Prioritizing the Issues

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

If you had a political agenda, what three areas would you address first? 

 

My three

 

1.  Corruption - no other issue will get the attention it deserves until we crackdown on political/corporate/moral corruption.  How can we expect to honestly address things like Climate Change, Tax Reform, Government spending, Health Care, Net Neutrality, and Foreign Policy when our elected officials are all bought and paid for by lobbyists and foreign governments?  

We can’t.

 

2.  Making health care and higher education affordable compared to other developed nations.  More emphasis on mental health awareness in our schools too.

 

3.  Criminal Justice reform - we need to pretty much start over here and look to what works best in European societies because our shit is all fucked up.

[Js1 85,526]

Health care

Education

End War on Drugs

[David Dennison 18,944]

Health care

Criminal justice reform, including ending War on Drugs

Anti-trust enforcement/corporate regulation

[bad_teammate 13,224]

- instant run-off federal elections

- same-day voter registration w/ national holiday (no one works more than a half-day)

- international election oversight in majority non-white areas with public reports of any attempt to deny voting rights

[Parliament 14,285]

1) Smaller government. Military, entitlements, regulation, etc
1a) Balanced Budget Amendment
2) Corruption. #1 above will help.
3) Outlaw skinny jeans for men.

[Guest]

I'm probably in the minority in that for the most part I like the status quo with respect to privatized healthcare, college tuition not being free, laws on the books against drugs, etc.

All that said, I think the #1 initiative and strategic position of the government should be a complete tear down of what we think we know and how we go to market with treating mental illness and starting from scratch. Mental Illness in America has to be the #1 - #5 for me, because it manifests and has an indirect influence on most all of society blights; homelessness, addiction, not being able to hold a good job, broken families, crime, diseases, etc.

My belief is if you get the mental health piece right (or even just better than what we do now) you can alleviate a ton of the hemorrhaging we see in everything else. 

And to BT's and others point, perhaps the leaders we have in place can't do the job and the way we elect leaders we won't ever get anyone who can tackle such an initiative, whether because they are mentally ill themselves (see: Trump, Donald J.) or just not interested because of the way the game is set up for politicians to get shallow, quick wins and go wide rather than tackle complex, deep issues that take real effort, energy and resources. You might get elected out before you get 10% of the way through your plan.

[Bat Guano 359]

Agree with OP. Getting the money out of politics so our representatives actually represent us instead of moneyed interests is crucial. Put that first, second, and third.

Tied for second and third are education - that is one area where it actually would work to just throw money at the problem - and health care: no reason for anybody to die from treatable causes in the richest nation in the history of the world.

[Parliament 14,285]

Call me naive, but a smaller government will get some of the money out of politics. The money “trough” will be smaller, and the re will be lest financial incentive for companies to buy access to that trough.

[Cheeseweasel 26,438]

6 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Call me naive, but a smaller government will get some of the money out of politics. The money “trough” will be smaller, and the re will be lest financial incentive for companies to buy access to that trough.

Really salient point. It will shift money to local governments where it is better spent and corruption (on a whole) is dealt with faster.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

38 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Call me naive, but a smaller government will get some of the money out of politics. The money “trough” will be smaller, and the re will be lest financial incentive for companies to buy access to that trough.

Disagree.

 Making the pie smaller doesn't reduce the craving the vultures have for the pie, it just makes them fight harder for it. 

Edited October 16, 2018 by Hugo Stiglitz

[G650 14,273]

Campaign finance reform, health care, climate change.

• Insert other media

[lemonlime 5,503]

1.  Fixing the electoral system--paper backup (Scantron ballots), end gerrymandering,  get big money out of politics, end voter suppression

2.  Renewable energy and jobs creation in that field

3.  Affordable healthcare

[Kyle 207]

1. Size of government - I would significantly reduce the size of the federal government both in terms of people and share of tax receipts and attempt to push money and people down to states and local governments, where I believe solutions can be better created given diverse cultural-economic-geographic, etc. distinctions.

