Time to Take Action on Electoral Reforms

 

Now is the time to think about the distortion that dark money and huge corporations cause in the U.S. electoral system, which nullifies the will of the American people. Democracy can only survive if its people are informed and empowered with equal access to voting. Good health practices, clean air, and clean water are something we all desire, but the power of a few corporate oligarchs entrenched in outmoded industries seek and have been succeeding in ruining safeguards for us all under the Trump Administration.

Rolling back fuel efficiency standards for vehicles doesn’t provide new jobs, make the US more competitive, or provide any mitigation against cancer causing and planet warming gases. All of the other industrialized nations in the world have adopted higher fuel efficiency standards and will be capturing market share while the U.S. lags further behind, thanks to the current vacuum in leadership.[1] Failing to listen to Jimmy Carter in the 70’s the U.S. did not adopt more energy efficient building standards, unlike Europe, Scandinavia, and other nations. This too meant the nation fell behind in advancing greater efficiencies in energy usage. (Berkland, 2014) Due to the high price of oil and cheap Chinese solar batteries, the U.S. was finally catching up in the last decade, with rapid development of environmentally friendly energy production, such as wind and solar, but again the Trump Administration seeks to retard this process. The Koch brothers and others in the extraction industries are only interested in short term profits, but these companies could diversify into other sectors. Why not use their billions to improve how we access and deploy nature to create systems that will power our homes and businesses? Because we make it so easy for them to continue the same harmful practices, including burning natural gas which is occurring at oil wells because it is too inconvenient to contain and transport. The Trump Administration has also allowed the destruction of barrier islands on the coast, without creating mitigating artificial ones to at least allow bird estuaries a chance to survive. (Russell, 2020) We are already experiencing a massive extinction of many animal species, but no one in the Trump Administration seems to care, given the fact most of them will also be extinct based on life expectancies. Leaving an untenable planet for future generations doesn’t seem to bother them at all.  People that are working in the coal industry would welcome a chance to work in other sectors, including the creation of more efficient solar and batteries for electric vehicles. This anti-socialism rhetoric is false as the people of West Virginia and Kentucky would appreciate federal government investment in their communities.  Instead, they are assaulted with mere talk as their hospitals close, more people lose their jobs, and their health insurance.

Let’s create new jobs through green energy and by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, bring back the conservation corps that built so many of our beloved structures in national parks. Though Trump and the Republicans have controlled the Senate, for four years, they have shown no interest in rebuilding the nation. It is so much easier to offer tax breaks to huge corporations and the ultra-wealthy, who don’t need them.  Meanwhile, people like me pay higher business and personal taxes. And I don’t even mind paying my taxes, but I do mind the unfairness of our tax system, that makes the bottom 25% spend a far greater proportion of their income in taxes than the wealthy. (Picchi, 2019) And I am very concerned about the encroachment on our privacy and our liberty with the Trump Administration’s increasing militarization against its own people. This should unnerve even the most stalwart of Republicans.  When the government turns its weapons against law abiding civilians this is fascism. Yet some people still cheer because they believe they are in the right, except the unleashed militarization of our government could just as easily turn its power against them.

Denying science and criticizing those with excellent educations doesn’t make the U.S. more powerful, it makes us laughable internationally. By improving education access for all, including disenfranchised rural areas we can capture the electric brilliance of our people as we did in the 20th century. Children should not go hungry while fat cats enjoy tax breaks and the Trump Administration cuts school lunch programs. (Helen Bottemiller Evich and Juan Perez, 2020) Let’s create an incentive to go to school by offering free high-quality nutritious meals for our children and youth, because they are our future. By providing free meals for all students it would help eliminate discrimination against children from low-income households. America produces so much food that lots of it is given away, so why can’t we feed our children in public schools? Just because children don’t vote doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care.

Infants and toddlers should not be stripped from their parents, who only seek to work towards a better life. The woman who walked from Central America carrying her child 1,000 miles is exactly the kind of immigrant we need, someone with a dream, drive, and willing to put up with hardship. Yet the Trump Administration has rewritten immigration rules to make it harder for foreign students to study at our universities, for our companies to hire the best people for scientific research, and for families to reunite. Odiously the Department of Homeland Security has gone after immigrants who have lived and worked here for decades, paying taxes, with no criminal records, all because of their heritage. Trump seeks to remake this nation with the one-percenters from other countries who can buy their way in. Rich people aren’t better human beings, they may just be luckier or in many cases criminal. (McEvoy, 2020) Most of your healthcare providers are not rich, but would you seek to limit their immigration in areas of critical healthcare needs-because this is what the Trump Administration is doing.

Our nation cannot be successful if 60% of the population doesn’t embrace the administration. (Presidential Approval Ratings-Donald Trump, 2020) Bring more people to the table and we can really build something. We need to be able to tell our grandchildren and those who come after, that we did everything possible socially, emotionally, physically, and financially to assure their survival and November 3rd is the time to prove it. The survival of our democracy must be realized by liberty and opportunity for all-not just the privileged.

This is the healthpolicymaven signing off encouraging everyone to vote as our healthcare, clean air, potable water, and liberty depend on it.

Roberta Winter is an independent journalist and healthcare advocate and author of a guidebook to the US healthcare system, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2013. https://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-U-S-Health-Care-Personal/dp/1442222972

References

Berkland, S. (2014). A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN, CANADIAN, AND EUROPEAN HOME ENERGY-Performance in Heating Dominated-Moist Climates Based on Building Codes. Scholar Works. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2332&context=theses

Helen Bottemiller Evich and Juan Perez, J. (2020, July 21). It's Insane Millions of Kids Would Lose Access to Free Meals If This Program Expires. Politico.com. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/millions-of-kids-may-lose-out-on-free-meals-as-they-return-to-school-374587

McEvoy, J. (2020, August 8). Bannon Joins Long List of Trump Associates Who Have Been Charged or Imprisoned. Forbes.com. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/20/bannon-joins-long-list-of-trump-associates-who-have-been-charged-or-imprisoned/#124dd8475ea4

Picchi, A. (2019, October 16). The US Tax System-New Engine of Inequality. CBS-Money Watch. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-tax-system-a-new-engine-of-inequality-economist-gabriel-zucman-says/

Presidential Approval Ratings-Donald Trump. (2020, October 15). Gallup Poll. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://news.gallup.com/poll/203198/presidential-approval-ratings-donald-trump.aspx

Russell, J. (2020, July 2). Conservation Group Sues Over Changes to Coastal Dredge Rules. Courthouse News Service. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.courthousenews.com/conservation-group-sues-over-changes-to-coastal-dredge-rules/

 

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[1] https://morningconsult.com/2019/07/31/united-states-risks-lagging-internationally-on-fuel-economy/