Now the hard part ... getting the politicians to do what they are paid to do: Represent the Will of the American People ...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

What a bunch of meaningless numbers. Who, when asked, is NOT in favor of more pay for less work? More benefits? More saftey nets? More "rights"?

Of course, we want all of these things AND we also want to pay fewer taxes as well. Which, of course, conveniently sidestraps the question of just who is going to pay for all of these things?

The rich? The evil corporations? The goverment? Sure, they can pay for some of it, but sooner or later people need to realize that you can only demand so much bread and so many circuses before things start to fall apart.

Unionized Detroit is a prime example of what happens to businesses held hostage by union members voting for more, more, more, until eventually the golden goose is cooked. What good was voting yourself more pay and more benefits when the company becomes uncompetitive in the global market and goes bankrupt? Nice plan.

Most of the things mentioned in the article have a price tag attached. So before demanding that we do them, stop and ask yourself: are YOU willing to foot the bill? Not someone else. YOU.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sarah Van Gelder's list of much needed reforms are wonderful, but we are on the edge of a profound human dilemma -- to live in peace and balance on the Earth, or enslave everyone under the hierarchy of wanna-be millionaires and billionaires to serve their delusions of grandeur.

Thus, I would add to her list the following --

1. Reduce the human population by guaranteeing to each and every woman the legally protected right to decide if and when to birth her children.

1. Recycle 100% of all waste and garbage. No more land fills, no more ocean dumping, reprocess all of it into other useful products.

3. Establish profit sharing as the guiding principle within all corporate enterprises. No more multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses and retirement packages, no more $30 an hour wage scales and huge pensions, but instead every employee receives an equal percentage of the real profits.

4. Encourage families everywhere to each acquire a small parcel of land to grow their own vegetables, study horticulture and trade with each other for mutual benefit, so if the money runs out they won't starve.

The guiding principle that I live by is from Dorothy Day -- "Live simply that others may simply live."

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Now that Would be a change.
After nearly 40 yrs of Corp rule, would it be possible to defeat a 'monarchy' again?
We have been the focus of direct and subversive attacks for decades.
How much has already been sold off to foreign 'inveestors', How much money are we in the hole to them? What 'collateral' was used? What promises were made in their Busines plan.
We'll hand you not only the American Economy, but it's entire Workforce (and it's 'Brain Bank')
Why did the financial world Take a shit..someone tried to cash in BIG, and Called the "marker". could it be the 'death threat Ransom note' was so quickly passed because it was not from 'Our' Investors but by Foreign lenders. Funny how since the bailout, My Credit card interest rates have unjustly increased, 'default' charges inceased by about 30% an dmy Min. payment has been doubled. Since we have alrady given them money..Why the double dipping in to our pockets. Replenishing empty coffers. What would happen if we were given the opportunity to take some of those retirment funds now? Purley a 'Promisary' Note? Their Gone Too aren't they?
So they catch the Madoff, this trend setter on wall Street, this 'go to ' guy for investing. Why wouldn't we assume that Others had followed his lead with this 'Ponzi' scheme. Madoff was the investor for Big investors, who wouldn't want to emulate him and his AMAZING returns for his customers, build their reputation to compete with his.you would think these Wall Street Gurus would have realized what he was doing, since they live & breath the stock market ticker. Why would they not ocme forward if they Knew what he was doing...Because they were doing it too. Now they are trying to Back fill the Evidence of Economic Treason. there are no 401K's, there are No Pension funds ,there are No annuity accounts- They robbed US blind, and are trying to suck whatever is left to cover the remaining debt. What's the 'default' conditions boys..The Chinese Own the Country? Are we really just trying to buy YOUR way out of an execution or Our way out of an Hostile takeover.
A year ago, I laughed when a friend said He'd take up arms WHEN the chinese invade, I'm not laughing now.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

... with numbers like these, who the hell re-elected (electoral fraud notwithstanding) that moronic neo-con puppet four years ago? Why Obama hasn't won with two to one majority?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I watched a fascinating documentary recently wherein the researcher stated that chemical fertilizers, while helpful in eradicating mass hunger, have poisoned the rivers and oceans and caused aquatic life to die. We don't need artificial fertilizers and pesticides to grow crops. We need to get away from subsidies to big agribusiness and buy locally and organic, composting and growing our own food or buying it from small farmers and ranchers who don't use these poisons, including prophylactic antibiotics and hormones.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Alternet, please! Pay fewer people for better articles. This one is truly useless. With so many serious issues to tackle, please publish articles by authors who have real and innovative solutions to specific problems we face. The problem with van Gelder is that she conflates too many issues at once and fails to tease out important and significant nuances. For countless reasons, a lot of people don't agree with her overly simplified agenda. That doesn't make us heartless, it makes us thoughtful and rigorous. These times require greater depth and gravitas. Enough with the broad brushes already!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Yes, they're all involved and responsible for the direction of the economy. These policies will have to be fought for on all levels of government. The president alone won't be able to deliver. The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they set up the system even though they couldn't imagine that the electorate would let it seriously deteriorate somewhere from the 2nd half of the 20th century onwards.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sarah, you have done a very comprehensive and compelling job of documenting all these issues that the VAST Majority of Americans believe and support.

