Project 2029: A Vision and Strategy to Restore Our Democracy

This spring  I wrote an article  for "Friends Journal," a national Quaker publication, called "We the People Want No King" in which I talked about steps we can take to restore our democracy. Martin Kelley, editor of FJ, interviewed me soon after the article appeared. Here are the links: 

"We the People Have No King": Friends Journal

"Standing with the Marginalized": Interview

I concluded my article by saying that we need a vision and a strategy to restore our democracy. This plan must be both spiritual and political. We need to transform our culture
from being individualistic and materialistic to being communitarian and life-affirming. As Dr. King declared:

“…we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing‐oriented” society to a “person‐oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered…True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice, which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth…A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”—“Beyond Vietnam” (April 1967)

People of faith can play a vital role in fostering this "radical revolution of values" by living our faith and sharing it with others. 

We also need a progressive political agenda that  as bold and as radical as Project 2025 and the time to start crafting it is now. We can’t simply be reactive; we need to be proactive. What I propose may seem impossible, but if progressive Democrats win the House and Senate and White House, these proposals will not only be possible but also necessary. To win this trifecta, progressive Democrats need a vision and a strategy, and a charismatic leader who can lead the party to victory.

The Trump regime has radically changed the nature of the US government, concentrating power in an autocratic presidency and transforming the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court into its enabler. The goal of the MAGA movement is to change the system to ensure permanent control of the nation. That’s why MAGA movement defied norms to secure a majority in the Supreme Court and thereby thwart progressive legislation for the next 20 years. A progressive president should be as bold as the MAGA movement and institute radical changes to restore and strengthen democracy. When progressive Democrats control both houses of Congress, and there is a Democrat in the White House, I propose that the following measures be taken:

1)    Pack the Supreme Court with five new members, all of them under 40, and encourage justices over 70 to retire so they can be replaced by younger justices. Without this change, the Trump Supreme Court will block any meaningful change in our system.

2)    Suspend the filibuster. Urge the Senator Majority leader to suspend the filibuster so these justices can be approved.

3)    Path to Citizenship for All Undocumented Residents. Issue an executive order granting citizenship to anyone who has been living in the US for more than 7 years and has no record of violent crime. Undocumented residents must pay a fine of $10,000 (payable in a lump sum or over a five-year period in installments) and pass a citizen test to qualify. This executive order can be approved by a simple majority of Congress if the filibuster rule is suspended.

4)    Universal nonpartisan redistricting. States must appoint nonpartisan bodies to redistrict in a nonpartisan manner to qualify for federal funds. They will have one year to institute this reform.

5)    Reform the electoral college through proportional allocation based on the popular vote in each state. (I.e. if a state has 20 electors, and one party wins by 51% of the vote, then 11 votes will go to the winner and 9 will go to the loser.)  This will end the winner-takes-all approach used by most states to award electoral votes. States that do not agree to this reform will not receive federal funds since the current system favors voters in swing states and thereby discriminates against voters in other states. This reform will also ensure that Presidents will be elected by a majority of popular vote. (George Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016 both were elected even though they lost the popular vote.)

6)    Cut the military budget (currently a trillion dollars) by 20% so that the funds can be used for universal free health and college.

7)    Fully fund the IRS to catch tax cheats. The IRS estimates that it lost $600 billion in revenue in 2021 due to income tax evasion.

8)    Increase taxes on the rich to reduce the deficit and fund much needed social programs.

9)    Restore the child tax credit to reduce poverty rate among children.

10) Raise the threshold for Social Security payroll tax to $500,000, thereby ensuring the solvency of SS for the next 50+ years.

11)  Rehire federal workers laid off during the Trump regime. Funding for foreign aid will be restored.

12) Encourage Washington, DC, and Puerto Rica to become states, thereby adding 4 new Senators to Congress. This would require abolishing the filibuster so that Congress can approve this reform. 

13)  Cut subsidies to oil and gas and use them to subsidize green energy.