How the next President should clean up The Republican Party's Mess

First of all, when the next President takes office, the following things really need to be part of the agenda of cleaning up the royal mess that Trump and his sicophants in the Republican party have made of our home and country.

• Reverse all the actions of the Trump administration

  This really needs to item #1. Trump Has been there to do damage to the system -- to make everything fail by way of a thousand paper-cuts. By his actions, millions of Americans lost jobs, go hungry, lost their homes, became victims of racism, and worse. He's made the rest of the world hate us, which will take time to mend -- fortunately, improving international relations is a skill which previous democratic presidents have been extremely successful at. Reversing his actions -- especially the ones that just seemed to be "because Obama did it" -- will put us back at the high mark that we were at before Trump ruined our future. We need the EPA, we need an education secretary who is committed to making public education work like it did before Republicans started sabotaging it, and we need to get back to trying to reform healthcare. Reversing all of Trump's actions should be done in EXACTLY the same way that he got rid of all the work that Obama did -- just axe it all, or use executive orders -- but of course, we know Democrats have smarter people working for them who will, and should write protections against future Trumps.

• Put the tax rates back to what they were at the beginning o the Reagan era

  Make rich people and wealthy corporations put money back in to the government to pay for all the damage that they have caused. Eliminate all of the tax breaks and write-offs that are given almost exclusively to the wealthy and powerful, which ordinary Americans can't use. Make certain that rules are created which make creative accounting by billionaires and their lawyers illegal and punishable by fines and prison.

• Tighten regulations on banks, corporations and defense industries

  This goes hand-in-hand with the above. Trump and the Republicans are reversing regulations that were made because banks cheated customers out of their savings, and ruined their lives. They have removed laws which made it illegal for banks to lie to and defraud their customers and getting away with it. Because we can see that as soon as the republicans had the power, they quickly focused on eliminating the regulations that stopped banks and companies from cheating their customers, helped by the kickbacks and bribes that the lobbyists of those industries gave them, that the party doesn't care at all about fairness, justice, or ensuring that businesses be forced to be honest. This has to change, and we need to put the screws on them, and let them know that they will be punished for their greed and dishonesty.

• Campaign Finance reform

  Again with the above two things, this needs to be part of a comprehensive plan to weed out corruption. Instead of private funding, campaigns should be funded entirely by the government, and all qualified people running for office should get equal time, reguardless of how much money they have. When a cabal of billionaires who own most media outlets want to create the perfect campaign for a candidate, how is a candidate of more moderate means supposed to compete against it? The solution is to ELIMINATE private money from political campaigns, and enforce that all camaigns in a given cycle get equal time to air their messages. Issue-advocacy groups should be regulated to the extent that their messages are fact-checked, and you don't see a universal healthcare proposal attacked with ads containing illegitimate concerns like "I don't want the government death panels killing my grandma because she's too expensive to keep alive!" If the messages of issue advocacy groups are forced to comform to proper fact-checking, phoney outrage and completely imaginary issues will never muddy the waters of the election season.

  We also need to erect a wall between elected officials and big business. We have to ban all gifts from private individuals and corporations. There can be no stock options, cars, trips, money, or other valuable items bestowed to elected officials, PERIOD. Even $5 and $10 gifts should be illegal. The only gifts elected officials should ever be able to receive while in office should be from their own family, for birthdays, Christmas, weddings, etc. As long as they are in office, gifts and unsolicited contributions will be banned.

