Progressive Platform Possibility

Focusing on the common problems and the solutions
By Gordon Richiusa

(G) Everyone has a life strategy, whether they know it or not. Most will say that they do know, “one thing for sure” or have a guiding principle or “personal point of view” or “comfort zone” that keeps them going or “on their chosen path.” Often, these strategies are not well defined, and rely on luck, “the kindness of strangers” or “following ones gut instincts” for implementation. In fact, taking problems, one by one as they are presented is a kind of strategy unto itself that seems to work for many individuals. The fact that everyone has a life strategy is true regardless of race, income, cultural background, sexual orientation or education and there are as many variations on each theme as there are individuals to conceive of them. Because we are all part of the human family, there are however, similarities, or consensual standards with which we apply how we develop our strategies and how we establish the “rules of life” that we follow. Where do we get our jointly agreed upon set of rules, ethics and moral judgments upon which we base our personal system of life? Answering that question is not as important as realizing that we do seem to have consensus on a few issues. Looking for and acceptance of our commonalities as the starting point of a debate is what leads me to present…the following article.


Last week, one of my three sisters and her husband (an ex-Marine—although, I was told that there is no such thing as a former Marine) returned from a month long RV trip across country from California to D.C., through the South (they DID have to take shelter from a tornado in North Carolina) and back home in Ventura County. Upon returning, they sent the following in an email to me (the content of which is in italics):

“Just got back from our cross country trip, and one of my favorite places to visit was Philly, where the “Constitution and the Declaration of Independence” was written, and it should be ‘us’ the people running the government, not the government running the people.
“The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure. I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise…In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

“Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!
‘The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, 
it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government
-- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.’-- Patrick Henry”

(G) The only editing I’ve done is to take several extra exclamation points off of the last completely bolded line above, and I’ve added the author’s name to the final quote.
You see, I believe that this email has the makings of a really great platform for what I have called, Progressive Patriots. Yes, it is obvious that our government operations need adjustments. That is how the original Constitution was written, with a fail-safe to be amended when needed. That is the “progressive” part of the system. The Constitution has always been a progressive and revolutionary document. Unfortunately, Conservative, narrow-interests often get in the way of implementation. As always, the Five Principles are key to staying on track. With this in mind, I would like to make a few addendums to the above email and offer the above and the following as a blueprint for a possible Platform of the Progressive Patriots in the coming elections.
We ARE the government and if we want to make changes WE CAN! From everything I see above, and all the problems that appear to have developed in our government’s functioning of late it appears that a Civil War still divides our country. Today, however the main conflicts are fueled not merely by differences between races, genders or geographic boundaries, but an ever widening divide between economic classes. Once again, “money is at the root of all our evils.”
So, while the above is a good place to start, we should “keep in mind” what it is we are trying to accomplish” and decide how best to accomplish what is best for “the greater number.”
At the risk of being called a liberal, or worse let me echo the words of John Lennon and propose: Imagine there are no parties, no Democrats or Republicans, or any special privileges for ANY one, based upon how much money they can collect from special interests or because they happened to have inherited it, or because they figured out how to bilk the middleclass or play upon the ignorant or twist the truth or subvert the system. Imagine that lobbyists were made illegal and foreign investors could not bankroll public offices. Imagine people paid taxes and were rewarded based upon their contributions to the common good. Imagine that we took the cash out of the equation of justice and we returned the WHOLE government operation back to the intentions upon which it was founded. Would this focus be a good one for a grassroots movement (not another phony political party or a disguised branch of an existing one)? There ARE no dues to pay, no clubs or organizations to join or bureaucracies to bloat. WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT ALREADY. All we have to do is start ACTING like it.