"Well, when the president does it … that means that it is not illegal."
Richard M. Nixon
On 3 November 2026, America rejected the authoritarian ideology brought to the people by the Republican party. The jubilation is immense. The victory made more sweet by the hopes of 2016 and 2024 being dashed, unexpectedly, carries with it a warning. Yesterdays effort, as important as it is, amounts just opening the front door of the Capitol. America is today, in as much jeopardy as we were two days ago. We will remain so, until we have dealt with the problems that brought us to this place. A failure to do so will simply leave America open to further erosion of democratic principles, ensuring this fight again and again, until at some inevitable point (because no one can keep winning forever), we lose and this experiment ends.
First and foremost, what we have right now is complete rejection of the law by our leaders. They are still in power, and there are countless statutes and traditions sitting idly by, awaiting molestation by the Republicans holding office over the next two months. We need to ensure this never happens again, and herein lies our first opportunity.
Our very first action is to sweep the halls for those who have engaged in corruption, or the violation of law. We then give them the fair trials that they would have denied others. And when those trials result in conviction, we incarcerate each and every one of those those for whom the district attorneys have proven beyond reasonable doubt, the elements of their crimes. We do this not for vengeance; the damage is done, and our time would be better spent cleaning up and securing democratic institutions. We do this to protect our grandchildren, and theirs, and the ones after that. This is our duty as citizens of a free society. We are compelled by by virtue, to demonstrate to any of those in the years ahead wishing to take control of government for their own aims, America will not tolerate authoritarianism. Further, restitution is expected. If you stole from the United States, you have a debt obligation and the Justice Department needs to start taking your money and restoring it to the people. This includes anyone at any level inside or outside the government who engaged in criminal behavior.
Why is this so critical? If one argues, ‘we’ve learned our lesson,’ then we need to stop thinking of ourselves. We must consider the future generations that were not here to see this in real time. They have learned nothing, yet, thus we must offer them a lesson to operate from when a charlatan like Trump comes along again.
As we are dealing with the corruption, and are able to hand that off to a lawful Justice Department post 2028, we need to move on to securing the democratic institutions - making them more resilient to attack. This will require significant disambiguation of the roles of the president, congresspersons, and federal justices. The Court argues the President cannot be investigated while in office. The people expect the phrase “no one is above the law” to be honored. This needs to be worked out such that there is clear guidance on what the president can and cannot do. Further, the Court has engaged in numerous power grabs with respect to both Congress and the presidency. This Court will be known well into the future as horribly partisan and viewed with disdain. It requires restructuring. The number of justices is irrelevant. What is relevant is sitting on cases where you have ties or a financial interest in one or both parties. We must have ethics reform in the court. Without it, the law is nothing more than what those in power say it is. When any branch of government attempts to contrive law or regulation taking power from the other branches, this should be subject approval by the other branches. After all, we’re all in this together, right?
Along the same lines, we need to create minimum standards at the federal level for fair elections. This is legal, but once the minimum standards are met, the federal government must respect the Constitution by backing away from implementation of the vote. The Roberts Court argued that racism is over, therefore the Voting Rights Act is no longer necessary to perform this function. The point Roberts made is irrelevant. Apply minimally intrusive standards that are applied equally to ensure fairness and prevent future malfeasance, and it doesn’t matter what the current environment is. This is an entirely acceptable use of the law. Specifically, wouldn’t it be nice to not have to rush or skip voting because of work? Make election day a holiday. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to travel in inclimate weather to vote? Make election day in the early summer. We’ve introduced early voting and vote-by-mail. Both are extremely popular. Why not keep going? After all, this is about the people, right?