2. Balance the budget - I would require a balanced budget in absence of extraordinary circumstances. Pass a bond election if you want to go to war to give people a say (for example).

3. Efficiency - would require something like 90% of tax dollars to directly benefit citizens vs. funding the government. To point #1 and 2, I think we spend too much / dollar on self-sustaining government versus benefitting citizens.

 

IMHO, if those three could be accomplished, it would exponentially improve all other issues. And FWIW, I agree on the corruption point; however, not sure how that could be legislated more than it is. I am naïve I realize, but if only intelligent, principled, non-corruptible people entered politics, we would be in good shape. To date, I think I might could only put Joe Liebermann in that bucket ... maybe.

Also, I think we get way too distracted by Culture War and other issues driven by narrow special interest groups vs. those that really sustain and grow the long-term health of the nation and country.

[Bozo_Casanova 26,522]

1) Making Healthcare universal and cost effective. 

2) Opening up markets and primary research around mitigating pollution, especially to capture industrial externalities.

3) Reforming entitlements and national service to balance the budget  - mainly through tax reform, entitlement reform, and shifting resources from military service to national service. 

[Anastasis 23,481]

1) Campaign finance reform

2) Term limits

3) BBA

[Anastasis 23,481]

7 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

and shifting resources from military service to national service. 

This seems like a great idea. Is there a specific model or proposal on this, or is this just concept level?

[Anastasis 23,481]

4 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Really salient point. It will shift money to local governments where it is better spent and corruption (on a whole) is dealt with faster.

City of Austin laughs at you.

[happyfunball 481]

1) Campaign finance reform and gerrymandering

2) Healthcare

3)Tax reform (increase on high net worth, estate tax, and corporations) 

[Bozo_Casanova 26,522]

45 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

This seems like a great idea. Is there a specific model or proposal on this, or is this just concept level?

Not as far as I know, but I would attrit a significant double digit percentage of current military headcount and a smaller non-headcount portion of non-headcount expense and use it to fund a new WPA and CCC. That would give us the strong domestic economic multiplier in addition to providing a robust income baseline, much needed infrastructure improvements, retraining and reduced dependency to go with very significant retiree cost reductions. 

[Brisketexan 105,273]

Whisky and nihilism. Winning issues, my friends.

[Satchel 6,948]

Universal health care that is unrivaled anywhere else in the world

Campaign finance reform

Reinstitution of the VRA

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

I keep seeing Campaign Finance Reform but IMO it’s almost a hollow platform position.  

Every candidate can say campaign finance reform but it doesn’t mean much unless you put some teeth in it and CFR isn’t going solve the corruption problem.

 Elected officials and corporate/foreign interests will just find a way to circumvent any new campaign finance regulations.

The lobbyist industrial complex needs to be addressed if we seriously want to end the unholy alliance between government and special interest.

[F250 28,814]

1. College Football Playoff expansion.

2. Sex worker reform.

3. Beer distribution law reform.

 

[G650 14,273]

23 minutes ago, F250 said:

1. College Football Playoff expansion.

2. Sex worker reform.

3. Beer distribution law reform.

 

Where do I donate to your campaign 

[triplehorn 2,664]

1) Corruption.  Multiple breach points have to be addressed and it starts with the people voting for Congressional opposition and oversight in less than a month.  Our body politic is set to go full code.  Opportunity and incentives for corruption need to be sharply curtailed in order to begin attracting more candidates motivated to serve for the right reasons.  The wrong kind of person sees elected office as a cash cow and keep coming and with them bring corrosive tactics that have now achieved a new plateau.

3) Health Care - tldr; we can do better for everyone.  It's a basic need and society overall benefits from better access.

