Reform the Democratic Party

Courage is all that is needed to defeat the 5% and its malicious press.

Democrats must do a reformation and get to work. A reformation is in order, as opposed to a renewal. (Do not give me your tired. Much is needed in new cloth.)

I thought it would help to kick around some of the key issues: the issue-burdened flag itself and who carries it. The midterms are in 21 months with that election November 3, 2026.

In all, 33 scheduled Senate seats and 2 unscheduled seats are up for election in 2026; consisting of 22 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Republicans must play defense.

A. The Issue-Burdened Flag

The Economy and Immigration are the main two points of my flag. I am not going further than those two legs at this point in time. Why? First, Trump’s plans will upend our economy. The poor will be wiped out by rising prices. The economy will be a mega issue the next two cycles.

Second, immigrants have been unscrupulously demonized, while they are a critical foundation and tax paying block of our agriculture, construction, and landscaping industries. This country cannot build or eat without them.

To me the unchristian treatment they have suffered is most disgusting and egregious. We need them. We have treated them like crap for political expediency. Wrong. So wrong. Where is Jesus when you need him?

We will start a platform for the DNC. This is my beginning of that. Main legs will branch out into focus areas, then branch further into actions and acts.

Both of my two main points, economy and immigration, must be addressed meaningfully, with solid marketing plans and hot buttons presented that emotionally impact our voters. We must touch voters’ hearts and reel them in. Without these two points addressed adequately, we will not win the next election. So, I start right here in both below.

B. The Economy

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Chips Act are key to $ billions in annual state construction and manufacturing soon to be repealed by Trump. Or so he says. Truth is, state Congressional representatives and senators stand in his way. No state delegation is going to support losing major construction, whether that be technology, manufacturing, and/or logistics infrastructure. We will fight in the halls of Congress on this. This will block other Trump destruction. Our economic agenda must come to light.

We need vision to form an economic agenda focused on the kitchen table. I am talking at home. How will we get money directly into Momma’s hand? Momma has to be educated to a level to say the hot button sound bite verbatim. The numbers need to be simple, easily remembered, and underpin a common language.

My home. Your home. What will impact there? Answer me that! Bring it home!

• No income taxes for those under $40,000/year, married $80,000/year. Zero$.

• Free College Education for high school graduates, 17-22 year olds. Zero$.

• Child care at publicly funded, regulated Medicare facilities for working parents.

• Child subsidy payments for young parents ($150 per child through age 4)

• Stimulus payments monthly for those under $24,000 a year (graduated, $1000 to $600).

• Medicare at age 50 with all preconditions okay, or we go straight to single payer universal healthcare and pharmacies.

• Medicare negotiated prices on all drugs.

“But the price of groceries . . . .” is not a political response to inflation; it is a personal response grounded in the pain and hardship inflicted by inflation. This pain hurt a lot of people and cost us the election. We blew off the emotions of that pain, saying wages caught up. We turned a blind eye to the residual hurting. I did. You did. Logic that does not listen with empathy is callous. We know what happened, and we were callous Both of them. Boff’um!

Not only do presidents have no control over inflation, but corporations exercise outsized control. As Robert Reich has explained, corporations are using inflation as an excuse to raise retail prices at a rate not justified by their increase in the cost of goods sold. So we know that, but Momma at the kitchen table is still in pain. That is the problem. See Robert Reich on Substack, (6/1/23), It’s greedflation, stupid. Reich wrote:

“But businesses have been using the cover of inflation to justify price increases, so consumers accept them. According to Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, businesses “are confident that they can convince consumers that it isn’t their fault, and it won’t damage their brand.”) Inflation is not being propelled by an overheated economy. It’s being propelled by overheated profits.“

It is criminal what the wealthy have done to the nation. Inflation is not being propelled by an overheated economy. It’s being propelled by overheated profits.

