RECLAIMING AMERICA: THE NEXT PRESIDENT

JAZZMAN CHRONICLES:  THE LONG WAY HOME

BEYOND IMPEACHMENT: 

THE NEXT PRESIDENT

By Jack Random

In some ways impeaching a president is easy.  Convicting a president is not.  My answer to that fact is simple and direct:  It does not matter whether the president is removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the United States Senate.  What matters is that the case is laid out in painstaking detail before the American public.  We cannot expect the same senate that has summarily discarded all evidence of the chief executive’s misdeeds to somehow find its way to do the right thing in the end.  Absent a tsunami of public protest, it will not.  But that is no reason for not undertaking the action. 

Let majority leader and Moscow’s second best friend, Mitch McConnell, wrinkle his face with that sly grin that tells us all:  I know I’m lying and I’m lying anyway.  Let him tell us it’s a witch-hunt.  Let him face the cameras and proclaim his undying loyalty to the most corrupt and anti-democratic president in modern history.  It will only help us to accomplish the next step in reclaiming America. 

The second step – an absolute imperative – is electing a new president and one that is not timid in his or her desire to fundamentally change the political system.  We are at a critical time in our history.  We are facing challenges that will fundamentally alter the way people live not only in America but also in the world.  We do not need and cannot settle for half way measures and leaders whose greatest ambition is to compromise and get along.  We need a president who will embrace the challenge and inspire the people to demand necessary change. 

As I write these words the current crop of presidential challengers is led by Joe Biden, Barrack Obama’s vice president and a man who behind closed doors promised his wealthy contributors there would be no fundamental changes under his presidency. [1]  Biden once told “America’s mayor” Rudy Giuliani his every sentence was a noun, a verb and 9-11.  Now it seems Biden’s every sentence is a noun, a verb and Barrack Obama.  Old Joe would easily become the oldest US president at 78 on Inauguration Day.  With all respect, Biden was prone to gaffs the last time he ran for president – over a decade ago.  Now he has difficult formulating a cohesive thought. 

Even in his prime Old Joe was a get-along moderate.  There may have been a time for such a leader but that time is not now.  Biden is compromised on issues of war and foreign policy.  He supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Biden is compromised on civil rights, civil liberties and environmental protection.  When you’ve been in politics as long as Biden has and you’ve played the game as he has done, you look back and realize he’s turn around on virtually every controversial issue:  gun control, abortion rights, women’s rights, the crime bill, on and on. 

No one wants to attack Old Joe but he left his opportunity on the table when he allowed an even more compromised candidate in Hillary Clinton to take hold of the party nomination last time around.  It is too late now.  He needs to step aside even if it takes an attack dog to accomplish it.  Be assured Donald Trump, his team of hacks and his Russian allies would not go easy on him in the general election. 

The country is in critical condition.  Our democracy is under siege.  We have more weapons of war on our streets than in a war zone.  Innocent people are being slaughtered in churches, taverns, schools and retail outlets.  We just experienced the hottest month in recorded history.  While the president orders mass deportations our country is being battered by extreme storms from coast to coast.  While the president locks kids in cages and laughs at family separations, Greenland is melting and Florida is sinking into the sea. 

We cannot afford a moderate – aka corporate – Democrat any more than we can afford another term of Trump.  The market is finally beginning to recognize the utter ineptitude of the Trump administration.  It took George W. Bush eight years to push the global economy to the precipice of collapse with his policies of extreme deregulation and tax cuts for the rich.  Now it seems Trump may trigger a global recession in short order.  If that happens we will not need to worry about defeating Trump.  Our only concern will be:  What comes next? 

We need someone who recognizes the critical nature of the problems we face – not someone who buries his head in the sand.  We need someone who will reapportion our resources from the military and corporate profits to the people and their protection.  We need someone who recognizes that the earth’s air and water are being poisoned – not someone who destroys the Environmental Protection Agency.  We need someone who foresees the future of labor in this country and moves swiftly to a transition that allows the middle class to exist and expand – not someone who scapegoats Latin American immigrants. 

We need someone who acknowledges the reality of America’s broken promises and moves to reclaim the America of our dreams.  We need an America that stands at the forefront of world leadership – not an America that yields to Vladimir Putin and every other dictator who either kisses the president’s butt or helps him win an election. 

We should be ashamed of this president.  No doubt.  But it is not enough just to get rid of him.  We must replace him with a president of bold and decisive vision.  It is not enough to stop the policies of division and destruction.  We must build new alliances and rebuild the institutions that fortify and protect our democracy. 

The power of the presidency is such that the holder of that office can do a great deal of harm without the consent and support of congress.  The president can do very little good, however, without congress.  We must have control of both houses of congress and the presidency to accomplish what desperately needs to be accomplished. 

