If I had the same power and influence as Grover Norquist, I would sponsor a bunch of insurgent primary challengers against insufficiently progressive Democrats. We can call them Progressive Democrats (PD’s). In our current environment I envision two different kinds of candidates: reforming candidates and policy candidates. There is no reason someone cannot be both a reforming and a policy candidate, but they should at least be one or the other.
Reforming candidates would be primarily concerned with addressing violations of the law, corruption, and correcting the imbalance of powers in Washington. They would agree to pursue the following agenda and not back down when accused of undermining our national security in a time of war.
They would pledge to:
Defund the Pentagon if they do not provide a date certain for American troops to be removed from Iraq. No permanent bases will be put in Iraq, and all military cooperation will be contingent on the consent of the Iraqi government.
Defund the National Security Agency if they do not cease and desist from doing warrantless wiretapping and testify on the extent and nature of their activities before the ENTIRE intelligence committees of both the House and the Senate.
Defund the Central Intelligence Agency unless they cease using extraordinary rendition to torture suspected terrorists.
Push for rigorous ethics reforms, including prohibitions on gifts and gratuities, a ban on moving from government positions to lobbying positions (say, for three years).
Push for strong election reforms, including paper trails for auditible elections, and public funding, and free television time.
Create a Congressional auditor for military procurement contracts. This position would be administratively similar to the CIA’s Inspector General. The Defense Secretary would not hire them and could not fire them.
Pledge to treat violations of American treaties as high crimes and misdemeanors.
There is nothing particularly partisan about the above agenda. I don’t consider those issues to be essentially progressive. If anything, they trend more toward the libertarian. But, that is one reason why the reforming agenda has the potential for a broader appeal than just among progressive Democrats.
The Policy PD’s would push for a total reform of our health care system. The goal would be to provide all American citizens with access to a bare bones medical plan. It would seek to keep costs under control and not destroy the private insurance industry. Essentially, all Americans would be allowed two annual visits to a doctor and two visits to a dentist. All necessary medical and dental procedures would be heavily subsidized. Life-saving drugs would be heavily subsidized. For anything more, private insurance would be required.
Policy PD’s would also push for free higher education. Individual states could work out how to devise their systems and meet federal requirements for funding.
Policy PD’s would also pledge to work to balance the budget through more progressive taxation and higher taxes on dividends, capital gains, and estates. And they would work to undo the bankruptcy bill.
If we can figure out how to recruit and fund candidates that will pledge to run on either/both the reforming or policy platform, we could remake the Democratic Party without having to leave it.
