15 Sample Issues WE CAN MAKE PROGRESS ON IN Washington, D.c.

 Let's get away from the partisan obstruction and debate going around in endless circles on the various zero-sum, across-the-board, all-or-nothing health care schemes that the partisan ideologues keep pitching to us. It is getting us nowhere and the grassroots demands progress. There is common ground on Health Care where we all know there are do-able legislative fixes that can be made right now. DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue.

Obviously, we all depend on public servants who protect and serve public safety, community health and social services. It helps no one to use isolated incidents of malfeasance in any of these areas in order to tear down dedicated public servants and drive wedges between these everyday heroes and the citizens they serve.  But it is just as irresponsible (and pigheaded) to ignore the real issues that can seriously threaten effective public service and quality of life in our communities. The bottom line is: If any of us can’t trust that we can thrive together as neighbors, we won’t move forward as a neighborhood, a community or a nation...any of us. It’s as simple as that. You probably feel well served by the public servants in your community; I know I do. But when you and I can plainly see that entire groups of good people feel that their pursuit of peace and prosperity in daily life is NOT enhanced by their daily interactions with those who are sworn to protect and serve them, then we have to admit that we have issues in our public service/community safety model. What are we scared of? What keeps us from dispensing unhelpful "love it or leave it" type rhetoric and instead name the successes and weakness and opportunities in our public service/community safety model head on? We need to work together to fix this imbalance of perspective between communities, not as members of separate "tribes" but as neighbors. So ... here's what I say: Let's urge reasonable Americans to tune out the grandstanding by feckless "community organizers," politicians and talking heads on issues regarding institutions such as the police, social services, and public education -- and instead let’s rationally discuss our expectations for critical services such as community protection and development. Then let's design innovative systems that can meet those expectations for everyone. We must have a model that can be delivered justly and equitably in every American neighborhood, and each of us has to play a role in finding the common ground. That's the only way America works going forward. DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue.

We can all agree that shrewd federal investment in small business and grassroots entrepreneurship at the neighborhood level can provide rocket fuel for community economies. So let’s start in this year unleashing local ingenuity and workplace innovation in rural towns and small cities so we can fully put the Covid era behind us. We know the tools that work -- lets stop arguing and start putting these ideas to work!  And while we are at it, let's see that any American with good ideas who is willing to sweat gets the support they need to capitalize on their vision and expand the wealth of our community. It is high time that we turbo-charge small business development programming beyond the elite circle of well-connected "professional grantseekers" who currently get most of the federal funding across the nation.  Instead, lets charge the Federal bureaucracy to look for worthy strivers at the grass roots (people of all demographics) whose ideas and energies can really impact our communities. While set-asides for historically underserved populations in small business development and government contracting have undoubtedly made inroads in historical inequality across the nation, the challenge of the 2020s is for us all to compete fairly and thrive together as a true commonwealth. That is why I say that we need to energize the reach of these kinds of business and jobs development programs as broadly as possible so that we attract the efforts of any American with courage and solid preparation who wants to turn their ideas and dreams into profitable business activity, expanding layers of wealth, and opportunity in their community. DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue.

Offer Americans knowledge and opportunity, and we will thrive. There is widespread consensus that as the U.S. economy evolves, Americans in all industries and professions will regularly require new skills and updated perspectives to maintain their quality of life and compete globally for market share against oppressed low-wage workforces. So let's stop expanding unemployment insurance and wage-supplements and focus on funding federal programs right now that can offer every adult from 18 to 118 the opportunity to empower themselves and jump start their futures with easily accessible 21st Century workplace and career learning.  Let's be the first nation in human history to make subsidized adult professional development and personal enrichment programming a universal opportunity for American citizens by the mid 2020s -- just as we pioneered the concept of free childhood public education for the world in the late 1800s. This is something we can do; the infrastructure is there in our public community college and private on-line learning sectors. So let's get it done.   DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue.  

