Curb the power of the Epstein/Billionaire class by doing away with Citizens United, making them pay their fair share of taxes, breaking up monopolies, and limiting their ownership of all forms of media.
Eliminate the Electoral College or at least base the number of participants on each state's population, not the number of its Congressional representatives.
My BHAG is small, maybe not even a BHAG - it’s inspired by your idea of seeing the White House and its grounds restored. I’d love to be part of a team of volunteers who restore the rose garden and gardens around the rebuilt East Wing.
Great idea - here is another place that looking at the history of the White House and its gardens would help move people to seeking a new Rose Garden to honor past gardens and grounds. Fruit trees, the white house green house - so much that people no longer know about.
I want to get an educated population. End school vouchers, develop public schools. Teach history and civics in grade school on up. Eliminate standard tests and get kids reading again. Ban book bans, stop college sports being a major funding for the schools. This means tax the corporations to provide funding. Keep it as locally funded through high school, government assistance for college. No more student loans. There's so much to do
I was thinking about this same thing the past couple days. Specifically, I was reading articles about new polls on my state's gubernatorial and congressional midterm elections, in which the political divide between college degree and no-college poll respondents was striking. Although I recognize that some folks may enjoy working with their hands or in other occupations that don't require college, still, generally speaking, I don't think it portends well for the U.S. -- for many reasons -- to have an educated class ("some might say "elite," though I think that's an overstatement) and a non- or less-educated class of everyone else.
Totally agree--no more by student loans--Do you mean establish more supports, universal college--at least for two years--grants and scholarships, no interest on loans? You mean no more student debt.
Mine is a subset of yours, or maybe vice versa. Whatever. Require a media literacy course in every middle school AND high school. Teach students to be critical thinkers about everything they see and read. Imbue the importance of keeping abreast of the news as it pertains to democracy. Like everything else except algebra, it’s a critical part of life. (That algebra crack is a joke.)
Those are great ideas, John, and a first step would be promoting teaching as an honorable (and well compensated) profession. Develop curricula, or revise the existing standards-based curriculum, to be one of genuine inquiry, and then spend the money and time to train teachers how to use it. Let this be a course taught by those who have grown up as digital natives. I’m a retired teacher, and I taught AP Language for the last ten years of my career. That course could be the foundation of the work you describe. So many things about education caused by well meaning people trying to improve schools, so much work to do to restore and enrich what our public schools are intended to be. I’ll volunteer! Make Mamdani the face of it—that guy could sell me anything.
Margaret, I just got back from a short vacation in NYC that happily coincided with the fifth and final game of the NBA finals. After seeing Maya Rudolph in Oh Mary, its own joy, we managed to squeeze in a sports bar too busy to notice two more people. When the Knicks won, the roar in that room could have lifted me to the top of the Empire State Building. What a team, what a city, what a country if we build it. I just want America to start the hard work of living up to our ideals. Love to all of you for the optimism that struggles to grow inside of us.
Hey, now. Algebra really did become a critical part of my life. Granted, it took until I was 31 and taking a course in Structured Query Language, but better late than never! :-)
Here’s a gift 🎁 link to an excellent NYT article on how Finland 🇫🇮 is working to make sure its citizens don’t get taken in by misinformation. Everyone, every teacher is equally responsible, regardless of what age the students, regardless of the subject matter - it’s all hands on deck all the time.
“No matter what the teacher is teaching, whether it’s physical education or mathematics or language, you have to think, ‘OK, how do I include these elements in my work with children and young people?’”
The goal is to “teach students methods they could use to distinguish between truth and fiction.”
Goal number one (and it's huge): pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
Only after We the People kick the oligarchs out of our politics will we be able to have a sane government that SERVES its citizens, not its campaign donors and lobbyists.
My BHAG for America is to eliminate medical bankruptcy in the US. In 2020 there were over 1.6 million bankruptcies filed in the US due to medical debt. Most of this debt is forgiven and we all pay for the debt with increased health care costs or lost medical providers.