• Punish states that make voting difficult for poor and black citizens

  One of the biggest problems for more than a century has been that southern states have brazenly and contemptuously used the power of government to keep black voters from voting, while at the same time giving lip service to the voting rights act, and pretending that there's nothing going on, when time after time, the federal government has found that some states have actually committed election fraud. In fact, in recent years, Republicans have consistently claimed that black voters and illegal immigrants are committing voter fraud on a massive scale. It's one of Trump's oldest claims. There has never been a shred of proof offered to prove this happened. In fact, the one case where a Republican accused voters in his state of voter fraud -- the case of Leslie McCrae Dowless, is the greatest example. He filed a complaint about voter fraud going on in his district, but when he went to court, he apparently had no details to offer about his complaint. After investigating, the court found HIM to be guilty of vote tampering! But that's okay -- the Republican governor pardoned him, and he's back working on the elections committee! IN cases like this, the federal government needs to put these people on trial and make sure that ther stakes are high. If the Republican party tries to prevent people from voting, they need to follow a process, and they need to be monitored by the federal government. The elections bureau needs to have officials at all the polling stations making sure that votes are not being thrown out, and that citizens who have the right to vote get to exercise it.

  In a way, I believe we should re-occupy the south, to make up for the great compromise of 1877, where the United States Army pulled out of southern states, and left the former confederates to once again control their states. Bad decision, because by letting the very traitors responsible for slavery and for the war to govern themselves, it was like the war never happened, and they could just go back to slavery -- but they would refashion it in a manner that would look free. Since then, not only have black people been denied their right to vote, they have been assaulted by the Klan, and suffered over 150 years of further indignities -- just because a bunch of traitors refused to do the right thing.

  What we should do is have the federal government investigate all the elections in all of the southern states -- at least the ones with a history of denying votes or tampering with elections. The FBI and elections bureau should investigate and bring to trial all officials who break election laws. States which show repeat patterns will have their elections officials replaced -- by black officials, whenever possible, just to add insult to injury.

• Reform Public Education

  The Next President needs to get rid of the "No Child Left behind" bullshit that George W. Bush enacted, and get rid of all the bullshit testing and re-testing that makes schools teach "passing the test" versus "teaching the subjects". We need to eliminate the standardized tests that interfere with actual learning. Although the SAT is used to determine College preparedness, we cannot have teachers forced to administer so many tests that they end up teaching children how to pass the tests. The only tests should be the ones suggested by the textbooks, and the tests are are passed by having the proper materials in class, and the tests for various subjects be standardized. We also need to reform the local power of states to meddle in the allocation of Public School funds -- Rich districts always steal the funds that go to poorer ones because they scream to local politicians about it, and get their way. We need to start a plan, with a slogan that says "ALL SCHOOLS GET THE SAME", regardless of the wealth of their district. Schools in poor areas should get the same funding as ones in wealthier districts.

  We should set higher standards of excellence, and most importantly, we have to ban dropping out of school. You should only be allowed to drop out of school if and only if you can pass an exit exam that proves that you know all the stuff you're supposed to when you graduate high school. You must get 80% to pass. It will not be "dropping out" that we permit -- it will be early graduation, with a full high school diploma, a ceremony, if desired, and all of the recognition that goes with it.

  We also should encourage students to study math and science, like we did back in the 50's and 60's, which led directly to success in space, computers, and other sciences that America excelled in. In fact, at the base of all education should be the teaching of critical thinking skills, logic, reason, and "bullshit detection", (fraud detection) in which kids are encouraged to fact check and actually research the answers to questions. Without critical thinking, people will leave high school vulenrable to propaganda and various mental trickery of others.

  The curriculum needs to be overhauled. The civil war, civil rights, and various American wars, social discord, and historical facts should not be whitewashed. Any "alternative history", for example, which treats Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and the confederacy as equally good people who simply disagreed with the North, and that they were still heroes in spite of losing the war, should be banned. Only the actual documented history should be taught, warts and all. American kids need to learn how racism has affected the nation, and how it's always been s struggle for non-white people to achieve any kind of equality, when local towns, and whole state governments literally prevent them from simply voting, and which have historically used law enforcement to unlawfully arrest and imprison black people in outrageous numbers. American kids need to learn how the Spanish-American war was a fraud perpetrated by William Randolph Hearst and other billionaires seeking to gain power and moneyt via conquest. We'll keep in all the good stuff about WW2 -- because that's the only time America fought a war as "the good guys". Other wars, though, like Vietnam, various "fuit wars" in central and South America, the Invasion of Iran, and other instances where the US military was used to dismantle a legitimate democracy and replace it with a brutal dictatorship, must be known. Kids should not be taught that America is great, and that we're always good and right. They need to learn that America is a mostly good nation that has allowed itself to be fooled into doing bad things for rich people.

