The Four Great Things

By John Leone

What must be done to heal, strengthen and secure our nation.

1.) Campaign finance reform

Ban bundling and television ads, and replace them with publicly-financed televised debates, ten in all, every sunday leading up to an election. Candidates qualify by strictly-run polls.The debates are formal, observing strict rules of debate. Questions are posed by citizens, reporters,and experts on the topic.

2.) End the Drug War

Two thirds of all prisoners at all levels from jails to penitentiaries are incarcerated for marijuana offenses. This is quite simply insane. Time to medicalize all drugs, de-criminalize addiction, and move from a penal to a therapeutic model.The privatization of the police forces and prisons,like the privatization of the military, has expanded racism,multiplied by orders of magnitude the costs of penal systems, and incentivized the incarceration of the defenseless.

3.) Reclaiming the military from the private corporate world,and draining profit from war. Far too many essential military services, in such critical areas as communications, computing, IT, special weapons systems manufacturing, and design are outsourced to civilian and often foreign companies and individuals, with minimal regard to national security considerations. There have always been war profiteers, but today's weapons and world make their prosecution and jailing an urgent priority.

4.) Provide health care on a not-for-profit basis to all Americans, paid for by a payroll tax on employer and employee,like Social Security.

-John Leone