In the face of headlines like this: “Trump
Kicks Aside Congress With Sweeping Claims
of Presidential Power With aggressive
reading of Constitution, president aims to
upend balance of power in Washington.” Americans who voted for Kamala Harris are also confronted
with headlines like this: “We
Have No Coherent Message - Democrats
Struggle to Oppose Trump.”
In between a rock and a hard
place, no?
What do we believe, what do we
want?
The Democratic Party is in desperate need of a practical,
common-sense platform that Americans can rally
behind. The Black Panther Party understood the power of a simple, clear list of demands,
thus the What we want, What we believe
10 point program - so did FDR with his New Deal and The 2nd Bill of Rights. Democrats
need a cheat sheet - a 5-, 7-, or 10-point
plan to hand out like candy on Halloween. Give
the people something they can understand,
believe in, and fight for.
What we don’t need is a “Make Believe” fantasy pipe dream.
Utopian, as in: an imagined perfect society or place, where
everything is ideal, a completely equal
society, a state of complete perfection.
A Plan for the Present - A
Vision for the Future
Our vision must be bold, clear, and unapologetically
geared toward the everyday struggles of
millions of Americans. Imagine this as our
battle cry:
What We Want. What We Believe.
1. We want economic justice - a guaranteed living wage for all. No one should work themselves into the grave while
billionaires hoard wealth stolen from our
labor. A fair wage isn’t a privilege - it’s
the bare minimum.
2. We want homes, not empty
promises. A nation that lets its people sleep on the streets
while luxury condos sit vacant is a nation
built on greed, not justice. We demand a national housing strategy that ensures no one is left homeless.
3. We want healthcare for all -
not as a business, not as a bargaining chip, but as a
human right. We refuse to let corporate
vultures decide who lives and who dies. Universal, accessible healthcare is not up for debate.
4. We want protection for the
land and the hands that work it. Rural communities, farmers, and workers should not
be sacrificed for corporate profits and
foreign exploitation. We demand fair trade and agricultural
protections that uplift people, not conglomerates.
5. We want real education - not pipelines to debt or prisons. The future should not be
reserved for the wealthy. Fully funded public education
and debt-free college are not radical ideas; they are the foundation of a
just society.
6. We want a society that does
not discard its people. Old age, sickness, and job loss should not be death
sentences. We demand a robust social safety net that guarantees dignity, security, and freedom from fear.
We will not ask politely. We
will not wait. We will build this future –
undeterred.
It doesn’t get any clearer than this: We need a vision
built for actual people - the ones who work, struggle, and live in
the real world. Not for DINOs - those hollow, corporate-branded relics
masquerading as Democrats. You know the type:
Clinton-era dealmakers, Reagan-nostalgic
fence-sitters, Dixiecrat holdovers clinging to
their “moderate” racism, and the soulless
aristocrats who mouth the words of progress
while counting their Wall Street dividends.
Enough. The party can serve the people - or it
can serve the powerful. It cannot do both.
Oh, the Left - so magnificently, gloriously fractured and
fragmented, hysterically debating whether to
rescue the last polka dot plaid unicorn, or
founding an orphanage for runaway Yeti’s in
North Nepal. Meanwhile, on the Right, MAGA? Oh, they have clarity. Their grand unifying theory
is 3rd grade simple: They hate us. Not just
dislike, not just disagree - hate with the
fire of a thousand tiki torches at a
Charlottesville rally. And that, dear friends,
should be, ought be our common thread. We are the unworthy, the unwanted, the
"wrong" race, class, gender, faith, culture -
you name it, they despise it.
So once again, while we argue
over the finer points of pronouns, green
energy incentives, and the existential crisis
of a corporate Pride flag in June, the Right
is busy redrawing America in crayon-colored
segregation maps. They aren’t nitpicking; they
are bulldozing. Their mission is clear:
oppress, imprison, isolate, and if time allows
between Fox News segments, maybe sprinkle in a
little 1950s-style segregation to really drive
home the nostalgia.
And here’s the kicker - the
stuff we should actually be fighting for? The
ability to own a home without selling a
kidney, actual living-wage jobs, affordable
education that doesn’t strap you with debt
until your grandkids inherit it? Yeah, those
are not luxuries. But the Left, in its
infinite academic navel-gazing, sometimes gets
distracted. We’d rather host a TED Talk on the
moral dilemma of plastic straws than fight
like hell for economic justice.
So yeah, maybe it’s time for
less debating, less micro-infighting, and more
unification in the face of absolute,
unapologetic, seething opposition. Because
like it or not, we’re in the same trench, and
the other side is coming with torches and
pitchforks - again.
We need to pivot hard and fast. If there’s a historical
moment to emulate, it’s FDR’s leadership
during a time of crisis. His Second Bill of Rights was not just a policy proposal but a declaration of
war against inequality, insecurity, and
despair. Let’s break it down and apply it to
our present nightmare:
FDR’s Second Bill of Rights: A
Blueprint for Resistance
1. The right to adequate food,
clothing, and recreation: Trump’s policies will unquestionably drive millions
further into poverty, they’ll gut labor
protections and deliberately widen the wealth
gap. We need to guarantee basic necessities as
human rights - raise the minimum wage, expand
food security programs, and create jobs that
pay a living wage.
2. The right to fair returns for
farmers: Rural America will be crushed under Trump’s trade wars
and corporate monopolies. Democrats must
champion sustainable agriculture, fair trade,
and protections for small farmers. Let’s
remind these communities who’s really fighting
for them.
3. The right to a decent home: Trump will be slashing affordable housing programs,
pushing millions closer to homelessness. Our
platform must demand rent stabilization,
protections against predatory lending, and a
national housing strategy prioritizing
affordability.
4. The right to medical care: Trump’s relentless attacks on the Affordable Care Act
and refusal to address the opioid crisis have
left millions without healthcare. Universal
healthcare isn’t a luxury - it’s a moral
imperative.
5. The right to economic security: With Trump targeting Social Security and Medicare,
millions of Americans face uncertainty. We
must protect the social safety net and expand
protections for the most vulnerable.
6. The right to a good education: Trump’s war on public education - through voucher
programs and funding cuts - is a direct attack
on future generations. Democrats must demand
universal access to quality education from
early childhood through college.
FDR’s words echo loudly now: “We cannot be content, no matter
how high that general standard of living may
be, if some fraction of our people - whether
it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth -
is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and
insecure.” These rights aren’t radical; they’re foundational to a
functioning democracy.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Trump’s America is a
dystopia in the making, and the clock is
ticking. If we fail to rise to this moment,
history will not remember us as the party of resistance but as the party of irrelevance. Let this be the moment we rise - not as fractured
idealists, but as a united force ready to
reclaim the legitimate promise of liberty,
justice, freedom and equality. The core
elements of a civilization all human beings
crave. The time for lofty debates is over.
It’s time to fight - to save democracy, to
save the planet, and to save ourselves.
