Fixing America - The People's Political Platform

Solutions 70% of Americans Support that Many Career Politicians Oppose

The Hidden Consensus

American politics looks broken, but beneath the partisan theater lies a surprising truth: most Americans agree on solutions to our biggest problems.

Universal healthcare? 63% support. Breaking up monopolies? 68% support. Getting corporate money out of politics? 77% support. Legalizing marijuana? 70% support. Raising taxes on billionaires? 73% support.

Americans have reached consensus. We know what needs fixing. So why won't politicians pursue these popular reforms?

While 70% of Americans support these reforms, Congress has a 14% approval rating and 91% incumbent re-election rate. The system is working—just not for us.

Because the people who profit from our broken systems pay for their campaigns. Health insurance companies, oil corporations, private prison operators, and billionaires donate millions to preserve the status quo. The 70% of Americans supporting change can't compete with corporate checkbooks.

Politicians won't bite the hands that feed them, even when those hands are strangling democracy.

The Real Divide

The real political divide isn't Republican versus Democrat. It's people versus politicians who've been bought. It's working families versus corporations treating government like their personal purchasing department. It's the 99% versus the 1% who've rigged the rules.

This platform represents what Americans actually want—not what corporate donors will allow. These aren't wish-list items or political theory. These are specific, actionable solutions with broad popular support that would fundamentally transform American politics, economics, and justice.

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Part One: Break Corporate Control of Government

Democracy dies when money talks louder than votes. Right now, we have government of the corporations, by the lobbyists, for the highest bidder. This corruption isn't subtle—it happens in broad daylight because it's been made legal.

Nothing else changes until we break the money-politics cycle blocking popular reforms.

1. End Corporate Political Spending and Implement Public Campaign Financing

Current reality: Corporations spend unlimited money through Super PACs and dark money groups. In 2020, outside groups spent $3 billion influencing elections. The pharmaceutical industry alone spent $375 million on lobbying in 2021. Politicians spend 30-70% of their time fundraising instead of governing.

What 77% of Americans want: Overturn Citizens United, limit corporate political spending, and publicly finance campaigns.

The solution: Constitutional amendment establishing that corporations aren't people and money isn't speech. Replace private campaign funding with public financing for all federal elections. Limit campaigns to 8 weeks like successful democracies do. Total cost: $3-5 billion per election cycle—a fraction of what we lose to corporate-bought policies.

Who's blocking it: Every politician dependent on corporate cash, the Chamber of Commerce ($81 million on 2021 lobbying), corporate law firms hiding political spending, and political consultants profiting from expensive campaigns.

2. Implement Congressional Term Limits

Current reality: Average House tenure is 9.7 years, Senate 11 years. Many serve for decades, becoming disconnected from ordinary Americans while building cozy lobbyist relationships.

What 82% of Americans want: Congressional term limits across all party lines.

The solution: 8-year House maximum (4 terms), 12-year Senate maximum (2 terms), 18-year Supreme Court terms with staggered appointments.

Who's blocking it: Career politicians who've made serving their personal wealth-building plan.

3. Cap Lobbying and Close Revolving Doors

Current reality: Five registered lobbyists for every Congress member. Former officials routinely become lobbyists, selling connections to the highest bidder. The revolving door spins so fast it makes democracy dizzy.

What 70% of Americans want: Ban former officials from becoming lobbyists and strictly limit lobbying spending.

The solution: Cap total lobbying spending at $1 billion annually—a 70% reduction. Five-year cooling-off period for all government officials before lobbying work. Real-time disclosure of all lobbying contacts and spending.

Who's blocking it: The $3.7 billion lobbying industry employing thousands of former politicians, and law firms like Akin Gump making fortunes selling government access.

4. End Election Rigging Through Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression

Current reality: Politicians choose voters through gerrymandering instead of voters choosing politicians. Voter suppression tactics make voting harder for working people while corporations spend unlimited money.

