I want you to post your vision for what you would like to see this country accomplish. I don't want this thread to be a negative rant on the right. I wan't it to be your most positive expression for what kind of future you would like to see in the United States.

There's an old saying that the people perish where there is a lack of a vision.

So, the best way to win the future is to articulate your positive vision for it.

When you are done I'll ask the right, without criticizing the left, to do the same.

It's easy to throws rocks and howl about what you don't like. But nothing is accomplished if you don't know where you want to go.

So use your posts to state clearly what you would like to see done, and how you think that will make a better America. And then offer what you think would be a reasonable way to accomplish it.

Good luck.

And to those on the right I ask you not to post rebuttal. Give them free space to express their vision.

If any posts start to attack the other side I'll unapprove them. If anybody tries to respond to the visions listed, I'll unapprove that post as well. Nothing is quite a sobering as listening to another's vision.

When everyone who wants to post has, or when a week expires, I'll lock the thread and then those on the right will repeat the process. After 2 weeks we'll hold a discussion about both sets of those visions.

My hope is that it will make those on the left think about what it is that their party claims to want, and it will make those on the right think about what it is that their party should have been doing.

I think this exercise will give all posters a better understanding of what it is each other hopes for.

So again list your vision, what you hope it will accomplish, and how you would do it. And there is no rebuttal. This is your chance to speak uninterrupted.

By the way, it's more of what politics once were over 150 years ago when ideas were printed for all to read and there were no shouting voices on radio, tv, or other devices.

I hope it's refreshing for both sides.

JR

JR, I wanted to dedicate this song for this purpose:

https://youtu.be/JjI7VeIA7ZI


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've stated that my number one concern is climate change. I want the United States to be the world leader on productive policies for our planet's future. Other countries will follow our lead if our changes start to show any meaningful impact.

Here's one plan that might be a good start. A Boston-based company is working with farmers to try to encourage regenerative farming practices - using arable soil as a sink for greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock management, deforestation, and other common practices releasing heat-trapping compounds that would otherwise be trapped underground.

But agriculture could also help mitigate the problem: By reducing plowing, rotating crops, and planting cover crops on empty fields, farmers can help bury millions of tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by human activity.

On a personal level, when I'm at my in-laws farm in Illinois next month, I'm going to see if this is something my father-in-law might consider for his 80 acre farm (he's getting up there in age anyway and planting has become a little too cumbersome for him personally - he's starting to lease out the land to others to farm and they share in the profits, but I wonder if something like this might work for his land instead).

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/201...story.html

The price of higher ed is out of control. The professor's make less than a high school teacher in some cases, State governments are cutting higher ed at an alarming rate. I would like to see our federal government support higher ed more.

I would also like to see a VAT tax instituted with the desired purpose of paying off the federal debt.

I apologize because I am not normally considered to be on the left, but what I would like to see incorporates enogh ideas that should appeal to leftists, so I respectfully request the opportunity to participate. So ere goes with my somewhat comprehensive approach:

1) Bismarck health care/insurance system. I prefer the French model, probably because I am more familiar with it, but I believe Swiss or Dutch models would work. Also, introduce no-fault medical malpractice, like Sweden.
2) Guaranteed basic income, using either Milton Friedman's negative income tax or the Boortz/Linder prebate/prefund model.
3) 15% value added tax (VAT) across the board, to fund social programs 1) and 2), balance the budget, and offset lower and flatter income taxes. I have run numbers suggesting that we could eliminate the individual income tax altogether. If we truly balance the budget and keep it there, the debt problem resolves itself in time.
4) Solidify social security by eliminating the earnings cap, raising the rate slightly to 15% (7.5% employer, 7.5% employee), and introducing a privatized component like Sweden. We could get this started by by privatizing and transferring certain federal enterprise-type activities (post office, interstate highways converted to national toll road system, air traffic control and airports, AMTRAK, TVA, western powered water authorities) in repayment of debt owed to the social security trust fund, thus reducing the federal debt. Models for privatization of each such activity abound in "social democracies." Note that the privatized component would significantly reduce wealth inequality over time by giving every working American a "piece of the rock," an equity stake in the capitalist economy, which could be passed along by inheritance.
5) Have the strongest military in the world, by leaps and bounds, and never use to because nobody dares pick a fight with us, and we don't go picking on them. Reform procurement so as to eliminate future cluster-flocks like the Ford aircraft carrier, the Zumwalt "destroyers," the Littoral Combat Ships, the F-35, and the Bradley IFV. And never fight a war that you don't intend to win.
6) Come up with a new trade and foreign relations strategy to replace the now 30-years-outmoded Bretton Woods formula. We can no longer afford to be the world's policeman and give everybody one-way trade access to our economy, in exchange for their help in wining the Cold War. Ross Perot said something in 1992 tat I had been saying for some time by then, "In the post-Cold-War era, economic power will be more important than military power." China is schooling us on that right now, creating spheres of influence in Africa and Latin America with economic strength, while we are killing our 20-somethings in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.
7) Implement a comprehensive immigration policy. We could use Canada's as a guide--points-based merit system for legal immigration, with specific hoops that asylum seekers have to go trough before reaching a port of entry. And permanent guest worker status ("red card"), with no path to citizenship, for those who are here illegally and are making positive contributions to our economy.
8) For education, and this is where I break with the left, simply pouring more money at a failed solution will not work (hey, isn't that the argument we heard about health care?). We need a paradigm shift, so look at what the countries that are ahead of us do. They have tracking system that route students along vocational, general, or advanced tracks. They have real, useful vocational tracks that develop marketable skills. Most of them have some form of school choice (Germany has 7 different kinds of public schools, plus what amounts to vouchers for those who wish to attend private schools). While we are at it, get rid of the social engineering crap and the legions of administrators required to implement them. Focus on the classroom and the three R's. And return the teacher's ability to implement discipline. And yes, to put an end to school shootings, control access and have armed security to enforce it; anything else is kidding ourselves.
9) I am okay with common sense gun laws, were common sense is defined as maximum impact for minimum infringement of the 2nd Amendment. An "assault weapons ban" and gun registration meet neither prong of that test.
10) As for global warming, we need BHAG solutions, not stuff that makes you feel good but does not have a material impact. Some ideas for consideration:
- Build Egypt's Qattara depression project. This creates a significant source of green energy and also takes a some seawater out of the oceans, marginally reducing the impact of ocean level rise.
- Turn the northern Sahara into a solar farm to provide green electricity for Europe, Africa, and the Mideast.
- The headwaters of the Niger River start remarkably close to the Atlantic coast, from which it makes a big wide swing through the southern Sahara. Flow is very intermittent. Set up a massive desalinization plant and pumping system, solar powered, to run fresh water into the Niger headwaters, maintaining a year-round flow. The pumping would be significantly uphill, but on the other hand the distance is amazingly sort. This takes some seawater out of circulation, again reducing sea level rise, and permits year-round cultivation of a massive area that is now desert, providing huge CO2 consumption and significantly improving the economic well-being of several countries.
- Establish a connection with the sea to keep Australia's sub-sea-level Lake Eyre full of water. This could possibly include pumping up slightly to keep Lake Torrens full, with outflow to Lake Eyre, from which water could then flow back to the sea. Because of extreme evaporation, there are some challenging engineering issues. But this would also reduce sea water, helping with ocean levels, and would generate rainfall that would permit more intensive agriculture in central Australia, again massively increasing CO2 consumption.
- Until electric cars are viable, we still have a major opportunity to reduce oil consumption by converting our rail system back to electricity. That is a much easier problem because trains can get electricity from wires that run along the tracks instead of having to carry batteries. Work on battery technology to make cars more practical, and also to provide better storage for wind/solar power generated at times outside of peak usage. We probably need nuclear for base load, particularly as more cars (and trains) would come online, so do like France and come up with one reliable plant model and replicate it. And also do like France and recycle nuclear fuel until what is left over can simply be put back into the mines from which it came.
- Replace coal and oil with natural gas where possible for fossil-fired plants. Natural gas is currently priced below market so much of it is flared, a terrible waste. Get the price up and accelerate completion of gathering, transmission, and distribution pipes.
- As for coal, we would do well to find some way to use it because we have so much and so many depend on it economically. So revive the WWII German technologies for gasification and liquefaction. Those resulting fuels burn cleaner than coal. The problem is that the processes generate significant CO2 themselves, although they save it later. But point-source CO2 is much easier to deal with than when it is dispersed, and we can come up with ways to get rid of it.
- Te elephant in the room is that if we don't get China and India and the developing world onboard, it really doesn't matter what the US and Europe do. So come up with a Marshall Plan clone to bring green energy to the developing world in a major way. Some people like to say, if we lead, they will follow. No, they won't, not unless it's inter best interests short term. So make it be in their best interests.

That's my plan. It's not really left-wing, and I'll probably post the same plan if we start a thread for right-wing plans (or maybe I'll just post this to start one), but I offer it respectfully for consideration.

1. Climate change needs to be taken seriously by our elected officials. We need to stop bickering over whether it's man-made and blah blah blah, and just start working on things to protect our environment for the future.

2. I continually hear elected officials claim how they're combating the opioid addiction problem. But until treatment is either free or actually affordable (and accessible to all) it will only get worse.

3. We've actually had some decent bi-partisan immigration reforms proposed and agreed upon that just simply never made it into law, usually for ignorant or petty reasons. Again, politicians need to stop fighting over the minutia when they agree on the major details.

4. Raise the stupid minimum wage! It's long past time.