2) Criminal Justice/ Mental Health: Giant overlap here with chemical dependency and chronic mental illness that includes homeless and those on disability.  A lot of crime is driven by addiction.  A lot of chronic and costly health issues stem from addiction.  The "worried well" have a hard enough time accessing mental health services, but the former group is the urgent target.  Start by shifting resources away from incarceration to treatment.  In Houston, I understand inmates with opiate addiction are being offered a choice of Vivitrol (naltrexone) injections at the time of their release to block effects of heroin/opiates for a month (then create avenues to continue the injections by choice) to reduce risk of immediate relapse and criminal rat race.  This needs to be maximally incentivized and become SOP as a start.  Long term inpatient chemical dependency rehab needs to be a more widely available option (ie 6-12 months) for the urgent group more characterized by various forms of mental illness, chronic relapse, criminality, and disability. We need more organized shelters with rehabilitative function, period.  I also favor a stricter policy on homeless camping and loitering - we've got hybrid super-homeless in my town and it simply grows without pushback.  It's not about simply spending and giving things away - it's about both constraint and incentivizing.  Shelters need to offer more basic rehabilitation and incentive to get people off the street.  There will be those who never function even if you give them everything,

3) Energy: the hub of the wheel.  Need to diversify aggressively and unhitch from fossil fuels.  This is a global cooperative and our long term (medium term?) survival is dependent on it.  Favorable international relations and relative peace should follow when the fallout from territorial ground mucking fades.

[staboner 4,984]

1) reform

2) the

3) government

 

[Kyle 207]

3 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

I keep seeing Campaign Finance Reform but IMO it’s almost a hollow platform position.  

Every candidate can say campaign finance reform but it doesn’t mean much unless you put some teeth in it and CFR isn’t going solve the corruption problem.

 Elected officials and corporate/foreign interests will just find a way to circumvent any new campaign finance regulations.

The lobbyist industrial complex needs to be addressed if we seriously want to end the unholy alliance between government and special interest.

I put Campaign Finance Reform in the same bucket as Gerrymandering and other purely political issues - everybody is for it as long as the other guy's campaign finances are being reformed.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Kyle

[Mole 4,333]

1. Corruption: we think too ideologically and not enough in terms of voting for representatives. I don't even know if there's a fix other than the culture getting fed up with it. Just because someone would vote mostly like I want doesn't mean they should be in office. This is a pretty broad issue.

2. Elections: this is kind of a specific form of corruption, but the politicization of this is killing us. Gerrymandering, politicized ID battles, the nonsense in Georgia; all of these have non-partisan solutions that would allow and encourage legitimate voters to vote and avoid fraud. It's just a cynical mess right now.

3. Anything else, I don't care. We aren't getting the most fundamental parts right anymore.

[Kyle 207]

I realize my thoughts were largely academic; if I may, in terms of actual issues:

1. Immigration - I think we should just adopt Mexico's immigration policies -> problem solved

2. Energy / environment - I would like regional emphasis on positive energy / environmental policies that focus on increasing renewable energy availability, efficiency, affordability

3. Economy / higher education - I would like to reduce the focus on "college for all" and create a strong, "blue collar" middle class that positively returns heavy and light manufacturing and technology jobs to the U.S.

[tantric superman 4,667]

Was listening to a Sam Harris podcast and he had a guy on who I think put things in really good perspective -- both from the standpoint of identifying the most important issues, and in the same breath, allowing one not to focus on shit that, while it certainly matters, is irrelevant if we don't solve these three key issues.

1) Responding to the technological innovations which will cause more than a third of the worlds population not to provide any "value".  In other words, technological innovations which will cause us to have huge numbers of unemployed/unemployable people.

2) Eliminating the tools of potential nuclear destruction (nuclear proliferation)

3) Responding to the effects of climate change.

Need to focus on all of these in order to avoid world destruction.   2nd Amendment/abortion/border walls -- all irrelevant compared to these three issues. 

My plan is to vote for the person who is more likely to address these issues, even if I may disagree with them on all the other "smaller" issues.

[G650 14,273]

7 minutes ago, tantric superman said:

 

1) Responding to the technological innovations which will cause more than a third of the worlds population not to provide any "value".  In other words, technological innovations which will cause us to have huge numbers of unemployed/unemployable people.

