AFTER THE DELUGE: HOW TO GOVERN IN A POST REPUBLICAN WORLD

There are two places I do some of my best thinking. One is in the shower, and if I have an upcoming trial or hearing, sometimes my best ideas are created there. The other is on what used to be (and I hope will be again soon) my daily 3.4 mile walk to and around (twice!) Lake Loretta. Today, on my way to Lake Loretta, I pondered how best the Democrats should govern when (not if) they retake both houses of Congress and the Presidency. My first idea is that process matters more than substance, because without a fair process, nothing else is possible- or will last.

First idea is to reverse the effects of the Citizens United decision, super political action committees (PAC's), and "dark money," without doing any damage to the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech. Because television is central to political campaigns and the millions of dollars poured into attack ads, my suggestion is that Congress should recognize that because the airwaves are owned by the public, and every station has to receive its license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Congress should pass a law requiring that any political ad which attacks a candidate for political office (State or Federal) must first be previewed by the person being attacked, who will then be allowed to record a rebuttal which will be twice as long, will air immediately following every broadcast of the attack ad, free of charge, but will include as a speaker only the candidate being attacked. This idea is akin to the central concept of judo- turning the attacker's strength and momentum against him. This law in no way infringes on the First Amendment rights of the entity or person which airs the attack ad, but will so defang the attack- in fact, providing a positive boost to the attackee- as to make those ads useless.

Second idea is complete ban on all money contributions to candidates and all solicitation of campaign contributions, designating all of them as what they actually are- bribes. Instead, all federal elections will be publicly financed, and all candidates' ads on television and radio will run free of charge- because the public owns the airwaves- limited to a specific number, specific length of each ad, and a deadline before the election (say 90 days) when they can start running.

Third idea is an anti-trust type break up of any mass ownership of local broadcast stations, as the Sinclair Company is attempting to do. Local stations should be locally owned, and not owned by a few huge corporations which can mandate mass reading of political editorials and slant on how news is covered. https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/tv/turmoil-inside-komo-news-as-conservative-owner-sinclair-mandates-talking-points/

This can actually be accomplished rather easily, as local stations must periodically have their FCC broadcast licenses renewed every eight years, and the solution is to only renew licenses of locally owned stations, which will effectively force divestiture by the large corporations which otherwise will have a useless asset.

And this morning, I discovered that some great minds think alike, as I found from this essay in Washington Monthly by David Atkins: " Bipartisanship is Dead. Time for Democrats to Embrace Their Inner McConnell."
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/10/06/bipartisanship-is-dead-time-for-democrats-to-embrace-their-inner-mcconnell/

"Among these fixes would include but not be limited to:

1) Making election day a federal holiday, and perhaps moving it from Tuesday to a weekend.

2) Pushing a majority of states to sign onto the National Popular Vote compact.

2) Securing statehood for Washington DC and Puerto Rico, thereby securing representation for those citizens while limiting the overrepresentation of rural white conservative states in the Senate.

3) Limiting gerrymandering and voter suppression by states in whatever ways are constitutionally possible, including by pressing for non-partisan districting commissions, automatic voter registration, full vote by mail systems, paper ballots with paper trails and more.

4) Securing responsible immigration reform and a rapid pathway to citizenship.

5) Adding more justices to both the appellate courts and Supreme Court."