No other first world country penalizes families for tragic illnesses or accidents except - the United States.
This is an especially good idea since the latest contaminated bandaid they’ve proposed for our healthcare system is to allow health insurance providers to become loan sharks to their customers.
Here’s another BHAG, only allow voters who can actually vote in an election for a particular candidate to contribute to that candidate. No PACS, no outside donors, just voters who would be represented by that candidate.
I like that idea. It was revealed over the weekend that Susan Collins has received donations from 97 billionaires so far while Graham Platner has receive donations from 5. PS. Maine has no resident billionaires.
Interesting idea. I think about this every time I receive a fundraising email or text from a candidate in another state. I often rationalize my non-giving (or small-amount giving) on the grounds that the voters in that district or state should have the sole power to make that decision. Although, indeed, as said elsewhere in this thread, rich people outside the districts/states are distorting those elections.
We can't go back to where we were--nor should we. No more incrementalism. Dems need to follow Mamdani's lead and get stuff done. Expand the Supreme Court. DC and Puerto Rico statehood. Tax the rich. Lift up the rest of us. Bring back USAID. A little of Mamdani's joy in service would be nice too.
This exactly. Part of my comment just now was that we can't have any wimpy "let's move on" Dems. You run on an ambitious plan to get shit done, AND on a promise to hold evildoers accountable, you have my vote. Scorched earth.
My BHAG? This is as specific as it gets: that each and every American state, province, and territory passes a form of Hawaii's recent legislation to strip corporations (which are state-chartered- I'm looking at YOU, Delaware!) of their right to give to political races - to eliminate or sharply curtail dark money. Seems the most effective way to undo the 2010 Supreme Court "Citizens United" decision.
The defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last summer cast a very dark cloud over U.S. media, but one with a possible silver lining: There’s a day in the not-too-distant future, when Trump and his anti-free press lackeys are gone — when we'll have a real chance to rebuild a sector that was already in need of a rethink prior to his arrival on the political scene. "When that moment comes — and it may be a fleeting one — we’ll need to be ready with new blueprints and a vision that goes far beyond what we just lost," my colleague Craig Aaron writes in Pressing Issues. We need to start organizing now, in advance of that day, so we'll be ready with an innovative new approach to funding a public-interest press, and a powerful constituency of people ready to reinvent, advocate and win better public media for all.
Please allow me to go meta. It's SO hard to pick just one problem. On top of that, they are hopelessly intertwined. So, where do you begin?
For example, you can't get Medicare for All without getting money out of politics, which you can't do without expanding the Supreme Court, which you can't do without electing a radically progressive Congress, which you can't do without a better-informed electorate, which you can't do without...You get the idea!
So you need to FIND the change that allows the PROCESS of change to become durably started. That's my BHAG: Finding source of the Mississippi River [of common-good change].
It's difficult but not impossible. And the good news is, we don't have to invent it. Instead, look to Hungary. How did they get started? Is their change really irreversible? An understanding of Orban's ouster might serve as our template. Turn this into a national conversation.
You have to start somewhere. That's as good a place as any!
My BHAG is simple - bring Trump and his enablers and co-conspirators to justice, bring the oligarchs to heel. Until justice and equality are restored, we cannot progress as a nation.
I agree with one caveat: I think the focus of any legal accountability needs to be on reparations to the the people Trump and his collaborators have harmed. Seeing them fitted for orange jumpsuits would be satisfying but not really do much for those harmed. Specifically, Trump et al should be compelled to pay reparations but reparations should not be delayed until they can be forced to pay. I understand one of his collaborators has just become a trillionnaire - sounds like a good place to start.
If it were up to me I would confiscate all of the assets of Musk and the entire Trump family the minute the next president is inaugurated. Those assets to be used to repair all the physical damage. Orange jumpsuits to repair the psychological and societal damage.