 

 

I've been telling people this over and over, and it's just not sinking in.

I guess my number 4) would be a direct contravention of Zacks' 3). We need to offshore and/or automate every bit of dumb manufacturing ASAP. I'd also be down with deporting the middle class, but that's another discussion.

 

Edit: And I was rambling I forgot to add that you are exactly right all the piddling issues like the gun stuff/wall stuff are way backseat to these issues.

Edited October 17, 2018 by G650

[lemonlime 5,503]

10 minutes ago, tantric superman said:

Was listening to a Sam Harris podcast and he had a guy on who I think put things in really good perspective -- both from the standpoint of identifying the most important issues, and in the same breath, allowing one not to focus on shit that, while it certainly matters, is irrelevant if we don't solve these three key issues.

1) Responding to the technological innovations which will cause more than a third of the worlds population not to provide any "value".  In other words, technological innovations which will cause us to have huge numbers of unemployed/unemployable people.

2) Eliminating the tools of potential nuclear destruction (nuclear proliferation)

3) Responding to the effects of climate change.

Need to focus on all of these in order to avoid world destruction.   2nd Amendment/abortion/border walls -- all irrelevant compared to these three issues. 

My plan is to vote for the person who is more likely to address these issues, even if I may disagree with them on all the other "smaller" issues.

This.  Although I think the first step is to clean up elections.  There will never be a serious discussion of these issues unless we get rid of gerrymandering, causing politicians to run to the extremes and not worry about reelection, and  corporate money in politics, etc.  We''ll just self immolate first as evidenced by the orange man. 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, tantric superman said:

Was listening to a Sam Harris podcast

Sam Harris is probably the most obtuse of all the modern faux philosophers.  Even worse than Jordan Peterson.  

[tantric superman 4,667]

4 minutes ago, Aphelion said:

Sam Harris is probably the most obtuse of all the modern faux philosophers.  Even worse than Jordan Peterson.  

Sam wasn't the one who identified the issues.  Obtuse or not, there is really no podcast that throws up so much shit and makes you think about the issues. 

[bad_teammate 13,224]

49 minutes ago, Aphelion said:

Sam Harris is probably the most obtuse of all the modern faux philosophers.  Even worse than Jordan Peterson.  

We are absolutely in the dregs of public intellectualism when Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Joe Rogan are considered thought leaders. It's tragic.

[Laxtonto 12,090]

Some how I got a feeling that mine wont be popular on either side of the aisle.

Voter reform - Mandatory voting for the populace with  a tax penalty for those refusing to vote. Everyone that is a legal citizen votes.

Immigration reform - Easy temporary work permits, more stringent nationalization requirements and ending birthright citizenship for children of non-citizen parents

Mandatory 2 year government service post HS - Either military or civil service related not in your current region. Use that to show others different parts of the country, provide hope for those who grew up in poverty in a centralized location and potentially a way out, reduce some the classic civil service positions, provide some basic job skills, and help reduce the insane student debt load by hopefully see a slightly older and therefore more responsible college student population.

 

 

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

We are absolutely in the dregs of public intellectualism when Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Joe Rogan are considered thought leaders. It's tragic.

I was having a conversation with someone IRL about the how one of the unintentional consequences of the modern era with respect to technology and the flattening/democratization of information is the death of the public intellectual. Where once, society tacitly empowered or elected or enabled the public intellectual to speak for them and/or give wisdom and direction, we completely done away with such a thing and are now consumers of public celebrities. This means that people like Chrissy Tiegen (just ask your wife) or The HGTV influencers in the middle class or Kardashians if you are cursed enough to be lower class, are followed and consumed.

Anyways I posited the last public intellectual might have been Christopher Hitchens, if not Gore Vidal (a sassy gay man's privilege perhaps from the Oscar Wilde coaching tree), but my buddy said he thought even those didn't fit the definition and likely Buckley was the last.

Anyways, i know it's been discussed here before and it's a very interesting topic for those who consider themselves thoughtful and also know it's fair to appeal to authority as a heuristic. 

