Upon this great country’s 250th birthday (and I remember the bicentennial y’all), we face our greatest challenge since the Civil War. Can we heal the terrible damage Trump and MAGA have inflicted?

Yes. We can. It will take vision and dogged determination, but we can do it. Here’s how.

There are the obvious things:

• Pass John Lewis Voting Rights Act

• Sign bipartisan Housing act into law

• Roe 2.0: women have the UNRESTRICTED right to healthcare, including abortion

• End Citizens United and all corporate / dark money in politics

• Expand and term-limit SCOTUS

• Pass tough anti-corruption laws which apply to EVERYONE (including POTUS) equally

• Universal Healthcare

• Universal Basic Income (UBI)

• Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in ALL elections

• No stock trading in Congress

• Close all tax loopholes for the wealthy

• TAX THE RICH on an aggressive, sliding-scale schedule (0% up to $100k → 50% for income >$1M → 90% for >$10M)

• Cap C-Suite pay and benefits packages at 10x the lowest paid employees’ pay/benefits, for any given company

• Raise the minimum wage to a livable one, with YEARLY increases pegged to COLA

• AI was built on a Commons of human endeavor - the Internet. AI should therefore ALSO belong to the People (minimally, every person should be granted shares in every AI trained on the Internet)

• Sensibly regulate AI

• Aggressively pursue monopolistic scofflaws and expand existing antitrust laws

• Invest SS fund into index funds so there’s steady growth, and permanently remove any methods by which SS and Medicare/Medicaid funds can be raided and repurposed

• Reverse all the terrible Trump/SCOTUS Unitary Executive power expansions and ENSHRINE new restrictions INTO LAW

• Restore the damage done to institutions / programs by DOGE (USAID, DOJ, NPR, NHS, PBS, Dept of Ed, etc) and pass laws to prevent recurrence

• Pass laws supporting Open Source and Right to Repair #interop

• Enshrine the bureaucratic and institutional “norms” Trump and MAGA stole from us into Laws #WithoutFearOrFavor

• Legalize ALL drugs, fund Harm Reduction

• OUTLAW private prisons

It’s a start. But there’s also the larger social project, equally important. Hear me out?

We are suffering from a crisis of national purpose, to wit: there exists a void in our communities where the church used to be - for reasons good and bad - but we cannot continue to harbor an apocryphal, misty-eyed nostalgia for a 1950’s America-that-never-was.

MAGA offers a seductive vision to our young men, especially: guns, God and girls (in the form of quiet, faithful, obedient, pregnant trad wives). If we are to attain an abundant future and a healthy society, we MUST DO BETTER - have a better plan - for our youth.

I have an idea. I’ve been preaching it for 30 years: mandatory service to country (community) for TWO YEARS upon high school graduation.

Service does NOT have to be military/combat. AMERICORPS, Peace Corps, (hell, revive the WPA!), etc.

Upon completion of service, youths receive 100% govt subsidized 4-year degree college education at any public college or university (or equivalent amount contributed to private institutions).

MOST IMPORTANTLY: NO EXEMPTIONS. Not for bone spurs, not for all the money in the world, not for a Senator’s daughter.

This is how we solve SO MANY social problems!

• Instill character and a foundation of Service in a non-religious, humanitarian environment

• Learn valuable practical skills and knowledge

• Promote tolerance, teamwork, unity and cooperation to achieve shared goals

• Provide opportunities for service-based social interactions. No more loneliness crisis!

• Instill a sense of belonging and responsibility to one’s community

• Develop a sense of purpose, belonging and personal responsibility

This is a long-term project, but would transform our society for the better within a generation. There is no question that a sense of higher purpose, responsibility to community, and selfless Service create better character and feelings of accomplishment and self-confidence in all of us. Instilling these values in our young people can only transform our society for the better.

And that’s just the benefits to the Individual. The benefits to society as a whole would be staggering in their scope.

This is the Way.

Happy birthday, USA! I love you.