Oh, What a Joy!
It is reassuring to know that there is goodness in society, that there is an enduring faith in goodness and God in our American society! People have spoken here in America, a country of ours that we love so dearly and were desperately wondering what went wrong. It is a revolution, not in the battlefield, but in the ballot box. That is the beauty of democracy that we can settle our differences via dialogues, speaking out, having difficult conversations and in the ballot box.
This euphoria will be short-lived if people’s representatives in the legislative branch, a co-equal branch of the government, do not reassert its role to make just and moral laws to support citizens, and not special interests, protect and strengthen democratic institutions and have moral clarity. The new House needs to reform is own rules about campaign finance and enforce laws and rules already on the book to be followed by the executive branch. Every elected official should act in the interest of all people, not just those who voted for them, avoid party-first politics, and prioritize loyalty to human dignity and the country and not to party leaders.
There will be lots of conversations in the coming days before the House reconvenes in January and new members get sworn in. There will be plenty of TV pundits expounding on what happened and why it happened. There will plenty of scholars, academics, thank tank evangelists, self-indulgent experts, trade association, corporate lobbyists telling American representative what to make of it, what to do and how to do it.
As citizens we get a chance to remind our representatives every two years how they are doing, how are they serving our needs vs. their own self-interest and special interests. More and more these self-interests and special interests are dominating our politics because of the way campaigns are financed by big money and wealthy individuals. This mid-term proved to be a strong rebuke to such over-reaches, spectacular moral failure with respect to Epstein files and downright abuse and negligence of the citizens, residence and those who are recent immigrants, not yet betted or naturalized.
As a concerned citizen wishing to see that we do not fail this new insurgency in public opinion against political, financial, military and moral corruption, I offer the following thoughts as priority for the new House of Representative in 2027:
- First priority has to be economic wellbeing of the citizens and the transparency of all actions by the three branches of government
- Second priority will be dismantling all foreign wars started by or aided by US and freezing of all military aids by US government to other government before further review
- Third priority will be to enforce and strengthen the rule of law, adherence to our constitution and compliance with international laws and commonly accepted principles of morality, human dignity and human freedom by all branches of US government, agencies and US institutions
- Fourth priority will be an overhaul of corporate governance, dividend policy, corporate taxation and subsidies, capital gain and wealth taxes to reduce systemic income and wealth inequity and reduce national debt and employee rights that parallel citizens’ rights in business operations in a democratic country
To set those four key priorities, the newly elected public representatives and existing members of the senate should engage in broad public engagements and seek input and feedback with full transparency. All legislation being proposed and sponsored should have full transparency, shared with citizens in individual districts and states for public comments and reviews. Sponsored bill should have transparency as follows: who wrote it, why it was written, who sponsored it, who provided data/supporting materials to identify any special interest interference, from the get-go before bills goes for votes in one or both houses.
All committee meetings in Congress and Senate should be public. Private hearing should be an exception and rarely proposed or approved, even in so-called national security matter. It is better for adversaries know our intention and plans in broad terms rather than in secret since the objective is to minimize and deescalate conflict and not to create or invent one which we have been very good at.
We will delve into this opportunity and challenges throughout 2027 editorials and research efforts!
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