[bad_teammate 13,224]

Noam is still alive, thank god, and still spitting fire.

[DixonHur 11,362]

1. Legalize, regulate, and tax all illicit drugs - war on drugs is an unmitigated failure that is costing us tens of billions of dollars a year, and leading to the death, and/or incarceration of thousands of non-violent offenders each year.  Use tax savings, and new tax revenue to treat drug use as a health issue, not a criminal issue.

2. Political corruption - Three pronged attack   a) Create an Eliot Ness style task force to go after corruption in government; b) reverse Citizens United, all equity and bond holdings of politicians/judges must be held in a blind trust, and eliminate K Street lobbying; c) term limits

3. Increase government funded research into climate change, renewable energy, and STEM programs in general

Honerable mention (in no particular order):

- end electoral college

- healthcare reform...I'd prefer universal health care, but would settle for anything that significantly reduces patient costs.

- stop blind support for Israel, and require a two state solution in order for them to get US aid

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Noam is still alive, thank god, and still spitting fire.

Forgot about that.

 

[G650 14,273]

1 hour ago, bad_teammate said:

We are absolutely in the dregs of public intellectualism when Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Joe Rogan are considered thought leaders. It's tragic.

I was thinking about this the other day. The people considered our public "intellectuals" these days are so intellectually lightweight it's skewed the entire definition.

I was unaware Joe Rogan was a thought leader though.

[bad_teammate 13,224]

8 minutes ago, G650 said:

I was unaware Joe Rogan was a thought leader though.

It's sad.

[G650 14,273]

We've entered the age I foretold 20 years ago. We have a society that thinks The Matrix is a "deep" movie.

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Noam is still alive, thank god, and still spitting fire.

Yep, Noam is one of the best public intellectuals.  Still really lucid, too.  There was an old recorded interview of him where the interviewer was praising him for one of his insightful essays on the Spanish civil war.  Noam told the interviewer that he wrote it when he was around 14 years old.  This is crazy to me.  When I was 14, I didn't know enough about the world to write anything even remotely insightful.  I would complain if we had to include a bibliography.  

I actually disagree with many of Noam's conclusions, but I enjoy listening to him give his reasoning in support of his positions.  There are some other good public intellectuals, but the popular ones these days are the ones who can best misrepresent opposing views, boil every major problem down to simple solutions, and give the listener a fleeting moment of superiority.  

[UTDD 362]

1) Waste and corruption in government

2) Fiscal efficiency - more value to citizens per dollar spent

3) Modernizing America and preparing ahead of time (and jobs/training) for the reality of a future with new technologies making many current skills obsolete

[bschoolprof 6,271]

1) eliminate tipping

2) make left lane cruising a felony

3) require a balanced federal budget, except for a major war or end of days scenario

[tantric superman 4,667]

1 hour ago, G650 said:

I was thinking about this the other day. The people considered our public "intellectuals" these days are so intellectually lightweight it's skewed the entire definition.

I was unaware Joe Rogan was a thought leader though.

I was unaware Sam Harris was a "public intellectual".  I thought he was a guy with a podcast who sometimes has thought provoking guests.  Like Maron, but less blues and rock.

[G650 14,273]

Just now, tantric superman said:

I was unaware Sam Harris was a "public intellectual".  I thought he was a guy with a podcast who sometimes has thought provoking guests.  Like Maron, but less blues and rock.

Yeah, I would agree with that characterization.

My post was more thinking of what is passing for intellectualism in writing and commentary these days. Some of the stuff that gets into the papers and journals is utter tripe.

[tantric superman 4,667]

Noted. Will keep an eye out for that.

[Guest Lobo]

The War on Poverty has been a raging success since we've applied so many resources towards it for the last 60 years.  

I would agree with Criminal Justice Reform since the Federal Government plays such a large role in that (I assume we're talking about fed issues based on the responses, you guys that said 'Education' must know something about funding models and boards of education that the rest of us don't).