What Americans want: 71% support independent redistricting, 77% support automatic voter registration, 68% support making Election Day a national holiday.

The solution: Independent, nonpartisan redistricting in all states. Automatic voter registration at 18. Universal early voting and mail-in ballots. Make Election Day a federal holiday.

Who's blocking it: Politicians in gerrymandered safe seats who never face real competition, secretaries of state using voter suppression for partisan advantage, and state legislators benefiting from rigged maps.

5. Eliminate the Electoral College Through Interstate Compact

Current reality: The Electoral College forces presidential candidates to focus massive spending on just a few battleground states while ignoring most Americans. Five times in history, including 2000 and 2016, the candidate who lost the popular vote became president. This system amplifies special interest influence in swing states while making millions of votes irrelevant.

What 65% of Americans want: Direct election of the president through national popular vote.

The solution: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact—states totaling 270+ electoral votes agree to award them to the national popular vote winner. Currently at 205 electoral votes committed, just 65 more needed to effectively eliminate the Electoral College without constitutional amendment.

Who's blocking it: Politicians in non-competitive states who benefit from the current system's distortions, special interests that concentrate spending in battleground states, and state legislators who profit from the attention swing state status brings.

The payoff: Every vote counts equally, candidates must appeal to all Americans instead of just swing state voters, reduced campaign spending distortions, true majority rule in presidential elections.

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Part Two: Fix the Rigged Economy

The American economy works brilliantly if you own a corporation or inherit wealth. For everyone else, it's a rigged game. Workers are more productive than ever, but wages have stagnated while corporate profits hit records. This isn't capitalism—it's corporate socialism where we socialize risks and privatize profits.

Every policy concentrating wealth was purchased by the wealthy. Every rule favoring capital over labor was written by capital. Time to rewrite the rules.

6. Break Up Monopolies and Restore Competition

Current reality: Five companies control 90% of internet search. Three control 70% of health insurance. Four control 85% of beef processing. Amazon controls 50% of online retail. These aren't free markets—they're rigged games where giants set prices and crush competitors.

What 68% of Americans want: Break up big tech companies and strengthen antitrust enforcement across industries.

The solution: Aggressive antitrust enforcement against Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. Break up health insurance giants, agricultural monopolies, and media conglomerates. Block competition-reducing mergers.

Who's blocking it: Tech billionaires spending millions on lobbying, pharmaceutical companies charging Americans 10 times what they charge Europeans, and agricultural giants like Tyson controlling food prices.

7. Make Wealth Pay Its Fair Share

Current reality: Billionaires pay 8% effective tax rates while middle-class families pay 22%. Warren Buffett pays less than his secretary. Capital gains are taxed at half the rate of wages, rewarding speculation over productivity.

What Americans want: 73% support raising taxes on those earning over $400,000, 68% support wealth taxes on billionaires, 76% want corporate tax loopholes closed.

The solution: Progressive wealth tax starting at 2% on net worth over $50 million. Tax capital gains at wage rates. Close corporate loopholes letting profitable companies pay zero taxes. Implement 25% minimum tax rate on billionaires.

Who's blocking it: Every billionaire and their tax lawyer armies, corporate lobbying groups like the Business Roundtable, and tax prep companies profiting from complexity.

The payoff: $400 billion annually in new revenue for infrastructure, education, and healthcare while reducing democracy-threatening inequality.

8. Guarantee Living Wages and Worker Power

Current reality: Federal minimum wage remains $7.25—unchanged since 2009. Full-time minimum wage workers earn $15,080 annually, well below poverty. Worker productivity increased 70% since 1973, but wages barely budged. Only 6% of private workers belong to unions, down from 35% in the 1950s, while CEO pay increased 1,300%.

What Americans want: 67% support $15 minimum wage, 68% approve of labor unions, 77% support protecting organizing rights.