So, as the inflation rate has cooled over the last year, have corporations responded by stabilizing or reducing their prices? Generally, no. And we lost the election as we inadequately addressed the pain-emotion issue. Groceries were still up 21% even though inflation eased and wages kept up. That’s my logic speaking. My logic does not address the pain Momma had at the grocery store. Conflicted, Momma did not vote. We need to fix this.

C. The Immigration Issue

Immigration reform has been negotiated, but it was killed by a fear monger who needed a good “fear “ to promote during the 2024 election. A $20.2 billion immigration bill was hammered out by Republicans and Democrats. It strengthened the Southern border and added:

• 1,500 border agents,

• 100 fentanyl detection machines,

• 100 backlog-reducing immigration judges,

• 4,300 asylum officers,

• immigrant visas, and

• border closure authority when overwhelmed.

Donald Trump directed House Republicans to kill this bipartisan bill. Then he inflamed xenophobics and threatened the poor about losing their jobs to immigrants. That was his ploy. Fear mongering works.

While the blustering and demonic demagogue is in power, we have time to improve the immigration reform bill as part of our Democratic reformation. Excellent suggestions on immigration are here:

A quota system needs to be devised that is informed by the needs of our industries, schools, and medical community. Skin color should not be a criterion. Language should not be a criterion. Inappropriate bias needs to be rejected. That will never happen in group consensus in the House. A select, studied, and credentialed committee is required.

Census-Based Approach. The immigration reform bill needs to be formulated to cover the next decade, certainly coordinated and scheduled with the next census. Indeed this should be one of the main goals of each census. As ours is a decennial (every decade) census, it seems an appropriate interval to revise immigration plans, especially since the then-current population, demographics, and employment has been accurately clarified by actual census counts. This census count also informs the size of our House of Representatives delegations from each state. Some states lose representatives, some states gain. These are reflections of the movement of people.

The Census Bureau could be the agency chartered to reset the immigration quotas once a decade. Quotas are out of whack with our dire labor needs. Think about 5 million jobs vacant. I see taxes not collected. Worse, the legal process for immigration adjudication is now 4.5 years. It takes 4.5 years for one case to wind its way through the immigration legal wickets.

There are currently over 1.3 million pending asylum applications, including roughly 750,000 in immigration courts and over 600,000 at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). There are too few courts, judges, and staff.

I have to ask, how did you people let this develop? Are you crazy? (Okay, I let it happen too, but it is clearly insane and our immigration system is not working.) WE HAVE TO FIX THIS! And we need workers.

The Census Bureau should be better attuned to population issues than Ted Cruz. (Xenophobia has worn out its welcome here.) This immigration bill change should be codified in Title 15, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Subtitle B, Chapter 1. This code is for the Census Bureau.

Immigration reform must establish a clear basis to address humanitarianism. The United States is a haven when catastrophic events upset the world. What are the criteria to invoke a special influx to alleviate global humanitarian distress? That needs to be ferreted out, negotiated, and also codified in immigration legislation.

My grandfather came from Italy through Ellis Island around this time. Unless a Native American, we all have similar stories. We are a nation of immigrants.

D. How To Do All This

To be funded 100% by the wealthy and high-income taxpayers. That would be increasing income taxes ABOVE CURRENT THRESHOLDS ($400,000+/year) and a wealth tax added. Loopholes can be closed. No changes to the below $400,000 income level unless it is tax relief. We need to say it CLEARLY and PROUDLY.

Yes, 100% paid by the wealthy and high income individuals that are enjoying, i.e., bleeding, America dry and sending our jobs overseas. They enjoy our free roads, bridges, airports, and freight terminals—the best in the world. They enjoy the best communications and transportation networks in the world. They enjoy publicly funded health and police forces. They enjoy the best healthcare system in the world. They enjoy the best public education system in the world.

We paid in hard-earned taxes for them to use the free roads, schools, libraries, and the public support systems. We…we means most of the people in this country. The wealthy are a super-wealthy MINORITY that dodges taxes with loopholes, thus avoiding their fair share.

