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TODAY, 26 October 2026.
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Instead of spending this week covering another horror this regime wants to impose on us, I want us to think together about what our country can be.
I still have to do numerous updates to this collaborative document on the following topics:
The military
Guns
Policing
Specific language regarding Citizens United and the 14th Amendment
Additional ideas for how to select an executive
Ideas to abolish political parties
And more
But today, let’s review what we have.
The list below is a result of numerous contributions from We the People. It is an effort to give everyone a seat at the table to determine what a fair, democratic Constitution might look like, either by abolishing our existing document and writing a new Constitution or using this collaborative effort to revise and amend our existing Constitution.
(Full Disclosure: I prefer using the spirit of our original Constitution to write a new one that represents ALL people, not only rich white men who didn’t believe women were people and many of whom thought it was okay to own people. To me, a representative Constitution includes framers who look like all of us.)
CONSTITUTION
A new Constitution with fundamental rights spelled out in the document, not an attached Bill of Rights. It specifically states that ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL and spells out that this country will no longer give preference to rich, white, Christian men. Make equal rights for ALL POPULATIONS part of the Constitution.
Make abortion and bodily autonomy for women and the LGBTQIA+/trans communities Constitutional rights.
Make marriage equality a Constitutional right.
Build equal rights for women into the Constitution. Given this country’s history, it won’t be enough to say ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL. We must spell out what we mean.
State that Peoples of Color ARE EQUAL PEOPLE. Spell out what that means. And commit to a dollar amount of reparations for slavery of Black people and robbery of Indigenous people.
Universal Healthcare is a basic human right.
A home is a basic human right.
Food is a basic human right.
Water is a basic human right.
Define separation of church and state as NO RELIGION BELONGS IN GOVERNMENT. PERIOD.
ELECTIONS
Citizenship means voting is mandatory. No more registering to vote. You’re a citizen; you’re required to vote. (For those who question this, please read more about how it works in Australia
HERE.)Abolish the Electoral College.
Outlaw gerrymandering.
Put upper age limits on who can serve in political office.
Election days are national holidays to enable everyone to vote without missing work.
CAMPAIGNS
Scrap our entire campaign system.
Outlaw Citizens United and get money out of politics.
Fund elections with taxpayer dollars. Each candidate receives the same campaign allotment to spend on a defined list of items. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
Limit election seasons to a few weeks before each election. The rest of the time, our elected officials sit their butts in their offices and work for their constituents instead of spending their time raising money.
LEGISLATURE
Increase the number of representatives to match our current population. This could be accomplished by creating a UNICAMERAL legislature. (Unicameral = one body; it would abolish the House and Senate and create a new legislative structure. This is a big update from prior lists.)
Term limit every elected office. Legislative branch = 4 years. Executive branch = 4 years. Maximum = 8 years. (Meaning a legislator could run for president and serve a maximum of 8 years. Term limits are aggregated.)
Outlaw elected officials investing in markets, gambling on our futures, or profiting from their offices in any manner.
Elected representatives get the same things normal citizens have: Same healthcare; same retirement; same line at the airport; same ancillary benefits; same everything.
Scrap the two existing political parties. Take their money to seed a new system. (This includes every campaign war chest for every incumbent, every PAC, and every SUPER PAC. If those funds exceed the required amount, return the excess to the Treasury to fund programs for WE THE PEOPLE.)
Support at least five viable national political parties that more closely align with the citizenry’s views. It is exciting to vote for candidates whose parties share our views.
Reform the legislature into a coalition government, where parties must work together to form a governing majority.
Abolish lobbying as a profession.
JUDICIARY
Reform the judiciary with term limits and ethics rules that apply to all levels. No judge should be appointed to a lifetime term at any level, and no judge should be exempt from ethics rules. Federal and appellate court judges = two 4-year terms. Supreme Court justices = one 8-year term.
No Supreme Court justice could run for elected office. No elected official who has met their term limits could be elevated to Supreme Court justice.
Impeach and remove the six conservative Supreme Court justices for ethics violations and complicity in a coup.
Expand the Supreme Court and underlying circuit courts to mirror the population.
Examine and possibly scrap the current judicial appointment system in favor of electing judges.
EXECUTIVE
Clearly and unequivocally state that no person is above the law, including the Executive.
Remove the Executive’s pardon power, especially when it would be applied to someone in their orbit. Pardons are not currency. They are not leverage. They are not advance cover to do unspeakable things.
Presidential campaigns are not popularity contests. We seek the most qualified person to lead what was once a great country. Candidates should have an actual slate of qualifications that can then be used to interview, vet, and hire that Executive for a set term.
The Executive should not be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. That role should go to someone with deep military experience and independence from the Executive.
The Executive and her/his family must divest of all assets while in office and live on the salary and benefits provided by WE THE PEOPLE.
The Executive cannot invest in markets, gamble on our futures, or profit from the office in any manner.