Next, we need to address what got us here. This is actually the ‘Big Kahuna’ of rebuilding America: Education. Republicans have chipped away at public education, ensuring those with money get what they want, and we leftovers get the kind of education we need to be good employees. This is, in fact, how our educational system was adopted. We instituted the Prussian system under Horace Mann in 1843, which was designed to produce obedient workers, not thinkers. We need educational systems that are free from partisan politics, and neighbors, printing “NON-PARTISAN” on the ballot next to a School Board candidate’s name just isn’t doing it. There are other models that work much better (I’ve seen one in Germany – that’s a very promising system thathas vastly improved results over our system.) Americans work hard and we deserve a world class education that focuses on knowledge and growth rather than objective belief. This education must at the very least include critical thinking and rejection of ideological nonsense (suppression of certain topics, and promotion of topics that lack academic rigor). Americans are capable of great things, but to get there, we have to dump the anti-intellectualism and those that promote it. Take that leash off our kids...watch what they can do!
And yes, there’s the economy. We need to fix that too, and guess what? We can do many things at once. We can take care of the bad actors, improve educational opportunities, and we can fix this horribly broken economy. Until people have a steak in the economy, it will continue being pulled by those in economically powerful centers while the rest of us just bump along. Put simply, this starts with ensuring corporations are paying their taxes. The middle and lower classes cannot be expected to prop up the nation while the top 1% continues to live off our efforts. In order to wrap your head around this, you need to shed one simple belief that has been drilled into you since you started paying attention: The poor are not poor because of bad decisions. The poor are poor because the rich control the means of capital distribution in our society. Think about it. How do you get a raise at work? The company decides to give you one. Who sets the price of the gallon of milk? You? No, the corporation sets the price. Extrapolating these two examples, we see exactly our economy is in the position it is in, and why it is so hard to change. The rich determine how much money we are allocated from business activities, and the prices of goods. They literally control both sides of the economic equasion. The wealth gap is a function of the activities of the wealthiest people in America, not the poorest. If we want to apply a fix, we go to the wealthiest in the form of taxes.
Since America just repudiated Republican policies, let’s get specific on one we need to get rid of: ‘no taxes for the rich.’ Unfortunately for the rich, I just cannot feel any empathy. We had periods of high tax rates for the rich: between 1940 and through the 60s, tax rates were well over 50%. Guess what? The rich were still rich. They still had their exclusive hangouts, and yachts, and power, and all that other rich man stuff. They just had to contribute to keeping the country running. And, when you properly allocate resources throughout society, you don’t have to shore up the economy as much. People with money are consumers. Consumers buy things. That props up the industries that people want. That’s how you build an economy. Not by using your power to hoard money and buy politicians. This may even be the simplest of economic moves. It’s so obvious, so basic, even Republicans agree. Remember the $600 check (advance on our future taxes, actually, but…) George Bush and the Republican Congress authorized in 2008? That was an effort to boost the economy. The principle: ‘If the average (99%er) has money, they will spend it.’ Well hang on just a minute, you say... If there aren't any consumers, then how do you have any economy at all, huh? Yeah, there will still be an economy. It just won't include the poor. This is what happened in the 1870s, 1920s, and it's happening again right now.
Now that we’ve hit the big ticket items, there’s one more thing we need to deal with. Can we all agree that Americans live lives that lack dignity? This really is just the everything argument. A lack of healthcare, a lack of job security, being told what you can and cannot do with your body, education, being excluded from government because you talk or look different, treatment my those in power with indifference. This is everything we deal with every day, everywhere. People should be able to get an education and do good in the world with it. People should be able to get healthcare without bankruptcy. They should be able to age in a home where the worker get paid an appropriate wage. They should be able to afford a home. They should be able to live with dignity on the social security that they paid for. They should not be shot in the street because law enforcement have a hard time distinguishing between a gun and a cell phone. Think of it this way: Do you expect reasonable social interactions with people who are made to feel like less than the rest of society? Government is here to do the things that society doesn’t take care of naturally. Time to stop thinking of government as an ogre and rather as a tool to do what it’s supposed to do: help people.
So, we are here at a great inflection point. We opened the door. Now, all that’s left is the hard work: making America into a county that is respected for our principles. The question is, will the Democrats in Congress realize what they are holding in their hands?