All the free support for that minority to enjoy and then gouge us at every gas station; retail, grocery, and pharmacy store; hospital and doctor’s office, etc. We gave them free education through high school, and now look. They gouge us. They are the 5% and not a large voting block.

Time for them to buck up. Your one or two cars doing damage to my free roads? What about Jeff Bezos that owns Amazon’s branded fleet. He is using my free roads and he exploits us with 40,000+ semi-trucks, 30,000+ vans, and 110+ aircraft for worldwide transport. The rich consume our public infrastructure in humongous bites.

I call for a top tax rate of 70%, nearly double the top rate today. We can increase from 37% in a reasonable fashion by reaching new, increased taxable income stages (tax rate) of:

• $2.5 million (39%),

• $5 million (41%),

• $12 million (44%),

• $24 million (46%),

• $48 million (48%),

• $80 million (50%),

• $150 million (60%), and

• $250 million (70%).

Don’t cry for the person earning $80,000,000 a year and paying half of that in taxes. They will take home $10 million every 3 months. I could live reasonably well on $3.3 million a month if I cut back on caviar.

Then there is the wealth tax. I think about Elon Musk sitting on $350 billion and gifting $277 million to Donald Trump’s election campaign. Ha! Disgusting opulence and graft. Wealthy donors actually pay in Republicans donations for their low-to-nothing taxes.

Musk donated $277 million dollars to Trump’s campaign in less than 9 months. We can break this legislative and pro bono graft stranglehold. I can see an annual wealth tax on billionaires. Senator Elizabeth Warren is a proponent and introduced this bill.

Try a new tax code if you want to see investment in America! They will spend for bigger manufacturing plants faster than you think. They build the plat or give the money up in taxes. See how this works. I am not talking trickle down here. I am talking flash-flood down.

Trickle down turned out to be just the money needed to move your jobs off shore. LOOK AT THE RUST BELT! Trickle down my ass! You can ice that cake, too. Only 50% deductions for overseas business expenditures. Buy American!

E. Who Totes Our Flag?

We need a nominee. I have come to believe that the Delaware-California dual-coast lash up of Biden-Harris carried a lot of weight in the 2020 election; however, it is way more than just one hot button.

We have many candidates to look at over the next 3 years. Where we started in 2020 should give a clue as to how this will develop. A lot of candidates presented their plans.

The dual-coast lashup is for a number of reasons not particularly all that important at this moment. Resumes are very important, of course. Derogatory events in a person’s history need to be discovered and weighted. Many are exclusionary.

I have favorite candidates, but we need to do the process rather than paste a target on the backs of our potential nominees. Right now, I just think it is important for people to begin thinking on these issues. We have 3 years to winnow the presidential candidate field before we nominate. We need a charismatic person who can sell this agenda to all people regardless of party.

Lastly, to protest to senators on the president-elect’s nomination abominations, a draft letter to your senators is included here. We can block the nomination abominations. Download the letter. Edit there at home.

In this draft letter, you will only need to add:

• your name and address

• your senator’s name

• your signature (not required for an email).

Each senator’s address is already in the one-page letter. (It is the same DC address for all senators.) Find your senators’ names here.

I have done this letter for you to be a highly professional and a well-supported piece of correspondence. I will do more of these in the future. Please subscribe to avail yourself of future offerings (with no paywall).

I know I need to say this:

Friend, I’m both delighted and astounded that you are here with me. It does my heart good that you care this much to have found my voice in this wilderness. Welcome! Thank you!

I have dedicated myself to making this country a better place not just for all of us, but also for future generations. The children are my first thought.

Please consider sharing Hot Buttons and becoming a paid subscriber, but regardless – I’m truly glad to see a fellow traveler, and look forward to our conversations. Comments are turned on for everyone as I want to hear your thoughts. Solidarity, friendship, and a common cause say “Let’s work together.”