I understand. But I think that the priority - if we have to choose one - is reparations to those harmed.
And I think repairs to the White House and other structures Trump, et al have vandalized will provide much of the psychological and societal repair without the damaged prolonged criminal trials are likely to cause. Not saying no accountability or even no criminal trials but I don't think that should be the focus.
This was my BHAG. Accountability has been the missing piece since at least the end of the Civil War, through the rise of the Klan, the Silver Shirts, the German American Bund, the McCarthyites, the Birchers, the “Moral Majority,” the Tea Party, to MAGA.
5 steps.
First, It starts with recognizing equal rights for all. Period.
Second, get private money out of politics. No exceptions.
Third: tax income and wealth beyond a reasonable threshold.
Fourth: universal healthcare. Now.
Fifth: universal education. For all citizens.
Yes, Al.
I second this!
Curb the power of the Epstein/Billionaire class by doing away with Citizens United, making them pay their fair share of taxes, breaking up monopolies, and limiting their ownership of all forms of media.
Absolutely agree.
You stole mine 😏.
Eliminate the Electoral College or at least base the number of participants on each state's population, not the number of its Congressional representatives.
good one!
My BHAG is small, maybe not even a BHAG - it’s inspired by your idea of seeing the White House and its grounds restored. I’d love to be part of a team of volunteers who restore the rose garden and gardens around the rebuilt East Wing.
Love it!
Great idea - here is another place that looking at the history of the White House and its gardens would help move people to seeking a new Rose Garden to honor past gardens and grounds. Fruit trees, the white house green house - so much that people no longer know about.
I love your idea of volunteering. After all the destruction, I think many Americans would volunteer to bring back the White House and gardens.
Yes! I would love to restore the soil and plant a rose. A team for the peoples house!
I want to get an educated population. End school vouchers, develop public schools. Teach history and civics in grade school on up. Eliminate standard tests and get kids reading again. Ban book bans, stop college sports being a major funding for the schools. This means tax the corporations to provide funding. Keep it as locally funded through high school, government assistance for college. No more student loans. There's so much to do
I was thinking about this same thing the past couple days. Specifically, I was reading articles about new polls on my state's gubernatorial and congressional midterm elections, in which the political divide between college degree and no-college poll respondents was striking. Although I recognize that some folks may enjoy working with their hands or in other occupations that don't require college, still, generally speaking, I don't think it portends well for the U.S. -- for many reasons -- to have an educated class ("some might say "elite," though I think that's an overstatement) and a non- or less-educated class of everyone else.
You can see the articles and poll results to which I'm referring at https://www.startribune.com/mn-poll-trump-approval-rating-minnesota-voters-war-iran-inflation-immigration-metro-surge/601850019 and https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-poll-klobuchar-leads-all-gop-candidates-for-governor/601850018.
I love this idea. It is amazing how truley uneducated the American people are.
Totally agree--no more by student loans--Do you mean establish more supports, universal college--at least for two years--grants and scholarships, no interest on loans? You mean no more student debt.
Excellent!
Mine is a subset of yours, or maybe vice versa. Whatever. Require a media literacy course in every middle school AND high school. Teach students to be critical thinkers about everything they see and read. Imbue the importance of keeping abreast of the news as it pertains to democracy. Like everything else except algebra, it’s a critical part of life. (That algebra crack is a joke.)
I like the suggestion (and your joke)!
Those are great ideas, John, and a first step would be promoting teaching as an honorable (and well compensated) profession. Develop curricula, or revise the existing standards-based curriculum, to be one of genuine inquiry, and then spend the money and time to train teachers how to use it. Let this be a course taught by those who have grown up as digital natives. I’m a retired teacher, and I taught AP Language for the last ten years of my career. That course could be the foundation of the work you describe. So many things about education caused by well meaning people trying to improve schools, so much work to do to restore and enrich what our public schools are intended to be. I’ll volunteer! Make Mamdani the face of it—that guy could sell me anything.
