America 2.0

Why America 2.0?

US law — including the US Constitution — has not kept up with modern society. Our political system, which for over 40 years from the 1930s to the 1970s was progressing toward a more just and equitable society has, beginning with  Reagan, made an about-face, reversing progress on civil rights, taxation, democracy, and environmental sustainability. We have become more monopolistic, oligarchical, unequal, and socially divided. 

The United States of America began in many ways as an experiment in social organization that reflected new thinking about the relationship between people and their government. These ideas were a synthesis of European capitalism and private property, and a type of free, individualistic egalitarianism practiced by the native American population of New England. The Founders are to be applauded for breaking with some, but not all, of the cultural prejudices of their time, but also for recognizing that they WERE products of their times. They realized that the nation they were founding must have the ability to change its laws and even its Constitution in the light of social and technological progress. 

Now is such a time.

It has become increasingly clear that the current US Constitution, and the laws based on it, MUST be updated for the survival not only of the United States as a democratic nation, but for all human civilization and, frankly, all life on our planet. 

There are no “silver bullets”. The solutions will necessarily be as complex and interdependent as the problems they address. We can just deal with fossil fuels. We can’t just fix democracy, or worker rights, or capitalism, or pollution, or war, or oligarchical power. We can’t even focus on “Justice” in the traditional sense. If there is one thing on which to focus — a single touchstone — it would be The Love of Life, in the total sense… All Life.  We need to love life on our planet enough to do whatever it takes to save it, restore it, nurture it, sustain it, perpetuate it, and even increase it. 

This legal platform, which I am calling America 2.0, is an attempt to catalog the best ideas currently being proposed, as succinctly and clearly as possible, and categorized for easier digestion. None of these ideas is incompatible with our existing Constitution… we don’t have to start from scratch. But we do need to make some big, fundamental changes. I hope we are courageous enough to make them.

What is the American Dream?

America (i.e. the US and, less prominently, Canada) has been seen as the Land of Opportunity. The American Dream is that every individual has an equal opportunity, through intelligence and hard work, to become the best version of themselves… to reach their human potential. This does not mean wealth and power. It means security, health, and happiness, achieved through excellence and success at an occupation or profession.

Note that I do not say “equal results”. Rather, equal opportunity means equal freedom from external pressures that are barriers to success (physical safety, for example), and equal access to the ingredients of success, such as adequate food, housing, education, healthcare, and a healthy environment. What a person makes of themselves is then a function of their creativity and hard work.

What is the role of Government?

As Lincoln said, government of the People should be By the People and For the People. Government “by the People” means that the people in government are drawn from the People… that those in government represent the people at large. Government “for the People” means that government should be for the good of the People. In other words, the  business of Government is to work for the People… to do what they want it to do. Obviously, people disagree about what government should do, and that is where Democracy steps in. Government makes the rules, and those rules must reflect the will of the People. 

My Basic Tenets

  1. Sustainability – Environmental, Social and Financial.
  2. Democracy. It ensures that people get the government they deserve. 
  3. Government of the People, By the People, and For the People
  4. Equal Opportunity, not Guaranteed Results. Individual responsibility, with compassion for disabled. 
  5. People who can work, should work. 
  6. Pay your way. Revenue should pay for expenses. Do what you can afford, but figure out how to afford what you must do. This applies to governments as well as people.
  7. Wealthy people benefit more, so should contribute more.
  8. No one deserves a million times as much as another person who is doing useful work. 
  9. Markets are inevitable, but Capitalism must be regulated. Capitalism creates upward spirals of wealth that contradict the principle of equal opportunity.
  10.  Nations have a right to protect themselves, but do not have a right to take over other countries by force. National defense is great; military aggression is not.