The Top Ten Must Haves for My Political Party by Robert R. Odle

The Top Ten Must Haves  for My Political Party (Version 1). Robert R. Odle

My top value in life is compassion and I want to be a good citizen of the earth.  I want a party that reflects my values.  I care little for rules or laws that are not compassionate and the only religious concept that I buy into is that I am my brother’s keeper.  I have observed what has happened to the middle class over the last 40 years and the formation of an elite rich that runs the world, and I want to take back my country.  I believe we are all (99%)  fundamentally the same -- good people trying our best -- each of us has a fictional story of our life, our country and our party  that we back with carefully chosen facts (ignoring all facts that don’t fit in the story).   I’m analytical by training, compassionate by nature.

1. I want a party that feels compassion for immigrants and their families.  

Someone that came here to take better care of their family is alright with me and I don’t really care if they broke some unrealistic, out-dated, ineffective, and counter-productive immigration laws.  I really love children coming to our country for help -- I’m proud when we are a generous country, especially to kids.  Simple, isn’t it.

The win-win solution to the immigration laws is to make them legal ASAP and then tax them.  The cost of sending 11 million home I’m guessing has to be in the tens of billions of dollars and even more important is that it breaks up families.  If your kids are U.S. citizens, staying here and taking care of them sounds like the right thing to support.  But, even more, anyone that has come here for their family is okay by me.

I want a party that supports all families and people to live better lives independent of their nation of birth.   I believe in compassion for the those that pursuit life, liberty and happiness.

McCain, Rubio, and Obama seems close to a reasonable position on immigration.   The conservatives are hung up on retribution which is not my cup of tea.

2.  I want a party that has compassion for the difficulties that gays face in not being able to be married -- and in life in general.

I want a party that supports equal rights for all including gays.   Simple enough.  I believe in freedom to be yourself -- consenting adults is good.  Simple enough.

I need a party that embraces gays and doesn’t just tolerate them.  My first wife left for a woman and I supported her as much as I could.  It was my first introduction to the gay life and I think I did okay.  I want my party to do at least as good as I did 30 years ago -- I’ve grown some and I want my party to grow.

3.  I want a party that does not cater to and promote the super-rich.

The concept of trickle-down economics is stupid - just look at what’s happened in the world.  The top 85 people now control 50% of the wealth in the world. The top 10% has 80% of the wealth in this country.  If you think that’s okay, we don’t need to change anything, just keep trucking.  I’m not good.

As a first step, I believe in progressive taxation for all income, yes, including long term capital gains, inheritances, and salaries, etc.  Just a progressive tax on salaries only impacts the middle class and gives a free ride to the wealthy.  Not okay with me, part of the rules that makes the elite rich possible.  I’m not good.

I would phase out corporate taxes which is a double taxation scheme that makes no sense.  Money from corporations goes to individuals.  When it does, tax it progressively, see above.  Corporate taxes actually complicates fairness and gives companies plenty of incentive to misallocate resources to avoid taxation.  KISS.

I want a party that supports moving the wealth being created back to the middle class. Simple enough. Any more ideas on how to do this?

4. I want a party that has compassion for its citizens - those with pre-existing conditions .

For example, I want a party that has compassion for those with pre-existing conditions that could not get insurance before Obamacare.  I want a party that has compassion for all those without medical care.  This is standard stuff for most of the civilized countries in the world.  Simple enough.

And yes, I lost most of my life savings because a the pre-existing condition of my wife.  And Obamacare saved my daughter … a work still in progress, but he changed the rules to let children be covered under their parents policy until they are 26.  Otherwise, I am pretty sure she would have died and I would lose what is left of my life savings. And now she has hope because she can get Obamacare (I hope although she is in a Republican state) and we (her and I) still have a fighting chance. Thanks Obama for the compassion that saved my daugher.  I wish you had come earlier when my late wife had cancer, but I’m eternally grateful, Obama.

 5. I want a country that has compassion for all the children in this country and all of the downtrodden.

A society is judged in my opinion by how well they take care of the weakest among them.  If a child is in distress, our society needs to be there to pick him up.  Helping the mom usually helps the child; for example, if she needs childcare, birth-control, public transportation, etc. (similar to the Denmark model).  Investing in our children is the same as investing in our future.

I want a party that Supports subsidized child care and birth control for the poor -- and anything else the children of this country need to become healthy adults. Simple enough.  What can your party offer me?