  Private schools must be held accountable for teaching the same values listed above -- critical thinking, logic, science, and the ability to detect bullshit/fraud. Much Moreso, private schools cannot teach alternative history (Civil war revision or holocaust revision) , alternative science (Creationism) or values that equate to the students being taught that they are members of a special elite that is destined to rule over others. No public funds should go to private schools.

• Free College Education at all state colleges

  Self Explanatory. If you are a resident of Massachusetts, and you graduate high school with enough of an SAT score, you have earned 4 years at any state university. Private colleges are not included. We need to be wary of the Republicans who might argue that it's unfair because private colleges are just as good, and there should be choice for the students. There always has been choice. And unfortunately, the choice was taken away when college tuition became out of control. College education is essential these days, and few places will hire you without college education. By making it free, it enhances all of society, because more qualified, functioning adults will be created by it. If your talents are noticed, private colleges often have scholarships waiting for individuals who excel in their fields.

• Set up universal health care

  It will be difficult, but we need to have universal healthcare, and it needs to shut out the voices of big pharma, the insuance industy, as well as other lobbyists who merely serve commercial interests in healthcare, drug manufacturing, and for-profit medicine. The Universal healthcare system needs to focus on ensuring that all people with medical needs get attention, and that all companies who make healthcare products do not have their hands in the pie. For decades, drug companies have written legislation that gave them guaranteed income with government giveaways, exclusive use of their products, and meddling in the doctor-patient relationship. Any new healthcare system needs to make the relationship between you and your doctor absolute. The Medical insurance industry needs to be locked out of the loop -- if not dismantled entirely. We should tell the insurance industry to simply suck it, and focus on their other forms of insurance. The insurance racket has ruined our current healthcare system, and in collusion with drug manufacturers and other medical for-profit companies, has driven up the cost of healthcare beyond what people can afford. They have also angered a lot of the doctors who see patients get denied life-saving treatment because it's too expensive. The Canadian, British, French, Swedish, and German models all work fine, and we should base ours on theirs. Industry needs to be kept out of the process, because they will only seek to control healthcare for their own greedy end.

• Expand Welfare, and improve it's delivery

  The Republicans have turned the welfare system of our nation into a poverty-shaming system that makes getting much needed public assistance seem like you're committing a crime. The tests for eligibility are akin to an anal exam, and the more recent "workfare" that Bill Clinton enacted is nothing short of legitimized slavery. That needs to end. Welfare needs to return to a system that will help anyone in need without any obligations on the part of the recipient to pay it all back, or to keep proving that they're trying to get themselves back into the workforce. Universal unemployment needs to happen - we cannot allow states to be "Right To Work" states. The Federal government needs to take over, and make the unemployment office and welfare administration one in the same. This would streamline what we have, and ensure that no Americans have to be forced into the cost of moving out of state because their state is a "right to work" state that offers no unemployment services. It will also be a way of preventing poverty by ensuring that all people in need get help, regardless of who they are, based on their needs.

  The amount of money spent on Welfare and unemployment insurance is a drop of water into the ocean of government spending. It is ironic that the government spends 1000 times more on the military -- amassing troops and weapons to kill other people -- than it does to keep people alive, working and healthy. The idea of a Guaranteed Universal Income is one that can work, with the provided military cuts and raised taxes on the wealthy. Have the Welfare department administer the guaranteed income accounts for all Americans, along with the Unemployment office. Have them combined together into one department along with a universal healthcare administration. When you're working, you still get your guaranteed income -- which gives you more money to spend on putting money into tyhe economy by buying stuff. If you lose your job, you don't have to worry about starving, and you will be helped in looking for a new job. If you get sick while out of a job, no problem -- healthcare is free to all. Should I mention that universal healthcare would save businesses billions, because they will no longer be burdened with health care for their workers?