We don't have the luxury to be stubbornly partisan in addressing this area any longer. Too much is riding on progress we must make early in the 2020s on border security, immigration process mismanagement, resolving the citizenship status of "hidden" long-term residents, and re-visioning the future path to American citizenship. Everything must be on the table: security, basic fairness, future community "capacity," sustainability, and all economic variables. This is both an issue of 21st Century community sustainability and our core values as a nation.   DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue. 

  Not only are taxes still inevitable in our lives in the 2020s, but yet another reality of the post-Covid "new normal" is that government revenue streams will need to become torrents in the near future if we are to emerge from the pandemic crisis intact as a nation. So it's high time we stop pandering for votes with lies and misinformation on government revenue needs, deficits and fair taxation, and instead work seriously to make taxation in the United States clearer, fairer, and more universally applicable (in the sense that everyone and every institution participates equitably and appropriately in keeping the wheels of national government rolling).  DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue. 

  Should we balance the Federal budget? If you said yes, then how? What must we give up in order to do it? What do we gain as a nation if we do it? What could we lose if we don't? So, if we need to balance the Federal Budget, what specifically should we sacrifice in federal spending to solve the budget dilemma that we have been facing since the late 1990s? A serious (and sincere) representative in Congress (focused on solutions and not cynical re-election hype) must start answering this question with "we must achieve shrewder budgeting (and ultimately less federal spending) in all areas beginning as soon as possible," and finish with "and we must stimulate increased revenues from all sources." That's the extent of all possible answers to this existential challenge. So, from Day One of the next Congress, let's get real on this important issue together. Let's get started finding ways to trim all expenditures in wise proportions across the board over the next 5 years while raising revenues equitably over the next decade; and most importantly let's do this without curtailing opportunities for family and business prosperity at the grassroots. We are all going to have to sacrifice in some ways to get this done, citizens, bureaucrats, companies, non-profits, rich, poor, middle class...you name it. Just make it proportionate and outline to each of us how our sacrifice will impact our lives, our communities and future generations. 

This is the challenge of our generation, akin to what FDR asked of what became known as "The Greatest Generation" in the 1930s and 1940s. This is the call of our generation. Be a progress-oriented thinker, not just a follower of the partisan drones. Look at the greatest generation for inspiration... they worked together to solve the great economic and sociopolitical issues of their era. They didn't follow the pundits urging fear and retreat and just spread slogans instead of ideas: Don't those few petty politicians who decried the New Deal in the 1930s and denounced U.S. involvement in the European theater of World War II in the 1940s seem ridiculous now?  Don't the partisan politicians and wealthy fat cats who called government intervention in the Post-Depression economy "socialism" and "government overreach" seem like craven cowards to us now? Don't others who advocated appeasement of Hitler and abandonment of Democracy across the Atlantic (including the hero-celebrity Charles Lindbergh seem silly, almost laughable, in retrospect? The regular citizens who studied the solutions offered for these existential challenges to the American ideal, and bravely worked to see these solutions through despite their misgivings, these are the heroes of the 20th Century.  What will we be here in the 21st?  DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue.  

 In the 2020s, we need to explore ways to bring back some form of mandatory, away-from-home National Service Experience for all post-high-school-graduate 18-year-olds. This experience must provide every American who is coming of age an opportunity to serve, to learn and to understand the meaning of their citizenship.  Investing now in a national service initiative that offers a diverse menu of 6-weeks to 1-year learning/training/service opportunities to every young American will radically transform both our economy and our culture. While we are at it, we should see that there are optional and Federally subsidized learning/service/life-skills development opportunities for all American kids in the summer between the 9th and 10th grade years. These youth programs will radically transform the pathway to adulthood and productive citizenship for youth in America, while also going a long way toward helping get our communities back on the same page when it comes to how we all understand and share an appreciation for what it means and what it requires to be an American citizen. DIVE DEEPER to see how independent thinking can make a difference on this issue.