1. End the wars and bring the troops
home: Dismantle at least 800 overseas U.S. military bases, and
drastically reduce the number of countries in which at least one U.S.
troop is deployed (which is currently about 160).
2. Repeal
the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, repeal any and all A.U.M.F.s
(Authorizations for the Use of Military Force) against Afghanistan
and Iraq, and end the national state of emergency over the Korean
conflict.
3. Repeal or amend the War Powers Act,
strictly requiring congressional declaration of war before troops can
be deployed to a new country.
4. End torturous “enhanced
interrogation” and extraordinary rendition (illegal torture
abroad).
5. End warrantless wiretaps, and stop
spying on American civilians and our allies abroad.
6. End
entangling alliances, end all foreign aid, and exit N.A.T.O. (the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
7. Prohibit the use of drone warfare,
and the deployment of drones in foreign countries, without a
congressional declaration of war (and, if possible, the host nation's
permission).
8.
Abolish active registration for the Selective Service (i.e.,
military draft).
9.
Repeal the “Clinton omnibus crime bill” (a/k/a the Violent Crime
and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) in its entirety.
10.
Ensure equal protection under the law: Stop denying due process and
fair trials to terror suspects and suspected undocumented immigrants.
If they're not made subject to our protections, then they shouldn't
be held subject to our laws.
11. Amend the 13th
Amendment to prohibit involuntary servitude in all cases of
punishment for committing victimless crimes.
12. End police brutality by taking away
police officers' rights to kill during unlawful arrest and “have
sex with people in their custody” (i.e., raping
people).
13. Protect children by amending child
trafficking laws, and making age of consent laws more uniform.
14. Respect the principle that the just
powers of government derive from the consent of the governed, by
making participation in all government programs voluntary, and by
repealing taxes on all harmless productive economic activities.
15.
Require that constitutional justification for all new bills and
departments, must be included within the bill.
16. Require sunset clauses for all
new legislation, strictly adhering to the Constitution's two-year
limitation for all military-related expenditures.
17. Achieve free, fair, and open elections, by
improving ballot access for minor parties and independents.
18. Annually audit, and eventually end,
the Federal Reserve System, sending its powers back to Congress. Additionally, ban Fractional Reserve Banking and prosecute it under anti-usury laws.
19. Balance budgets, achieve fiscal
solvency, and produce surplus budgets A.S.A.P. to pay down the
debt.
20. Let states experiment with Universal Basic Income,
the Negative Income Tax, and state public banks.
21. Let
states and communities experiment with Land Value Taxation and
Community Land Trusts.
22. De-politicize issues related to
science, medicine, the environment, technology, budgets, finance,
banking, the judiciary, election fairness, governmental ethics,
redistricting, the arts, etc..
23. Protect the planet
and the people over profits by creating a blueprint for ecologically
sustainable production.
24. Shorten medical patents, to allow
generics to come onto the market sooner, to reduce medical
prices.
25. Reduce medical prices by eliminating unnecessary
taxes on health goods and services.
26. Legalize alternative medicine
and make vaccines optional.
27. Reduce medical costs by
allowing non-profit medical organizations to operate tax-free.
28. Let non-profits operate
tax-free, because they cannot be taxed without being forced to
operate at a loss.
29. Clarify Roe v. Wade:
Craft a nationwide amendment on abortion which clarifies the meaning
of a “reasonable state restriction to abortion access”.
30.
De-politicize the issue of abortion by ending all involuntary
taxpayer funding of abortion services.
31. Legalize growing cannabis at home;
in order to 1) lower marijuana prices, 2) eliminate all excuses for
federal intervention in marijuana on interstate commerce grounds, and
3) eliminate the need for state licensing and permits for
growing.
32. Take cannabis / marijuana off of Schedule I, as
it is not a drug that lacks legitimate medical uses.
33. Fight for a free, fair, and open
economy by eliminating all unfair subsidies to business, and by
prohibiting government from contracting with monopolies.
34. Increase the use of the federal
government's antitrust power to break up monopolies.
35. Amend the 1935 Wagner Act
(N.L.R.A.) to make it easier to form a second union in a workplace or
collective bargaining unit.
36. Restore the full right to boycott,
and engage in secondary labor actions, by repealing the 1947
Taft-Hartley Act.
37. End the trade war, and re-negotiate
N.A.F.T.A. so that importers and exporters are not unfairly targeted
for taxation.
38. Fix our nation's crumbling infrastructure
(roads, bridges, tunnels, etc.), as long as areas other than the
Bos-Wash corridor on the East Coast receive a fair share of
transportation spending.
39. Make the Postmaster General a
cabinet-level position again, and allow the U.S. Postal Service to
receive taxpayer funds.
40. Help the poor, homeless, and refugees, by legalizing mutual aid. Remove
barriers to providing humanitarian aid; by legalizing squatting
and camping, lowering residency duration requirements in order to
claim homesteading rights, etc.. Additionally, prohibit housing subsidies whenever and wherever the number of empty residences exceeds the number of people in need of permanent shelter.
The set of proposals listed above were developed in connection with the policies I called for in my earlier outline of a platform for a yet-to-be-founded hypothetical Humanitarian Party. That platform can be viewed at the following link: http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2019/07/towards-free-united-populism-proposal.html
Written on August 30th and September 1st, 2020
Published on September 1st, 2020
