Time For A Change

While Joe Biden has yet to be sworn into office and there are a number of Republicans in Congress that seem to continue to plan to “reelect Trump” The times for Trump bashing ae finally over.  It is important to recognize that in losing the 2020 reelection Donald did get 70 million votes, more than Barack Obama received in each of his election victories.  While on the surface it is easy to conclude that there are 70 million people with their heads up their asses such a conclusion ignores reality.  That reality is there remains a need for a change in America.  First of all, whether we like it or not 70 million people seem to have felt politically things are not right.  There were probable 70 million reasons for voting for Donald Trump to serve a second term in office and if the country is ever going to grow past the point where we are at present it is important to learn and understand each of those 70 million reasons.  It would not be surprising to learn that many of the 70 million based their decisions on a lack of knowledge about the real facts but this just points to a growing need to minimize, if not eliminate, reporting lies and misinformation without labeling it as such.  An administration like Trump’s welcomes conspiracy and false information and this should no longer be tolerated as fact.  Factual assertions need to be supportable or denounced but they cannot be allowed to be considered fact.  One obvious area of dissatisfaction arises from the growth of income inequality.  While the wealthy may contribute the most per person towards a political campaign there is a need for a barrier to prevent the wealthy from influencing legislation that gives benefits to themselves, the reason many actually have for making their contributions.  One way around this problem is legislation that would prevent any candidate for Senate, House, or President from accepting any form of campaign assistance from anyone not registered and eligible to vote for the recipient of his or her largess.  This would eliminate Senators from accepting campaign aid from individuals from a different state and representatives accepting aid from individuals from a different congressional district.  In addition, because organizations and businesses cannot register and vote it would eliminate campaign largess from those sources.  This would force candidates to focus totally on the needs of their constituents and minimize the influences of the power of money.  One other change needed involves eliminating the expense of lobbying from being deducted as a “business expense”.  Lobbying firms disguised as Washington law firms collect billions that are deducted as legal expenditures.  That needs to stop.  No business should be allowed to deduct any expenditure intended to influence a political vote or outcome.  Perhaps the most important change will only come if everyone on either side of the political spectrum learns to listen to and seek the many ways both the left and right share similar needs.  In a democracy, neither side should ever be 100% satisfied.  The result when one side totally wins and the other totally loses is always very bad legislation and it is safe to say the country has been mired in enough bad legislation for a long time.  So to sum up, bashing the opposition hasn’t worked very well and it is past time to ry a different approach.  How about focusing on solving shared problems for a change?