  People who argue that this will cost taxpayers too much are really arguing "it will cost the WEALTHY TOP 1% too much". Several democrats have shown how cutting the military budget (and not by a lot) can pay for universal healthcare alone. It's not tricky math, either. If we also raise taxes on the rich to Reagan-era levels, we can do so much more and make every American live better, healthier, and less prone to falling through the safety net.

• Crackdown on the KKK, Neonazis, and other criminal hate groups

  Law Enforcement in the USA has been so lax with racist hate groups in our country, and it may be because a lot of police departments in various cities have been infiltrated and are run by members of racist organizations. In fact, the FBI released a study in 2006 called "White Supremacists Infiltration Of Law Enforcement", which detailed and named various cities around the country which have officers that belong to and associate with various white supremacy groups. We need to enlist the Southern Poverty Law Center, the FBI, and the CIA, to clean all these groups up. This is especially important, because many law enforcement departments around the country have been infiltrated by the KKK and Neonazis, who frequently cover up the racist crimes of their officers and frame innocent black people for crimes. We need to OUTLAW these organizations, and any others that attempt to form along the same principles. We need to make it a federal crime to be a member of the KKK or a Neonazi group. We need to have the FBI infiltrate suspected groups and stage sting operations to arrest them when they plan to do illegal acts. This kind of work is deceptively easy. The vast majority of KKK and Neonazis have arrest and prison records for crimes, much of which are related to their group's activities. We simply need to follow these people when they get out of jail, and document their associations and activities, then go after them. The KKK and Neonazis are criminal organizations by definition -- they seek to violate the civil rights of others. They are very much similar in structure and scope to a Mafia organization, and the FBI needs to take them down in the same manner they took out the Genovese, Gambino and Giancano crime families.

• Create and enforce the rules for police departments, nationwide

  Cops in various places have always flaunted their power, committed crimes while wearing their badges, and routinely enforced laws that do not exist, because they get off on the power trip. There is too much anger, rage, and undeserved violence committed on the American public by police officers who are too eager to escalate every situation into a fight, or into one where they get to use their weapons -- not to disarm a dangerous attacker, or stop a violent person from commiting an injury, but to simply shut up a disagreeable person, or to retaliate for what was simply harsh words. Cops need to not only be trained in de-escalation, but officers need to stop carrying guns as part of their daily uniform and equipment. Most cops don't need guns. Their training proves it. The problem we have currently is that we have police who treat legitimate non-violent protest as a crime, and who treat protestors as criminals who have already been tried and found guilty. The amount of citizens -- unarmed, usually black -- killed by police each year is staggaring and unacceptable.

  What we need is serious reform that only allows officers to carry guns to a situation where gunfire is expected. "But what if they don't expect guns, and are shot?", is a valid concern, which is why we have police officers wear bullet-proof vests. Just like when you join the military, you never expect to be shot or killed, it's part of your job, and you just deal with it. Firefighters get killed in fires all the time, and it's part of their jobs. Unexpected stuff kills people every day, and the job of a cop is no different. Having a gun on the job didn't help Frank Serpico when his fellow cops tried to murder him, in fact, the attempt on his life was his fellow officers, who set him up, and deliberately walked away when he needed backup.

  That's the other problem. There is corruption in many poice departments all over the country. Corruption that is so deep that police will kill other police to protect their rackets. The FBI needs to do background checks on all police departments and we need to keep a black list of corrupted law enforcement personnel -- we need to ban corrupt cops for life, when discovered, even if it means the whole department has to go. It's been done before, and it's never led to towns suddenly becoming lawless while they look for new police.