The solution: $20 federal minimum wage indexed to inflation and cost of living. End tipped minimum wage loopholes keeping restaurant workers in poverty. Pass the PRO Act restoring collective bargaining rights. End "right to work" laws that freeload off union efforts.

Who's blocking it: Restaurant industry lobbying groups, big box retailers like Walmart profiting from taxpayer-subsidized low wages, Chamber of Commerce, and anti-union consulting firms making billions breaking organizing drives.

9. Guarantee Universal Healthcare

Current reality: Americans pay twice as much per person for healthcare as other developed countries while getting worse outcomes. 500,000 families annually face medical bankruptcy. People die rationing insulin they can't afford.

What 63% of Americans want: Medicare for All with government-negotiated prescription prices.

The solution: Expand Medicare to cover everyone. Negotiate prescription drug prices like every other country. Eliminate insurance company middlemen adding cost without value. Guarantee healthcare as a human right.

Who's blocking it: Health insurance companies making $100 billion annual profits, pharmaceutical companies charging Americans 10 times what they charge other countries, and hospitals profiting from the broken system.

The payoff: $2,000 per person annual savings, no medical bankruptcies, entrepreneurs freed to start businesses without losing health insurance.

10. Make Housing Affordable

Current reality: Housing costs consume 50% of income in major cities. Corporations buy single-family homes to rent at inflated prices. Zoning laws restrict supply while demand grows. Young adults can't afford homes their parents bought easily.

What 75% of Americans want: Address housing costs as a serious problem, with 68% supporting more public housing and 62% wanting restrictions on corporate ownership.

The solution: Build 10 million public and social housing units over 10 years. Restrict corporate single-family home ownership. Reform zoning laws enabling more construction. Cap rent increases and prevent displacement speculation.

Who's blocking it: Real estate investment firms profiting from housing scarcity, wealthy homeowners preserving artificial scarcity inflating property values, and developers preferring expensive housing with higher margins.

11. End Student Debt and Make Education Accessible

Current reality: Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student debt. College costs increased 1,200% since 1980 while wages stagnated. Graduates enter the workforce drowning in debt, unable to buy homes or start families.

What Americans want: 66% support tuition-free public college, 58% support canceling existing debt, 71% want student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy.

The solution: Cancel existing federal student debt. Make public colleges and universities tuition-free. Expand community college and technical training funding. End predatory for-profit college scams trapping students in worthless debt.

Who's blocking it: For-profit college companies extracting billions while providing worthless degrees, student loan servicing companies profiting from debt collection, and universities with bloated administrations instead of educational investment.

12. Provide Universal Childcare and Expand Social Security

Current reality: Childcare costs more than college tuition in many states. Parents drop out of the workforce because they can't afford care. Working people pay Social Security taxes on every dollar while millionaires stop paying after $168,600 in income.

What Americans want: 75% support universal childcare, 83% support eliminating the Social Security income cap.

The solution: Universal childcare system like every other developed country provides. Pay childcare workers living wages to attract quality educators. Eliminate the Social Security income cap so wealthy Americans pay on all earnings like working people do.

Who's blocking it: Conservative politicians calling childcare a private responsibility despite economic benefits, for-profit childcare chains prioritizing profits over quality, wealthy individuals benefiting from regressive tax breaks, and lobbying groups representing millionaires and billionaires.

The payoff: Parents can work without choosing between career and family, children get early education improving lifelong outcomes, Social Security expansion with $100+ billion in additional annual revenue.

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Part Three: Deliver Justice and Safety

America imprisons more people than any country in history—2.3 million people costing $80 billion annually while failing to reduce crime or rehabilitate offenders. We have 4% of the world's population but 25% of its prisoners.

This isn't justice—it's a system designed to extract profit from human misery. Private prison companies need customers for shareholders. Police departments get military weapons while schools lack supplies. Drug laws criminalize addiction instead of treating it as health issue.

