Less than five months from the most critical election of our time, let’s pause, take a deep breath and imagine the perfect outcome.
- The Democratic Party declares that its goal for the next four years is not only to save democracy but to fix it. The traditional organization temporarily renames itself the Democracy Party, with a four-year plan to rebuild the people’s faith in the Great American Experiment. More about that below.
- The Democracy Party resolves to represent not only Democrats but also the Republicans and independents who reject Donald Trump’s totalitarian vision for America. It appoints a multi-partisan task force to engage the American people in creating an agenda for retooling government and the political system to meet the needs of the 21st century.
- In response to voters worried about President Biden’s age, the party explains that the essential attributes of any president are not their age but their integrity, morals, ethics, values, character, experience and commitment to one of the world’s oldest continuing democracies (ours). To use a sports analogy, a president’s job is not to scamper down the field and score touchdowns. The president is the coach, not the quarterback. Their job is to build a world-class team and call the plays. In this election, nobody knows the game better than Joe Biden.
- In the meantime, responsible Republicans take advantage of the next four years to rebuild the GOP’s integrity and credibility as a constructive advocate of contemporary conservatism. To prevent further damage, they vote for Biden in November to ensure that Trump’s defeat is decisive and indisputable. Trump, once again a proven loser, falls from grace. His cult has fits but disperses, awakened to the realization that they’ve fallen for fakery. Trump becomes a feint heckler in the back row of democracy’s big tent before he completely fades away.
What will the plan be to retool and revive our democracy? The Democracy Party convenes a national conversation on reform and commits to taking action. Although public opinion polls are not perfect, they identify conversation starters — the issues where most Americans want change.
For instance:
- Reforming immigration policies and providing state and federal governments with sufficient resources to administer them promptly and fairly.
- Clarifying the Constitution’s 14th Amendment (the insurrection clause) so it applies to presidents of the United States without the need for congressional action. Also, disqualifying convicted felons from the presidency.
- Electing presidents by popular vote rather than the Electoral College.
- Aggressively confronting global warming with tougher pollution controls, a timetable and stepwise plan to retire fossil fuels from the economy, a price on carbon, and transition assistance for fossil-fuel workers and communities.
- Narrowing America’s income and wealth gaps and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work.
- Restoring the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court by establishing term limits, implementing an enforceable ethics code, and authorizing the president to appoint four additional justices to create greater ideological balance. The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, which Biden created in 2021, offered additional recommendations.
- Restoring the Voter Rights Act and opposing state and federal policies that limit voter access.
- Reforming campaign finance and spending so that elected officials serve their constituents rather than special interests. Because social media are available to candidates at no cost, public financing and limits on campaign donations do not hamper political speech.
- Establishing that reproductive freedom is protected as a fundamental right of privacy and using Congress’s “jurisdiction stripping” authority to remove reproductive choice from the jurisdiction of federal courts, including the Supreme Court.
- Reforming the rules and procedures that allow the tyranny of the minority and produce gridlock in Congress, including the silent filibuster and the Senate rule that allows single senators to prevent action on bills and confirmations.
This is only a daydream, of course. But even daydreams sometimes come true.
William S. Becker is a former regional director at the U.S. Department of Energy and author of several books on climate change and national disaster policies, including the “100-Day Action Plan to Save the Planet,” and “The Creeks Will Rise: People Co-Existing with Floods.”