  Also, we need to get rid of the extra equipment that has been given to officers over the years. Surplus military and so-called non-lethal weapons like tasers, beanbags, tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and other equipment was designed for the military, and should never have been allowed to be used by police -- because it ALWAYS gets abused. Even though officers are trained to use tasers only on violent people that can't be controlled, they routinely use them on individuals who are already in cuffs and restrained. They are often used to torture people who disagree with the officer's interpretation of the law. Worst of all, they are used on people who pose no threat to anyone. The same is true for tear gas and pepper spray. It's intent is to be used against violent attackers. It almost never is. It's nearly always used on non-violent protesters, most of whom are actually complying with orders. Because of the abuse and harm done by these devices, we really should remove them from the equation. Police forces are not "hired militias paid to FIGHT crime". Police are supposed to be people hired by the community -- preferably members of the community, to enforce laws. The eagerness to fight, to escalate even the most minor offenses into a brawl involving several officers, is not what we want cops to be. We want to have police to are polite, respectful, preferably not covered with gang or white supremacy tattoos, and who follow the rules of engagement to the letter. Too many cops behave so badly it's a wonder they're not behind bars themselves.

• Cut the military budget in half

  Some would argue that we should cut the military budget by a much larger percent, and we likely could, before our military spending per capita is on par with other nations. I think we should Start with a 50% reduction in military spending. A lot of our military budget amounts to corporate appeasement -- senators getting military contracts for defense industry manufacturers, which we don't need. We have dozens of military bases all over the country that have "boneyards" -- vast storage facilities full of tanks, planes, and vehicles that we do not use, and don't need. Many of the fighter jets stored there are ready to use, and in new condition, because they have never flown a single mission. These bone yards are often called our auxiliary military. These bases are testaments to the amount of waste inherent in our military, and we should really stop the process that led us to this situation. We need to stop funding things that we really don't need, and most importantly, we need to stop funding black projects that there is no accountability for. The Pentagon lost 8 trillion dollars. Nobody has yet figured out where that money went. For all we know, there may have been a great theft and coverup. We need to force accountability for anyone making our weapons.

  Most importantly, though, we simply must change the reasons we send any of our troops to fight. We have to stop using the military to protect the interests of corporations who fear that they will have to compete in a fair market place, instead of from a position of monopolistic power. We have to stop forcing our will around the world, especially if it's ill will. It is what happened in the name of anti-Communism and now anti-terrorism, that created the world we live in now. None of our current enemies would hate us had we been good neighbors. By withdrawing from foreign countries and sticking to working with our allies on building strong bonds between our military forces, we will accomplish a lot more, and find that making new allies will be easier.

• Ban the use of private military contractors

  A large part of the military budget, incidentally, is spent on hiring private contractors to do the work of soldiers. Having hired guns from Haliburton, Blackwater, ZTI, and other military contractors is very expensive, and often times, their missions require that enlisted soldiers act to protect them. They are nothing more than mercenaries, and their jobs are almost never anything that regular troops couldn't be doing. We contract McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC to provide troops with food on various bases -- even though the military has historically never needed them, and has prepared it's own food for well over 2 centuries. We should eliminate all private contractors from the military, and operate like we did before the Reagan era. It was argued during the Bush administration, that hiring contractors gives the military the freedom and flexibilty to do their job without having to deal with the minutia -- what -- you mean LOGISTICS? That's what the military's always been about -- logistics -- keeping troops fed, armed, and able to do their work. Contractors essentially add nothing to what the military can do, and it's a needless cost. It should be eliminated.

• Pass the ERA and strengthen Civil Rights laws

  There is not one reasonable, logical, rational excuse for paying one person less for the same job, if their skin color or sexual identity is different from "white anglo-saxon male". In fact, nobody has ever tried to rationalize this last bastion of discrimination. A citizen is a citizen, regardless of their skin color, sex, sexuality, or ethnicity. We constantly see the business world paying women and non-whites less for the same jobs. This practice is unfair and should have been stopped back when the 19th Amendment got passed.

