[Editor’s Note: I was derailed from the blogging track in 2018, but I hope to move back in full-force in the coming year. There was no reason for the derailment – I just wasn’t moved to write longer things here, and stuck with shorter commentary on FB. This post is a return to blogging, and I thought it would be good to start by laying out a plan for the coming weeks/months. The following are areas I plan to write about – but please feel free to comment (here or on FB) with other things you’d like to see me write about. As is clear from the past, sometimes reader requests get me moving in new and interesting directions…]

Much of what I am thinking about recently involves the idea of “political framing.” As mentioned before, this is a place where I think the GOP has clearly won the battle with the Dems since at least the 1980s, starting with Reagan. The right side of the spectrum is VERY GOOD at creating political frames that resonate with the American people, and the left side rather sucks at both creating opposing frames, and fighting back against the conservative framing. That being said, I also think the current version of the progressive movement has some things going for it, and I want to jump into that.

So to start, here are some ideas (each worth their own blog post in my mind right now) to get things started. I’ll call the meta-theme:

“New political frames for a people-centered agenda”

  • Health care – focus on people not profit
  • Predatory vs. democratic (small “d”) capitalism. Predatory capitalism focuses on profits and primarily benefits the rich / democratic capitalism focuses on getting the best prices and wages for everyone in society, through real growth
  • On the environment: we all need to understand “externalities” – when dealing with pollution, externalities = “we all pay for it so they can continue to make a profit”
  • Environment II – we need to start looking at the big picture! Recycling and straws only go so far – we need to move forward and severely limit carbon pollution from major industries (see “externalities”)
  • Regulation = rules that protect people, not rules that destroy businesses.
  • We need reasonable, constitutional regulations on guns
  • Mixing money and politics is not “free” speech, it’s EXPENSIVE speech – and if you can’t afford it, your free speech rights are being taken away by someone else
  • It’s not “big government” versus “small government” – we need to focus on GOOD government that benefits all of the people. Right now “small government” is not neutral – it massively benefits the rich and corporations
  • Eliminate government handouts to corporations and the rich, and put that money into education, health care, social security and infrastructure
  • Fully fund all programs for our veterans – they made the sacrifice in other countries, now we need to take care of them and get them back into society – or take care of them for life if that was their sacrifice
  • Universal Basic Income – if it’s good enough for Milton Friedman, what’s your excuse?
  • Government funded education – the great equalizer. If we are all equal at birth, then we should all have an equal chance to get an equally good education, and to prosper based on our abilities
  • It’s an Aristocracy Tax, not a Death Tax. We need to stop the American Aristocracy before they turn the working class into modern serfs!

Other ideas are welcome and encouraged. And these are in no particular order – if you’re actually going to read them and would like to see one of these before others, please let me know. I may even listen!