Tragically, we are stuck with a two-party system that has consistently failed the interests of the people.  Most of us realize that neither party represents our interests – the interests of the working people, the retired people, the people with medical needs, and all the people who simply cannot make it on our own.  We have learned to sell out.  We have learned to cast our ballots for the lesser of evils.  We know that it is a bargain with the devil.  We know better than to believe that anyone who gains elective office in this corrupt system will be beholden to us. 

Tragically, it is not the time to take on the two-party system.  That time will come.  But the critical issues of the times – literally life and death, existence and extinction – force us to work within the system for now.  We are fortunate in that there are candidates who feel very much as we do but also accept the demands of the times.  There are candidates who refuse to take corporate money.  There are candidates who will not sell out.  They have initiated a new method of fundraising that defies the old method.  They rely solely on individual contributions and absolute transparency. 

Bernie Sanders began the movement in the last election cycle.  He went up against the Democratic Party machine and had more success than anyone imagined possible.  If he had relied on corporate money he would not have been able to advocate universal healthcare as a fundamental right.  He would not have proposed repurposing funds from the military to the needs of the people.  He would not have been able to pledge Fair Trade in a new era of international relations.  He would not have demanded living wages for all workers. 

These candidates have begun to have success.  The famed four members of congress whom Trump invited to leave the country – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – all adopted the progressive positions of Sanders, all refused to take corporate money and all won congressional races against traditional Democrats. 

We can only hope the Squad as they are called represents a movement.  We can only hope that all candidates will be called upon to refuse corporate funds and open up the books on campaign contributions.  For now we must demand these things of our next president. 

Let each of us decide on our own which candidates to support in the battle to replace Donald Trump.  But let us agree that the candidate to go up against the most corrupt, vile and inept president in memory must meet certain prerequisite conditions: 

1.  The chosen candidate must refuse to accept corporate contributions.  Corporations are not benevolent societies.  They do not finance political campaigns because they believe in democratic principles.  They invest in politicians because they expect a return on their investment.  Any candidate who accepts corporate funding from any source will be beholden to corporate interests.  A candidate who accepts Wall Street money will fall short when it comes to imposing restrictions on the recklessness of capital.  A candidate who accepts industrial money will be bound to industrial interests and that spells doom to climate change initiatives.  Any candidate who accepts technology money will hold a debt to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook.  They will be unable to enact essential controls to protect privacy and prevent foreign propaganda campaigns from subverting the electoral process. 

2.  The next president must support a Green New Deal.  This is no longer an afterthought.  It is an imperative.  Anyone who belittles the ideas and idealism of the Green New Deal does not belong in the next government.  The Green New Deal is not a legislative proposal.  It is the product of a brainstorming session.  It is a collection of ideas to forward environmental interests and ultimately save our species and countless others from extinction.  Some of those ideas may seem abstract but overall they represent a positive vision.  The next president must make it a top priority to transform the fossil fuel economy into a green economy as quickly as humanly possible.  The next president must be dedicated to making America the global leader in green technology.  The next president must be willing to impose a penalty on any nation that chooses to ignore the environmental imperative. 

3.  The candidate must support universal healthcare as a fundamental human right.  Reforming Obamacare is simply not adequate.  This former Republican idea – an alternative to universal healthcare – is doomed to death by a million cuts.  It will be challenged in the courts over and over until it can no longer be sustained.  We need an uncompromised approach, a straightforward application of healthcare without the middleman.  Full and free healthcare will eliminate a multi-billion dollar industry that contributes nothing to the health and well-being of real people.  We can accept a phase in over five to ten years but we cannot accept another compromise that leaves the profit motivated insurance industry intact. 

4.  The next president must have a plan for rebuilding the middle class.  At a time of virtual full employment, record profits by industry, technology, finance and international conglomerates, the working middle class is diminishing at an astonishing rate.  Looking backward we can blame a trade policy that sold out American labor for cheap products made by cheap labor in China, India, Indonesia and other nations that do not value labor rights and do not pay fair wages.  All along, the defenders of Free Trade have deflected criticism by pointing to technology as the real enemy of the working force.  Finally, after decades of constant attack on the wages and benefits of industrial workers, their prediction is coming true.  It is no longer sufficient to propose Fair Trade without addressing the problem of robotics.  Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang has gained traction in the presidential race because people instinctively recognize that he’s right.  Robots do not demand a living wage.  Robots do not care about working conditions or healthcare benefits.  Robots are what corporations consider perfect workers.  Whomever we elect president must have a plan not only for a new trade policy that reflects the interests of labor and the environment but also for the inevitable transition when robots take over the workforce.  That would include retraining, relocation and very possibly a minimum income. 

