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Influence peddling is a way of life. What "payola" is to the music industry, "pay-to-play" is to Washington, and the more anted up, the more favors curried, but the "price of admission" keeps rising. Changing things requires major reform starting with a total electoral process makeover.
Get big money out of it and replace it with publicly funded elections. End corporate run electronic voting. Mandate verifiable hand-counting by nonpartisan civil servants. Adopt proportional representation over winner-take-all. Institute instant runoff voting (IRV). Automatically enfranchise all US citizens at birth under one uniform national law. Prohibit paid political advertising and require broadcasters to provide free air time to all candidates equally over over a shorter electoral cycle. Make democracy in America real, not the best kind money can buy.
Make the impeachment and conviction process work by using them against presidents and others having no place in honest government. End the idea that "We Won't Impeach (or Convict) You No Matter What." Get oversight back into the system. Make abuse of office a crime and hold offenders accountable. Hold public hearings. Demand vital documents. Issue binding subpoenas. Make not showing up criminal. Jail those refusing to cooperate. Make it apply to top officials, including the president and vice president. Use independent special prosecutors freely, fully empowered by their mandate. Put teeth back into the rule of law.
Undoing the Imperial Presidency and the Wars They Wage
America's imperial presence is everywhere through a global network of bases able to strike any nation perceived as a threat and intimidate others into submission. Host country populations perceive us as intrusive, hostile, and detrimental to their own interests with good reason.
They reflect empire and an aim to dominate everywhere, not security, at the expense of appropriated public land, environmental pollution and destruction, unacceptable noise, and human rights abuses by abusive troops committing crimes that include murder and rape.
They control trade, resources, local cheap labor, and political, economic, and social life in host countries. They force compliance with America's will through the Pentagon's might and freewheeling use of it. They've made America a global pariah, and they're illegal and oppressive as unwelcome occupiers.
Respecting International Treaties
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