I would add only two points:

1. Ralph Nader in his 2000 campaign was the first to recognize precisely what you are saying --- that the vast majority of Americans believed in all the issues he and the Greens were running on, or as he said in all of this famous 'city tours' attended by hundreds of thousands of average Americans, "We represent the 'majoritarian view' of the country --- which neither the Democrats nor the Republicans do."

2. All of these issues which the vast majority of average Americans believe in addressing, confronting, working together on, and solving are really symptoms of our common problems and sorrows, which are caused by exactly one and only one thing: EMPIRE!

This modern EMPIRE causing all the problems that plague Americans, America, and the whole world is a new-style guileful ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire' hiding behind the facade of its two-party, 'Vichy' faux democracy sham government and 'Vichy' corporatist media ---- but which still uses the age-old deceit of all empires; of 'divide and conquer'.

The empire divides us by making all these problems appear to be different issues, and they conquer us by dividing us into the peace movement, the economic justice movement, the universal health care movement, the womens rights movement, the civil rights movement, the immigration movement, the anti-torture movement, etc. etc. etc. And by dividing us in this way, they HIDE the real problem --- EMPIRE, which is the root cause of all our sorrows.

Hannah Arendt understood this deceit of empire well in the era of the Nazi Empire when she warned, "Empire abroad (always) entails tyranny at home" --- along with domestic economic oppression, spying, torture, destruction of democracy, etc. etc. etc.

Sarah, you are precisely right that all average Americans (not actually in the tiny ruling-elite, nor working for them as shills) agree on all the issues that you documented, but it is also critical to our success not to be detoured and distracted by the dividing deceit of empire that continues to divide and conquer us by yapping about these problems as being different issues.

They are not separate, or different, or dividing issues --- the signal, singular and seminal cause of all is EMPIRE (just as it was for our fore fathers fighting the singular British Empire within their own land).

Everyone needs, as Dr. King said in his last year when he realized that empire was the common cause of racial discrimination, economic oppression, class war, AND the Vietnam war, "keep your eyes on the prize" --- and the prize is the same today: exposing, confronting, fighting, and excising empire from our land, and restoring our hard won democratic republic for all.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

If this list were to be given to everyone working with and for Obama, and to everyone in Congress, and make it clear that the priorities and statistics are real, along with a coordinated national group to keep track of what is being done on all of them and the pressure on to all of our national elected officials, we would be on track to solve the majority of our serious problems, all of which, of course, are interconnected. Bravo to you Sarah, and to Alternet for writing and publishing this article. It's the best I've seen anywhere that presents what our priorities are and that there is unity nationally on getting these things done.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Breadth of issues.

Singular cause

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

is crap. Lets do away with the illegal income tax. IT's extorsion plain and simple. Can't you get that through your heads. THE INCOME TAX IS ILLEGAL!!!! let's start there. The FED is a private bank. There are no republicans or democrats simply corporate representatives working for big money. These guys play both sides of the fence, they don't care who gets hurt. THey just want to win.

THrow your credit cards away
stop watching tv.
get real.

get out in the streets.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

There is nothing beneficial that can come of enacting the Employee Free Choice Act, aka the Card Check Act. It will basically take away workers' freedom to choose - that's ironic!

I don't think enough attention is being paid to the potential horror that the card check act could mean for union workers. I encourage everyone to visit this website - it has a wealth of information about what the Card Check Act is, what it means for workers, a petition to sign to battle it and a video explaining it. Please check it out - http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=178

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I wonder how many other readers went to the sources to see where these numbers came from?
The experience can be quite educational.

I found three incorrect links -- one simply misspelled and the other two badly munged, but fixable. Only one of the approximately 46 numbers presented was not directly traceable to the reported source, but even that number was very similar to reported values.

A larger number of statistics were clearly "cherry-picked" -- chosen from older polls when newer results are available from the same web site. It would take quite a while to go through all of these cases to decide if the quoted results could be considered deliberately misleading. On some issues -- for example "Was invading Iraq a mistake" -- there are many polls available from many dates with a fairly broad range of results.