• Bring Back the Fairness in Media Act

  Let's go back to the era when TV news was held accountable for fact checking and fined when it put on corporate or political shills to lie to the public -- you know, what Fox news does on a daily basis. Rather than let any news agency, social media outlet, or other media, put out fake stories with "alternative facts", where "someone told us" or "people have said" usually prefaces a few paragraphs of bullshit that someone just made up, let's go back to the era where all news outlets were required to make sure they fact-checked stories to ensure that they were not making it up. Have them pay heavy fines up to and iuncluding the loss of their license, if they have a guest on who accuses someone falsely, without being challenged or checked with an opposing commenter.

  It's often said that the fairness in media act never accomplished anything, and that stations often had ways of getting around the requirements (like CNN having "Crossfire", where they teamed up Pat Buchanan with a liberal shill who alway seemed to have the weakest arguments). Let's work to have a future where Sean Hannity actually has to back up all of the false claims he makes up with facts, so he actually has to research facts before presenting his opinion as fact. This is done by having fact checkers look at the content of his program, and checking the facts, and then reporting how many things appeared to be made up. Back in the 60's and 70's, conservatives and liberals in the news had better arguments that were well thought up and mostly researched. Since the end of the fairness act, we have networks that seem to exist to dumb down the discussion about everything to a series of conspiracy theories and crackpot statements, which we're supposed to take seriously as discourse.

• Address the Religious Right

  An act of utmost bravery, would be for the next president to go to the Annual Prayer breakfast, and tell the attendees that they need to do a better job of policing their own ranks of the hateful, racist, antisemitic, hate-promoting, snake-oil salesmen types who count themselves as their brethren. The American Evangelical community is full of individual preachers who promote hate, antisemitism, and racism. Don Wildmon from the American Family Association, Frank Graham, and others have long histories of hate, and promoting a message that doesn't sound at all like it comes from the New Testament, or what Jesus promoted. Furthermore, a lot of the far right wing members of the religious right promote hateful messages that equate not being a republican with being in league with Satan, or with being UN-American. Many on the far right of the religious spectrum even ally themselves with conspiracy theorists and hate mongers like Alex Jones and other extremists. Almost as bad are all the snake oil salesmen who have made getting rich selling religious merchandise to their followers a priority over the message of their alleged faith -- indeed begging for money that pays for their mansions, Mercedes, and private jets seems to be their priority in life.

  In short, many people on the religious right seem to behave exactly the opposite way that the Christian faith commands, and it's shocking how silent so many church leaders are about it. When you hear a prominent preacher condemn all Jews for "controlling the media/Hollywood", they need to be called out for antisemitism. When a preacher tells his followers on TV and radio that they need to send in as much money as they can so he can get a new jet plane, he needs to be called out on his greed and vanity. Likewise, when a preacher stands with Donald Trump -- a man who has a long history of racism, not being particularly religious, and who treats hopeful immigrants as criminals and puts their kids in cages -- they need to be questioned as to how that comports with the tenets of their faith. It also needs to be publicly stated that many notable Christian preachers have expressed a desire to make Christian Supremacy over America a goal. These people are no better than White Supremacists, which tends to be another goal of theirs.

  The next president needs to make it clear that as long as the religious right insists on being in politics, pushing the Republican party's agenda, and influencing voters, they should lose their tax-exempt status, because obviously, the money they spend on politicians and influencing votes cannot be considered as a work of charity.

• Most Imporantly, Hold Trump and his Accomplices Accountable

  There absolutely needs to be a series of charges, trials, and punishments for Trump, his family, and all of the Senators and Congresspersons who aided him in running through our government like a runaway freight train. They need to be held accountable for the damage done by Trump's greed, his inability to care about America, and the utter corruption, and contempt of law he has. Bill Barr, especially needs to be taken down when Trump leaves office. In fact, we should have FBI agents at the ceremony waiting to take everyone on buses, to be booked and charged. Everything Trump did while in office needs to be accounted for, and we should revisit the Mueller Report, as well as the impeachment hearings materials. Everyone in power who knowingly helped trump turn the white house into a criminal empire needs to go behind bars.