Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday Question for Liberals
What's a pie-in-the-sky policy that you wish Democrats would talk about more, even if there's no realistic chance that they could actually enact any changes? I'm not just talking about Barack Obama, who has some constraints about what he can talk about without intending much of a follow-up, but about Democratic politicians generally?
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Raising the marginal tax rate on top earners.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that this can even be called "pie in the sky" depresses the hell out of me, but it would be nice if there was at least one political party left that professed to even a casual interest in basic liberties (not being tortured, right to a civilian trial, not being held indefinitely without charge, etc).
ReplyDeleteScaling back intellectual property laws - i.e. reducing copyright terms to a firm 20 or 30 years, and restricting what kinds of "inventions" patents can cover.
ReplyDeleteAlso - significantly increasing the quota for legal immigration.
ReplyDelete1. Changing the routine disenfranchisement of prisoners -- a harder nut to crack perhaps but also working on prison abuse.
ReplyDelete2. Family values stuff like TANF, subsidized school breakfasts and free summer camp (with free or subsidized lunch) for people who can't afford it, universal preschool availability, children's health care (including nutrition, preventive care, and mental health care), special education and integration of disabled children, federally mandated maternity and paternity leave, improving adoption options and access (including for gay couples, single folks, et al.), better flex time and part-time options at work (obviously not something that should or could be mandated from on high, but if attention were brought, I bet compromises could be found), oh tons more.
3. Better automatic stabilizers during recessions and some way for states to run deficits during recessions.
4. If we can get REALLY pie in the sky, fixing ag subsidies so as not to incentivize completely inhumane treatment of animals (that's also energy-inefficient and environmentally disastrous). While we're at it, an FDA with, you know, actual regulatory authority, including the ability to order recalls.
Totally scattershot list (that probably reveals my demographic profile completely), sorry.
GW has an excellent choice, but I'd still go with notion of corporate "personhood" (with attendant contract and free speech rights): I think that simple construct has done more to distort our political (and popular) culture than anything else.
ReplyDeleteRepeal of ALL of DOMA, not just the clause that lets states allow marriage while continuing to withhold all federal rights and benefits.
ReplyDeleteLots of good things on here already - corporate personhood, higher taxes on the extremely rich, repealing DOMA, restoring the voting rights of prisoners, and certainly a greater respect for civil liberties and restraining the all-powerful executive claims made by presidents of either party in that area of politics.
ReplyDeleteI'll throw 2 more into the mix - statehood for DC, and a serious retreat from some of the most damaging and costly parts of the "war on drugs". I'm continually confused why Democrats (though perhaps not this president) don't press harder for statehood - you know the likes of Atwater and Rove would've been all over such a policy if there was a possible Republican state out there.
A willingness to move away from the self-flagellating rhetoric of 'shipping jobs overseas', mainly, with greatly increased legal immigration limits close behind with the attendant recognition that America is a changing place and that new arrivals are a national treasure rather than people to be demonized with calls of 'Buy American' and such.
ReplyDeleteAnyway this is utterly impossible for the near future because it undercuts every Democratic interest group and the Republicans have no chance of even countenancing anti-bigotry so I'm unfortunately stuck with the very unenviable status quo.
that pernicious, socialist institution known as "early childhood education".
ReplyDeleteCutting defense spending. I guess I'd like either party to talk about that but it's just not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteOh I second this one:
ReplyDelete"4. If we can get REALLY pie in the sky, fixing ag subsidies so as not to incentivize completely inhumane treatment of animals (that's also energy-inefficient and environmentally disastrous). While we're at it, an FDA with, you know, actual regulatory authority, including the ability to order recalls."
Lowering the voting age to 12. Young adults should have some say in what happens to their democracy.
ReplyDeleteMy three pronged pie in the sky proposal.
ReplyDeleteProng 1: Since Clinton--probably since Reagan--directly confronting poverty has been a low priority for Democrats. I would like to see a phased in increase in the minimum wage to $10/hr & subsequently indexed to average wage growth. To placate the Chamber of Commerce, the indexed increase could be lagged by 1 year to allow businesses to plan.
There's a contentious body of economic literature about the minimum wage. But there are some studies that suggest that increasing the minimum wage does not affect employment, possibly because the upward pressure on wages increases demand.
One reason we'd need to do this is because I'd like to see a phased in increase in FICA taxes. Increasing the minimum wage will counteract the regressivity of the FICA tax increase.
Prong 3, stolen from the slacktivist: Cure diabetes.
Oh... Just to clarify, I wish we lived in a world where Democratic politicians could talk about increasing the minimum wage or increasing the FICA taxes. I'm pretty sure both would be political difficult. The people I wish would push these issues are the Maddows and Olbermanns of the world .
ReplyDeleteTruth be told, Democrats already TALK about my pie-in-the-sky ideas, at least some do. They talk about cutting defense, about torture, about the marginal tax rate on the rich, about minimum wage, about climate change, and about education.
ReplyDeleteI guess my pie-in-the-sky isn't so far out there. It may have no chance of getting enacted, but my liberal dreams aren't any more liberal than those of your more liberal members. Heck, Henry Waxman probably says stuff I like every day.
Cutting of farm subsidies.
ReplyDeleteDramatic increases in development assistance to the Third World.
ReplyDeleteWhat Neil said, and also:
ReplyDelete1) Completely open borders.
2) Universal, government-run, high-quality day care/preschool, with corresponding family leave policies.
REAL socialized medicine, not the "let's maintain a private, for-profit insurance-based system and tell the sheeple it's Socialized medicine." We never got a real policy conversation about that, how it might look in the U.S. (Medicare for all? VA-style for all?), what the true costs and savings would be, etc. Instead we let the fearmongers take the debate and run with it.
ReplyDeleteLots of good responses already most of which I agree with. But the obvious answer for me is a strong cap-and-trade system or carbon tax perhaps paired with a rebate for low and middle income Americans (i.e. cap-and-dividend).
ReplyDeleteIt's pathetic that the energy bill with its weak cap-and-trade didn't even get a cloture vote in a Senate with 59 Democratic Senators and probably wouldn't have even gotten a majority if there had been a vote.
Some policies here I agree with (fully or partially) but don't really see as "pie in the sky".
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd really love to see, but probably won't* -- Basic Income.
*certainly not in less than 20 years or so
Pushing the War on Drugs to a well deserved end. 40 years, millions of arrests, criminals made out of ordinary Americans, enriching narco-terrorists, and devastating economic consequences for Mexico. With the exception of Barney Frank and a few others, the Dems stay as far away from drug issues as they can.
ReplyDelete