As I looked through these sources, I kept thinking of Noam Chomsky and his insistence that *we* are the ones responsible for our democracy, and that *we* are the ones who need to understand the facts. I was also reminded of the recent interview with Bill O'Reilly on the Daily Show. The shouting match between O'Reilly and Jon Stewart over whether America is a "center right" or "center" or "center left" country was entertaining, but the sources pointed to by Sarah van Gelder's article contain a vast amount of real information that could be used in an honest discussion of the complexities of our nation.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Most of these proposals are pretty good, but I need to speak out about two that have dubious value, however widely admired.

1. Health Insurance. Any "health care" plan under government sponsorship will only support and enrich the pharmaceutical and high tech medical industries. This is so because:

a. It will not cover inexpensive, less dangerous, and more effective alternative health care. (CAM). It will only provide medical treatment and testing - not true prevention and healing.

b. Those without the money for premium policies with lots of extras will wind up with "minimum" coverage that is virtually useless. Example - I wouldn't have Medicare Part B "coverage" if my sons didn't contribute to it - and I never use it anyway, because I can't afford the yearly deductible and the co-pays. These will be features of any gov. policy.

By the way, my greatest fear is mandatory "universal coverage" a la Hilary - translation - the government sends you a bill you can't pay for a "service" you may not want and can't afford.

2. Public Financing for Campaigns. Three problems here:

a. As we have seen in this & other elections, public money will never be enough to compete with the fat cats - or even with the far better small donor Internet campaign.

b. It is obscene that huge amounts of the money spent go to buy TV air time - that which was basically public property stolen from us so that moguls can get rich by selling it. If the candidates didn't have to pony up millions of dollars for buying back what should belong the public, they wouldn't have to sell themselves to the wealthy and corporate.

c. Public financing basically means we pay for the campaigns of those with whom we vehemently disagree.

My solutions would be to provide a certain amount of money for health care chosen by the citizen, and to take back the airwaves for election purposes as needed.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Nice thoughts, great lists! However, until the American people confront the truth about the 9/11 treason and bring to justice the real perpetrators of this murderous act and its world reaching consequences, we will never be able to move forward as a nation towards any sort of peace or justice, let alone a slew of expensive reforms.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Now for another article: how well does this correspond to Democratic party platform and campaign positions?

Are they offering, for example, single-payer, national health insurance?

ANY of them, aside from Conyers & the co-sponsors of his Medicare-for-all bill?

Are any of them promising to bring home the troops, close most of the bases, and stop throwing our weight around for corporate benefit?

Links, please. Document your answers - and we already know about Dennis Kucinich, and just how far he got in the "Democratic" primaries.

Doesn't this article mean that the DP is well to the right of the American people, and is therefore a right-wing, corporate-controlled party like the Republicans?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

There are people in all parts of the world who dislike Americans because they have been sold on this fiction that the USA is a democracy. They should all be made aware of these statistics.

Americans are ready to join the world, but the government, in both Republican and Democratic manifestations, is an outlaw regime, commanding respect around the World by way of fear.

We did not want this. Our rulers wanted this.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Beware of the use of "Research and Development" money that actually gets handed straight to the usual corporate welfare bums for next to nothing. Ask your Congressperson about this. A billion for GM, a thousand for a citizen input program, another billion for GM, and so on. Funny how the grant regulations were written to funnel the money to only one applicant.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Where do these numbers come from? They are highly ambiguous, dubious, suspect, and unconfirmed.

Show us where you got these figures and then we'll have something to talk about. Until then, these are NOT 10 policies that all Americans agree on.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

And that is MANDATORY PUNISHMENT for the crimes we all know were committed by the bush regime, or any other crooks with the same ideas. If the bushies are allowed to slither away with the loot stolen from the American people, and get away with their multiple crimes, then not much else will matter, as NOTHING WILL HAVE BEEN DONE to head off a repeat of bush's nightmare regime.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Unfortunately, there are about a thousand people in Washington DC who actually makes the laws and decide what taxes are passed and who will pay them. They are called Senators, Representatives, The President, and a handful of lobbyist payed for by corporations. Very few of these people agree with these "ten things" so I wouldn't get too excited over this Christmas wish list.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The only people who would agree to these types of policies are socialists. It's certainly not something all Americans can agree on. The only thing on this list that I would agree with and it would be with some qualifiers would be the infrastructure wish.

So is Sarah van Gelder trying to backhandedly claim that if some of us don't wish for these things that we are un-American?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]