We made some mistakes

There’s so much that’s gone wrong with our (currently unfunded, non-functioning) federal government and its policies, but “when we get back to normal” there’s still a lot of work to do.

We, the People, have made some serious mistakes. If we want to fix them, there are clear paths to addressing them, and the only question is “how fast”? *

• Considering the reality of our legislative environment, we probably need to move as fast as possible, with the fewest possible means of removing said changes to prevent assholes from fucking it all up.

This post kept getting longer and longer… it’s time to publish.

Procedural Changes

Let’s start with a few things:

Voting

• In an extension of the constitutional amendments, prohibit all “tests” for polling places. The maximum set of requirements is to show some form of ID the first time you go to vote. (As an example, here’s California’s set of requirements.) Otherwise, no restrictions can be added.
• Prohibit gerrymandering using validation mechanisms already tested and verified by subject experts (not politicians or judges).
• While the Federal government can’t force states to change, push for ranked-choice voting.
  • Enable ranked-choice voting within federal systems where possible.

Judicial System

• Staff 23 justices in SCOTUS. Pack them with progressives (the kind that make socialists squee) but also throw in some others. Do judicial rotations instead of en-banc panels. No first-time judges.
• Set term limits for SCOTUS. (18 years seems like a good number.)
• Enforceable ethics rules for circuit judges, etc must also apply to SCOTUS, with full legal consequences.
• Staff the 40+ vacant federal judgships and add another 400 necessary to process the backlog of asylum and immigration cases. (Also, to do more judging! We need courts to get to [necessary] hearings faster.)
  • Absent the above change, open up our borders.
• Reinterpret the second amendment such that individual gun ownership is only allowed with court order or restraining order (“proof of need”).

Legislature

• Eliminate Qualified Immunity at the federal level. It was a bad decision in 1967, still a bad decision today.
• Expand exceptions to all systems and software, or remove the prohibitions, of anticircumvention laws. That’s Section 103 and Section 1201 of the DMCA. If someone can do the job better, let them hack the thing.
  • More broadly, remove the DMCA in its entirety. Yes, it has been used to prevent removal of licenses for open source projects, but the harms are more numerous than the good.
• Remove the safe-harbor provision of SEC Rule 10b-18. Make Stock Buybacks unambiguously illegal again.
• Reinstate deference doctrine.
• Failure to pass a budget results in an immediate election for the body that failed to authorize the budget.
• Require all congress-persons and judges to put their stocks and retirement into a blind trust / management group while in office. Maybe spouses too.
• Pass a universal healthcare / medicare expansion for all. (“Public option”)
• Pass a universal basic income system, with a wealth/asset tax to support it initially. (“Universal welfare”?)
• Public Housing (not Section 8) with both initial investment and ongoing funding for maintenance. Raise the cost-cap to meet “modern” costs.

Executive Agencies (FCC, FTC, EPA, IRS, etc)

• Work with the legislature to legally support and motivate the Agencies to investigate and punish-as-needed every single company over 100 people in size. Start with the biggest and push through verdicts (ideally with the enlarged staff of judges).
  • IRS audits, particularly of individuals with high wealth.
  • NLRB audits
  • FCC review of telcos
  • FTC and SEC investigations of every FinTech company
  • EPA review of every datacenter and local manufacturing/power plant
• Special note: leverage the Antitrust division to take on Sinclair Broadcasting Group and break up their ownership of local newsrooms across the US.