6.  I want a party that will not be the policeman of the world.

I want a party that shows compassion for those families we terrorize around the world with drones, bombs, and our might-is-right philosophy.  (Our irresponsible support for Israel falls under this category and takes a whole document on its own.)  I want a party that has compassion for our children and the pile of debt our military industrial complex is piling on our children.  Each war ends up costing about a trillion dollars - borrowed of course. And each year it costs about $600 billion to be the policeman of the world.  Our military is now in 150 countries around the world- America the big brother. I’m not good.

I also see an arrogance that we think we are always right and our total lack of respect for most other countries of the world.  We desert our values out of fear, Guantanamo Bay and the Patriot Act are an examples.  And to be the world’s big brother, we get in bed with lots of people that aren’t so nice … Saudi, Israel, Egypt, etc.

I don’t believe you can win religious and ideological wars with guns.  Every war since Vietnam seems to prove this to me … Perhaps Afghanistan will be an exception but I doubt it.

Unfortunately, both our parties support the U.S. being big brother for the world.  I need a new party, perhaps Gary Johnson.

7. I want a party that has a long term strategic plan for America that includes investments in:

• Children, see above.
• Free Public Education …through college, see our competitors (other countries). See one scheme here.
• Traditional Infrastructure.  bridges, roads, canals, electrical grids, public transportation (see advanced countries of the world).
• Leading edge infrastructure … including universal wifi, and devices for all our students to access the internet … development of tools/software for the modern class room.
• Some loan forgiveness/management for the trillion dollars in college loans.  Obama’s rule that debt repayment can only take 10% of a young person’s income is a good start.  Again, we need to invest in these young people, not bury them in debt just to get an education to help themselves and America compete.
• Research into renewable energy and lower CO2 emissions.

The best example of long term planning is China.  Capitalism used to be the only way to manage and grow an economy.  But, now with huge computing power that is available, centralized planning coupled with capitalism at the street level seems a viable option.  For example, look at rare earths (RE).  China 30 years ago decided they would be important and now they control 97% of the world supply. Computers, cell phones, our fighter jets and drones, etc. all must have RE.  There are hundreds of such examples, they have us by the balls and are just waiting to squeeze.

So, give me a political party that wants to invest in the future.  I need to see some long term thinking.  What’s your party got to offer?

8.  I want a political party that has compassion for the world we are destroying including:

• Depletion of finite resources including energy and mineral resources.
• Depletion of habitat for the other creatures on this planet.
• Depletion of water supplies in arid areas, including California.

I generally favor replacing traditional taxes, like income taxes, with taxes on consumption of finite resources.  A carbon tax (CO2 emissions) seems a reasonable way to track this consumption.  Consumption taxes in general seem like a good idea, but devising progressive taxation schemes is beyond our collective willpower at the moment. So, let’s stick with progressive taxes the old fashion way for now.

I favor eliminating subsidies to oil companies, big farmers (the only kind there is really), and big business in general.  Keeping peace in the middle east is just another type of  subsidies for our oil habit.

9. I want a political party that does not make WAR on everything.

War on Drugs (actually on black people that do drugs) , War on Terrorism (can you drop bombs on bad ideas and ideologies),  War on Poverty (what does that mean, is there a positive way to say this?), War on Women, War on Democracy, War on War, War on Want, the War on Cancer, War on Voting, War on Christmas, War on Cash, etc.

A war on something is a mind-set that with enough might and power we can make someone do what we want them to do.  Those with this philosophy believe that we do not have to change their mind, we simply attack their actions and make them change their ways.  We punish the drug user, help the alcoholic, we punish the felony and wonder why they don’t really change.  The result, the highest incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world.  I want a party that believes you should try to bring out the good in all people.

10.  I want a party that normally complies with the will of the majority of the electorate.

In our days of computers and smart phones, it should relatively easy to poll the country on major issues, and even subtopics in the bill.  Social media could be used to present and argue ideas for a few months, followed by some poll taking.  In the beginning we would still need Congress to formulate the bills based on public opinion.  The goal would be to move us toward being a democracy again. Perot proposed this idea of an electronic town hall a few decades ago.  Of course, there are naysayers and it would take time and effort to get it going, but the goal is a noble as it gets.

For example, does most of the people of the U.S. want term limits?  A balanced budget? Pot legalized? Elimination of PAC’s?  U.S. being the policeman of the world? Let’s debate then have a non-binding referendum.

In conclusion, I want a party, and government, that is of the people and for the people.