The Progressive Bull Moose Party Platform

This is a draft of the Progressive Bull Moose Party Principles and Platform. If we can achieve even one third of these ideas it will go a long sea mile toward giving power back to the American people. If anything on here stands out to you as being particularly important or something you disagree with, please say so. This is a work in progress, please join the conversation and help us flesh this out.

 


Stage 1 Priorities: Fix the System. Save the Planet—

 

Election Reform

  1. Abolish corporate personhood.
  2. End partisan gerrymandering.
    1. We support the Open Our Democracy Act which “requires that states establish independent commissions for congressional redistricting; makes Election Day a holiday; and institutes open top-two primaries for House and Senate elections, allowing all voters, including registered Independents and unaffiliated voters to participate in primaries.”
  3. Repeal Citizens United and the McCutcheon rulings.
  4. Kill super PACs and end big money in politics.
  5. Reform campaign finance laws.
  6. Allow open primaries (like in California).
  7. Create a “None of the Above” option in all federal elections.

 

Wall Street and Corporate Reform

  1. End “Too Big to Fail”—bust ‘em apart. Resurrect Glass-Steagall.
  2. Eliminate corporate welfare—including tax breaks, subsidies & loopholes.
  3. Tame rampant income inequality—including establishing equal pay for women, a living wage & increased taxes on the billionaires & 0.01%.
  4. Strengthen Social Security (remove the ceiling).
  5. Cap the size of corporations. End hostile, unproductive takeovers & leveraged buyouts; stop mergers that undermine competition.
  6. Establish measures to bring much greater transparecy to the Federal Reserve, including annual or biennial independent audits (the Fed needs to remain independent of partisan politics, but the American people, ultimately, have a right to know everything that happens).
  7. Re-write the STOCK Act to strengthen the ban on Members of Congress from trading on insider information, eliminating their "abnormally higher returns," and the harm this causes the American people.
  8. Guiding Ideas:
    1. "The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government." —Theodore Roosevelt,
    2. "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." —Franklin D. Roosevelt,
    3. "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both." —Louis D. Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1916-1939)
    4. "An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." —Plutarch, Ancient Greek Historian (c. 46-120 A.D.)

 

Smaller, More Responsive Government

  1. Establish term limits—including lobbyists, congressional staffers, agency “lifers,” and the Supreme Court (18 years), with a rotating Chief Justice (every 6 years).
  2. Establish merit-based selection of U.S. Supreme Court justices, with two-thirds supermajority confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
  3. Rein in government spending. Balance the budget. Payoff the debt.
  4. Rein in corporate lobbying, including a 3-year “cooling off” period, increased transparency and monitoring, and stronger sanctions (fines and imprisonment) for violations.
  5. Halt domestic spying without a warrant. Abolish secret courts.
  6. Establish a national referendum over extended military action (“The War Powers Act of 1973 gives the president the power to wage war for 60 days before an authorization from Congress is needed.”)

 

Environmental Reform

  1. Invest in clean, renewable energy.
  2. Move the country away from fossil fuels, while working with corporations to transition workers to new jobs.
  3. Demand clean water and clean air.
  4. Protect our oceans, rivers, and lakes from pollution, toxic dumping, and over-fishing.
  5. Continue to reduce carbon emissions.
  6. Repeal immediately the "Monsanto Protection Act," and the DARK Act (Deny Americans Right to Know Act).

 


Stage 2 Priorities: Implement the Progressive Agenda—

 

Women’s Rights

  1. Eliminate the gender pay gap.
  2. Provide 90 days of paid family leave.
  3. Protect women’s health education
  4. Require the boards of all public companies to have at least 40% women (and at least 40% men too).

 

Immigration Reform

  1. First and foremost, take immediate, reasonable steps to strengthen our borders, protect border communities, and bring an end to illegal immigration.
  2. Establish a just, humane path to citizenship that allows immigrant families to stay together, pay taxes, and contribute to the betterment of the United States. As Ronald Reagan said in his 1984 election, “I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here even though sometime back they may have entered illegally.”
  3. Enforce the laws against employers that are illegally hiring illegal immigrants.
  4. Partner with our Latin American neighbors and allies around the world to reduce the extreme income inequality that drives migration.

 

Student Loan Reform

  1. End the federal government’s profiteering off student loan programs.
  2. Curb excessive student loan interest rates.
  3. Make public colleges and universities tuition free.

 

Health Care

  1. Establish a free healthcare system for all U.S. citizens, one that is equivalent to the healthcare available to members of the U.S. Congress.
  2. Eliminate the health insurance industry (We currently spend one-third of all healthcare dollars on billing and bureaucracy. This doesn’t even include the profits that go to insurance companies. This makes no sense. We propose to eliminate the health insurance industry and replace it with a single payer system.).
  3. Require the government to negotiate lower prices for healthcare costs and prescription drugs.

 

Gun Laws

  1. We fully support the U.S. Constitution, including the Second Amendment.
  2. We do not support the increasing militarization of the police.
  3. We believe in reasonable backgroud checks for all gun buyers (but we do not suppport a “national gun registry” or unlawful government surveillance of gun buyers)
  4. Guiding Ideas:
    1. "The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world… The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!" —Theodore Roosevelt
    2. "To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” —George Washington
    3. "By calling attention to ‘a well regulated militia,’ ‘the security of the nation,’ and the right of each citizen ‘to keep and bear arms,’ our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy… The Second Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the Second Amendment will always be important." —John F. Kennedy
    4. "One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them." —Thomas Jefferson
    5. "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." —Thomas Jefferson
    6. "You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up and if you don’t actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time… It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience." —Ronald Reagan

 

Law Enforcement

  1. End the war on drugs. Do not legalize drugs, but decriminalize personal possession. Treat drug use and abuse as a public health issue, not a crime.
  2. Recalibrate the DEA to focus on harm reduction and treatment programs, while continuing to focus on drug cartels, and keeping drugs out of the hands of kids.
  3. Legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis like alcohol.
  4. Outlaw private prisons.
  5. End mandatory minimums.
  6. Abolish asset forfeiture.

 

 

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