Hey, Santa! You Missed Some Items on Our List – Part I

Here are a Few Items We REALLY Wanted to Find Under the Tree

A Political Wish List

While one can always find disagreements, there are a handful of political reforms that would do wonders for this country. The funny thing is that to the extent our fellow citizens have thought about these items, they agree by large margins.

Hmm, they did not make it as gifts under our tree. Maybe we try again as New Year’s resolutions? Not to make this too long a read, let’s do this as a two part exercise. Let’s see what we have to work with this week, and we will complete the list next week.

Foreign Policy

A two state solution for Palestine: We have talked about this before, but it has a lot more visibility now. There is plenty of blame to go around why this has not happened, including the Palestinians themselves, but at the end of the day, this gets solved, or the region will remain in the same mess of insecurity, instability, and hate for everyone, forever. Short of this step, I see zero hope for peace and security for either the Israelis or the Palestinians.

The new NATO law: This one we got, so thank you, Santa. The defense bill just passed by Congress (one of the very, very few substantive things done in Congress of late) contained a clause that no president may pull the US out of NATO without congressional approval. In years past, no one would have even thought of the need for such a law. But given the damage Trump did to NATO, this is a good thing to have on hand.

 Congress

 Where to begin with this one? Congress is the fullest illustration of what does not work in our political system. We could go on forever with this topic, but let’s focus on a few of the more important choices.

Assume Congresses will, as far as we can predict, be very closely divided. Make some rule changes with that in mind to enable getting essential work done. For example:

— Make It easier to call up a vote: In the House, it is almost impossible to call anything up for a vote unless the Speaker personally approves. In the Senate, any Senator can block almost any action, indefinitely (remember the SEN Tuberville Defense fiasco). One person should not have the power to stop everything.

— No one person should be able to block anything beyond a few days: At the very least, require filibusters, if we are not going to eliminate them, to be actual physical filibusters.

— Minimize the super majority requirement. In a closely divided Senate, a 60 vote minimum means almost nothing gets done and a minority of a few senators hold the whole Senate as hostages. Make the super majority a rarer requirement.

— Vote on Nominees: Do so in a reasonable set time or they are automatically approved.

— The Speaker of the House: The structure and rules for the Speaker are REALLY broken.
Few act as the Speaker of the entire House. It is easier to be the leader of their party and not worry much about the other party.  That is problematic for several reasons.

The Speaker certainly should have broad power but not to refuse to let issues come to the floor for a vote.

This is the person who is second in line for the presidency, after the VP. Yet they have no national basis of selection. They can be selected by 1/2 of only their own party in Congress + 1 vote. In an evenly split House, that means about 217 people choose the person two heartbeats away from the presidency.

That does not make any sense. Cabinet officers in the presidential line of succession are chosen by the president and approved by the Senate – a more reasonable foundation to serve. We need a constitutional change on this one.

The election of Speaker is most often not by secret ballot, leaving it open to pressures. You and I vote in private. Why not these folks for this election?

 National Debt & Budget

 Eliminate the requirement to vote on paying our debts: This is a leftover requirement from the civil war era, and a hotbed for mischief. When congress passes legislation that requires funding, we should acknowledge in that vote that any debt resulting from that authorization equals a guaranteed debt payment.

No budget passed before the fiscal year begins?  No congressional pay (staff is OK to keep paying). Most of these folks are millionaires anyway, but a little pain could be useful.
Heck, we might even want to say that when this delay happens, the congressional pay is not just delayed but is forfeited.

None of this is intended to minimize the debt. We need to take this on – with tax reform, not so much by budget cuts.

 Elections

 Outlaw gerrymandering: Do redistricting by independent, nonpartisan expert panels, everywhere.

Rank order voting. Make it the national standard. It works really well, minimizes the all or nothing on a single choice, and better reflects what citizens want in their government at all levels.

All party primaries: Enough places do this now to provide a solid body of evidence that doing all party primaries instead of party primaries works really well to reward moderation and making “running on your base” a losing proposition.

Allow voter referendums:
There needs to be rules about what can be done by referendum and how complex the ballot can be, but in general letting voters decide key issues like this is a good thing for democracy. Look at all the recent votes on reproductive rights for a best example. Many states make such voter power impossible to utilize. Knock that off.

Campaign Finance

 Instant and clear transparency in campaign finance contributions: 
The technology exists to make such reporting almost instantaneous, accessible, and accurate. Make that happen. And ensure the membership of groups with obscuring names is also published, integrated with the donations data.

Reinstate McCain-Finegold and extend it. It was not a perfect law, but it accomplished much.
Keep working the technology and plugging the loop holes.

You Choose

You pick one (or more). What is high on your list in any of these categories that is missing here?
Share your thoughts with the rest of us.

See you next week for Part II of this series. We have quite a list coming along, don’t we?

Bill Clontz

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