Every law criminalizing poverty, every policy militarizing police, every regulation treating immigrants as criminals was purchased by industries profiting from mass incarceration and human suffering.

13. End Mass Incarceration and the Failed Drug War

Current reality: America imprisons 2.3 million people—more than China despite one-fourth the population. We spend $80 billion annually on prisons with 70% recidivism rates. Private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group profit from human cages.

What 77% of Americans want: Criminal justice reform, reduced prison populations, and ended mandatory minimum drug sentences filling prisons with non-violent offenders.

The solution: Legalize marijuana nationwide and expunge past convictions. End mandatory minimums for non-violent crimes. Close private prisons profiting from incarceration. Invest in rehabilitation, education, and job training instead of punishment.

Who's blocking it: Private prison corporations needing prisoners for profits, police unions opposing reforms, prosecutors whose careers depend on conviction rates, and rural communities economically dependent on prison jobs.

The payoff: $30 billion annually saved on incarceration, families reunited, communities rebuilt, reduced crime through rehabilitation instead of punishment creating more criminals.

14. Hold Police Accountable and Ensure Public Safety

Current reality: Police kill over 1,000 Americans annually with minimal accountability. Qualified immunity protects officers from lawsuits even for clear constitutional violations. Police departments get military equipment while operating with less training than required for cosmetologists.

What Americans want: 64% support major police reforms, 58% want qualified immunity ended, 69% support independent oversight.

The solution: End qualified immunity enabling legal accountability. Require independent prosecutors for police misconduct cases. Mandate body cameras and civilian oversight boards. Redirect military equipment funding to community programs and police training.

Who's blocking it: Police unions protecting bad officers, prosecutors depending on police cooperation, politicians fearing "anti-police" labels, and defense contractors profiting from police militarization.

The payoff: Reduced police violence, increased community trust, fewer wrongful death settlements costing taxpayers millions, actual public safety instead of police state tactics.

15. Reform Immigration with Humanity

Current reality: Immigration enforcement separates families, fills private detention centers, and costs $18 billion annually. Undocumented immigrants live in fear while contributing billions in taxes they'll never see returned. Asylum seekers wait years for hearings while detained in corporate facilities.

What Americans want: 72% support citizenship paths for undocumented immigrants already here, 68% oppose family separation, 78% want faster, humane asylum processing.

The solution: Comprehensive citizenship path for 11 million undocumented immigrants contributing to communities. End family separation and private detention centers. Process asylum claims efficiently and humanely. Reform legal immigration to meet economic needs.

Who's blocking it: Private detention companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group profiting from human suffering, politicians using immigration fear for votes, and employers exploiting undocumented workers while opposing legal status requiring fair wages.

The payoff: $12 billion annually in additional tax revenue, economic growth as immigrants start businesses and buy homes, humane treatment reflecting American values instead of corporate profit motives.

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Part Four: Secure America's Future

America is falling behind while other countries build renewable energy systems and modern infrastructure. Climate change threatens coastal cities and agriculture while we debate whether it's real. Social programs that lifted previous generations are under attack while billionaires get tax breaks.

This isn't about ideology—it's about whether America leads the 21st century or becomes a declining power clinging to 20th century industries. China builds solar panels and electric vehicles while we argue about coal jobs that aren't returning. Europe provides free college and universal healthcare while we saddle students with debt and let people die rationing insulin.

16. Launch Emergency Climate Action

Current reality: America produces 15% of global emissions while suffering increasing climate disaster damage. Fossil fuel companies receive $20 billion annually in subsidies while renewable energy faces attacks. China dominates solar panel production and electric vehicle manufacturing.

What Americans want: 72% believe climate change is serious, 68% support government action, 79% want reduced fossil fuel dependence.

The solution: Massive federal clean energy infrastructure investment. End fossil fuel subsidies and redirect to renewable energy. Set binding emissions targets with enforcement. Create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.