Prosecute every member of this regime who violated the old Constitution. Strip them of their assets and return them to the coffers of We the People. Implement fair punishments, including those applicable to traitors.
ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
Regulate tech companies.
Outlaw billionaires.
Tax corporations and the wealthy. Make them pay their fair share, which means a Progressive Tax to make them pay what they owe.
Define a Universal Basic Income.
Every parent is eligible for up to one year of paid parental leave per child.
Set a living minimum wage that is in line with Universal Basic Income.
Every job has minimum paid vacation and paid sick time.
Universal childcare is funded, staffed, and available for every parent.
Make hoarding wealth as humiliating as it presently is to be poor. Society should champion the least of us and scorn the worst of us. Billionaires are the worst of us, no matter how they accumulated their wealth and regardless of how much they give away.
RECOVERY FROM DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING
Prosecute those who participated in fascism. I don’t believe we can oust them from power and say
*now we need to rise above and look forward.*NO. We must make them examples through Nuremberg-type trials conducted by the International Criminal Court. (I don’t trust our current corrupted judiciary or partisan system to do this well.)Investigate and prosecute the far-right funding system.
TAX CHURCHES and religious non-profits.
Take all ill-gotten gains and replenish the Treasury they plundered. If that means dismantling their off-shore wealth hiding structures and seizing assets for public use, so be it.
Devise a system to undo the generations-long indoctrination structures of White Christian Nationalism (which includes white supremacy). As a victim of indoctrination, I grasp how much therapeutic support people need to break free from those systems.
Abolish NSPM-7 and its predecessor, the USA Patriot Act of 2001. Both violated guaranteed Constitutional protections in our original founding document.
MEDIA
Regulate and restrict social media like addictive drugs.
Break up all media monopolies.
Outlaw billionaire ownership of media entities. Information is too important to be owned and controlled by billionaires.
Bring back media regulations that Reagan scrapped, which has led to the infotainment, propaganda-fueled world we live in today.
Invest in old-school journalism education.
From kindergarten, teach citizens about healthy media consumption, including critical thinking.
Make online stalking, doxxing, trolling, harassment, and other forms of stochastic terror felonies punishable with prison time.
EDUCATION
Mandatory civics education from kindergarten.
A uniform history of this country taught at every level. This would include the truth about slavery, colonialism, imperialism, genocide, and the many flaws of our founders. This effort could be directed by a National Historian and assisted by a representative citizen committee.
Public schools are not dens of religious indoctrination. Religion can be taught by parents in the home and reinforced in their chosen churches. Public schools are not churches or religious institutions.
The arts and humanities are fully funded and taught at every level. These disciplines teach children critical thinking, empathy, and an appreciation for a world that is bigger than themselves.
Regular school visits by elected officials. These would serve two purposes: To remind our leaders whose futures they’re working for; and to inspire our children to grow up and change the world.
Fund free college education for every American who qualifies. Forgive student loan debt and scrap student loan programs.
IMMIGRATION
A fundamental statement that, unless one is an Indigenous American, everyone is an immigrant.
An understanding that while no country can absorb an unlimited stream of new people, we must devise and maintain a fair, humane, accessible immigration system.
Abolish ICE, the Border Patrol, and the Department of Homeland Security. While securing our borders and screening visitors is necessary, these organizations are too corrupt to be reformed.
Abolish the Incarceration Industrial Complex and outlaw private prisons.
Determine how much money every immigrant spent to become a citizen the “right” way and make them and/or their families whole if they were kidnapped and disappeared for following the government-outlined process.
THE ENVIRONMENT
Restore the respect for science and expertise as central to a functioning democracy.
Include a statement about protecting and preserving the planet in a new Constitution. This would include recognizing that the climate changes, and acknowledging that human actions contribute to this cycle.
Update infrastructure to embrace green energy wherever possible.
Update infrastructure to embrace cleaner, more efficient processes whenever possible, even if it means a larger up-front investment.
Invest in electric vehicles, public transportation, and movement that doesn’t depend on fossil fuels.
Help Americans in areas already lost to climate change migrate to other areas. No matter how much money we spend, we will not stop rising seas unless we change our long term habits.
Incentivize reuse and recycling over continuous consumption.
Restore the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Hurricane Center.
Remove NASA, the NIH, and other scientific agencies from private billionaire influence and fund those agencies to empower future scientific breakthroughs that will benefit all people.
Stop poisoning our land and water by restoring regulation of corporate pollution and poisoning of living beings. Make companies and their shareholders liable for this damage.
This document informed my voting decisions. (I have already cast my Midterm ballot.) May it be useful in the coming days.
What would you add? Besides the list I shared at the top of the newsletter? Leave your ideas in a comment today.
This ongoing project will never be paywalled. Please click the SHARE button below and get more Americans thinking about how to create a country for WE THE PEOPLE.