5.  The next president must enact a policy of non-military intervention in foreign affairs.  We can no longer afford these misguided, destructive and counter-productive wars on foreign lands.  Past presidents on both sides of the divide have yielded to the pressure for military intervention.  Because we have a military ten times stronger than anyone else on the planet we have sought to enforce our will with shock and awe in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.  Even if we do not consider the horrors of war, the utter destruction and the loss of life, the resources we have wasted on these colossal failures is needed to combat climate change and to rebuild infrastructure.  We need a new era of international cooperation.  When conflicts arise they must be settled through mediation and economic sanctions.  All American presidents pay lip service to the cause of peace.  All presidents claim war is a last resort.  Let the next president finally mean it. 

6.  The candidate must propose a policy of humane immigration.  At a time of full employment the dirty little secret is that corporate farmers and meat processing plants, such as those raided in Mississippi, need migrant workers more than ever.  Those are by no means jobs that citizens are lining up to fill.  It’s hard physical labor.  The ugly rumor is that plants employ the undocumented regularly and encourage periodic immigration raids so that they don’t have to pay deported workers.  Regardless of the circumstances in the Mississippi raid, the mass deportations, the family separations, the caging and abuse of children must end.  People seeking asylum in the United States must be treated with respect.  Those who have established lives here and are productive members of our society should be protected and embraced.  They are as much a part of America as the immigrants that preceded them. 

7.  The next president must usher in a new era of civil rights.  The current president has done more to damage race relations in this country than any president since Andrew Johnson.  He has appointed judges dedicated to the proposition that the most pressing civil rights issue is discrimination against white males.  These same self-perceived victims too often join Neo-Nazi organizations and purchase caches of automatic weapons.  The president has encouraged their collective sense of victimhood and given them someone to blame: everyone whose skin is darker than theirs.  The Trump administration has refused to enforce voting rights laws, attempted to use the census to discriminate against Hispanics, defended partisan gerrymandering and refused to investigate cases of police bias and abuse.  It will take decades to reverse the damage this administration had done.  It must begin on Inauguration Day. 

8.  The next president must be dedicated to rebuilding our infrastructure.  This president promised to rebuild America’s infrastructure but his proposal came down to selling our bridges, parks, highways and energy systems to private interests.  No, Mr. President, we don’t want to sell America.  We want to rebuild it.  Our bridges are still crumbling.  Our roads and highways are in disrepair.  Our airports and energy grid are substandard.  Our mass transit is woefully inadequate.  Many of our workers spend hours daily commuting to jobs in cities where they cannot afford to live.  We can employ tens of thousands in good union jobs but we must have a president who is willing and able to lead the effort.  We must be willing to tax Wall Street investors and the corporate elite to finance a massive undertaking. 

9.  The next president must enact gun control.  Let it be known once and for all that the National Rifle Association’s reign over Washington is over.  The once all-powerful organization allowed itself to be used by Russian agents to launder money and channel it to the Republican Party.  Just ask Moscow Mitch.  The NRA must lose its tax-exempt status and congress must pass universal background checks, end the gun show and other loopholes and re-enact the assault weapons ban.  The next administration should initiate a buy-back program so that eventually we can reduce the incredible number of weapons of war available to whomever wants them. 

10.  The next president must bring honor, dignity and strength of character to the office of the presidency.  The current inhabitant of the White House is to honor and dignity what Mozart is to Rock and Roll.  The president of the United States cannot be someone who invites members of congress to go back to where they came from.  The president cannot be someone who finds moral equivalence between Neo-Nazis and those who protest against white nationalism.  The president should not be someone who labels a free press the enemy of the people.  The president should be someone who can be trusted at least generally to speak the truth.  The president should not be someone who refers to African nations as “shit-hole” countries.  It should not be difficult for a president to act presidential. 

It has often been said that the citizens of this nation do not have much of a choice, that all the candidates are beholden to big money interests and that both parties answer to the same corporate masters.  I have said as much myself.  But this time we do have candidates that fulfill all ten criteria.  This time there is a choice.  Donald Trump is a unique individual and a uniquely dangerous president.  Whether you believe he is beholden to Russian and Saudi interests or not, whether you believe he is in the pocket of the wealthy, he is a president who does not value science or knowledge.  He is a president who is wildly unpredictable.  He is a president who praises dictators and autocrats.  He is a president who is deliberately sabotaging any chance of containing the damage from global climate change.  He is a president who is deliberately dividing the people. 

Nothing can be accomplished in a positive direction until this presidency is ended.  Little can be accomplished if the next president’s boldest promise is a return to normalcy.  A great deal can be accomplished if the next president represents a bold vision of change. 

Jazz. 

1.  “Joe Biden to rich donors: ‘Nothing would fundamentally change’ if he’s elected.”  By Igor Derysh.  Salon.  June 19, 2019. 

Jack Random is a novelist, sometime playwright and poet, and political essayist.  His works include the Jazzman Chronicles, Wasichu: The Killing Spirit and Pawns to Players: The Chess Trilogy.  He is currently writing a political guidebook, The Long Way Home: Reclaiming America (Crow Dog Press).