Who's blocking it: Oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Koch Industries spending $200 million yearly on lobbying, corporate-backed politicians receiving millions from fossil fuel interests, and utility companies like Duke Energy profiting from outdated technology.

The payoff: Millions of jobs in growing industries, energy independence from unstable regions, cleaner air and water, avoiding trillions in climate damage costs, American leadership in 21st century energy.

17. Rebuild America's Infrastructure

Current reality: America's infrastructure gets D+ grades from civil engineers. Roads and bridges built in the 1950s are crumbling. China spends 9% of GDP on infrastructure while America spends 2.4%. Internet speeds lag behind other developed countries. The Biden Administration’s efforts were a good start, but just a drop in the bucket!

What 83% of Americans want: Major infrastructure investment, with 71% wanting nationwide high-speed internet and 68% supporting electrical grid modernization.

The solution: $2 trillion investment over 10 years rebuilding roads, bridges, airports, and transit systems. Expand broadband to rural and underserved areas. Modernize the electrical grid for renewable energy. Build high-speed rail connecting major cities.

Who's blocking it: Corporate-funded lawmakers opposing public investment, private utility companies profiting from outdated systems, and business groups benefiting from America's infrastructure disadvantage.

The payoff: Millions of construction and engineering jobs, faster and more reliable transportation and communication, economic growth as modern infrastructure attracts business investment, American competitiveness in the global economy.

18. Protect Personal Freedom from Government Overreach

Current reality: Politicians funded by religious authoritarians use government power to control personal decisions about bodies, families, and private lives. Tax-exempt religious organizations spend millions on political campaigns while claiming persecution. Politicians invoke religious beliefs to justify restricting others' rights.

What Americans want: 67% believe abortion should be legal in most cases, 89% support universal background checks for guns, 69% oppose using religious beliefs to restrict others' rights.

The solution: Pass federal legislation codifying reproductive choice nationwide. Universal background checks and gun licensing while protecting Second Amendment rights. Enforce strict separation of church and state, ending public funding for discriminatory religious organizations.

Who's blocking it: Religious authoritarian organizations wanting theocracy instead of democracy, politicians using religious rhetoric to manipulate voters while serving corporate donors, gun industry lobbyists profiting from fear-based marketing, and judges appointed specifically to restrict personal rights.

The payoff: Women treated as equal citizens making their own medical decisions, reduced gun violence while respecting constitutional rights, religious liberty for everyone rather than religious privilege for extremists.

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The Bottom Line

These 18 reforms would cost approximately $500 billion annually in new spending while saving over $1 trillion annually through reduced healthcare costs, eliminated corporate welfare, prison savings, and reduced corruption costs.

Net benefit: $500+ billion yearly—$4,000 per household that stays with working families instead of flowing to corporate donors.

Every other developed nation provides universal healthcare, limits campaign spending, invests heavily in infrastructure, and maintains strong social programs while achieving higher productivity and living standards. We're not proposing radical experiments—we're proposing America join the modern world.

The Choice Is Yours

This platform represents what Americans actually want: government serving working families instead of corporate donors, an economy rewarding work instead of wealth, justice protecting everyone instead of just the privileged, and leadership preparing for the future instead of protecting the past.

Every reform has majority support. Every solution works in other countries or states. Every obstacle was purchased by industries profiting from our broken systems.

The question isn't whether these ideas would work—it's whether we have the political will to overcome entrenched interests profiting from dysfunction.

Here's what you can do: Share these reform suggestions with others! Vote in every election, especially primaries where your vote matters most. Contact representatives demanding they support these reforms. Join organizations working for change. Support candidates embracing this platform. Better yet, run for office yourself.

The people's platform isn't about left versus right. It's about taking back government that belongs to all of us, not just those who can afford to buy it.

Every generation chooses between justice and injustice, progress and reaction, hope and fear. This is our moment.

The future is in your hands. What will you do with it?

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