing it at all.

16 –Give special attention to supporting small businesses, which create more jobs than all the Fortune 500 companies combined. This includes removing burdensome regulations and unnecessary government-imposed requirements.

17 – Make sure all spending on our national defense is spent efficiently and is directed toward the most up-to-date weaponry.

18 – Make sure our veterans have access to free mental healthcare for life.

19 – Give substantial incentives to corporations of any size to provide free onsite childcare

And 20th, never forget to remind people how wonderful they are. The best of what makes America great isn’t based on how we vote. It’s what we do every day regardless of our party affiliation: getting our kids off to school, shopping, making dinner, going to religious services, volunteering at the food bank, cutting the grass for a sick friend or neighbor regardless of what their voter registration card says, caring for our elderly parents, and yes, maybe even running for public office.  

As James Brown said, “People feel you before they hear you.” I have plenty of people in my life whom I love and respect, who are thoughtful, loving, supportive people…who vote straight Republican, yes, even including for Donald Trump. We need to validate, and try to understand, their feelings and beliefs, just as we’d ask that they do the same for us.