Margaret, I just got back from a short vacation in NYC that happily coincided with the fifth and final game of the NBA finals. After seeing Maya Rudolph in Oh Mary, its own joy, we managed to squeeze in a sports bar too busy to notice two more people. When the Knicks won, the roar in that room could have lifted me to the top of the Empire State Building. What a team, what a city, what a country if we build it. I just want America to start the hard work of living up to our ideals. Love to all of you for the optimism that struggles to grow inside of us.
Hey, now. Algebra really did become a critical part of my life. Granted, it took until I was 31 and taking a course in Structured Query Language, but better late than never! :-)
You should have seen my boss' face when I explained to her about the simple calculus function that could be used to solve her real-life problem ...
John & Jelly8bean I’m 100% with you on education
Here’s a gift 🎁 link to an excellent NYT article on how Finland 🇫🇮 is working to make sure its citizens don’t get taken in by misinformation. Everyone, every teacher is equally responsible, regardless of what age the students, regardless of the subject matter - it’s all hands on deck all the time.
“No matter what the teacher is teaching, whether it’s physical education or mathematics or language, you have to think, ‘OK, how do I include these elements in my work with children and young people?’”
The goal is to “teach students methods they could use to distinguish between truth and fiction.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/finland-misinformation-classes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qlA.folh.pLIv68bLmk1K&smid=url-share
And yes, there’s much to be done a wonderful article from Ben Wikler
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/opinion/trump-democracy-plan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qlA.QpsS.Q71ug7mC3BIE&smid=url-share
Algebra does build critical thinking--so many ways to get to the solution, so much talk ensues.
Goal number one (and it's huge): pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
Only after We the People kick the oligarchs out of our politics will we be able to have a sane government that SERVES its citizens, not its campaign donors and lobbyists.
A very big BHAG indeed.
My BHAG for America is to eliminate medical bankruptcy in the US. In 2020 there were over 1.6 million bankruptcies filed in the US due to medical debt. Most of this debt is forgiven and we all pay for the debt with increased health care costs or lost medical providers.
No other first world country penalizes families for tragic illnesses or accidents except - the United States.
https://worldmetrics.org/medical-bankruptcies-statistics/
This is an especially good idea since the latest contaminated bandaid they’ve proposed for our healthcare system is to allow health insurance providers to become loan sharks to their customers.
Here’s another BHAG, only allow voters who can actually vote in an election for a particular candidate to contribute to that candidate. No PACS, no outside donors, just voters who would be represented by that candidate.
I like that idea. It was revealed over the weekend that Susan Collins has received donations from 97 billionaires so far while Graham Platner has receive donations from 5. PS. Maine has no resident billionaires.
Interesting idea. I think about this every time I receive a fundraising email or text from a candidate in another state. I often rationalize my non-giving (or small-amount giving) on the grounds that the voters in that district or state should have the sole power to make that decision. Although, indeed, as said elsewhere in this thread, rich people outside the districts/states are distorting those elections.
We can't go back to where we were--nor should we. No more incrementalism. Dems need to follow Mamdani's lead and get stuff done. Expand the Supreme Court. DC and Puerto Rico statehood. Tax the rich. Lift up the rest of us. Bring back USAID. A little of Mamdani's joy in service would be nice too.
We have to go forward, differently, not try to recapture a (flawed) past.
This exactly. Part of my comment just now was that we can't have any wimpy "let's move on" Dems. You run on an ambitious plan to get shit done, AND on a promise to hold evildoers accountable, you have my vote. Scorched earth.
My BHAG? This is as specific as it gets: that each and every American state, province, and territory passes a form of Hawaii's recent legislation to strip corporations (which are state-chartered- I'm looking at YOU, Delaware!) of their right to give to political races - to eliminate or sharply curtail dark money. Seems the most effective way to undo the 2010 Supreme Court "Citizens United" decision.
Legislate to decrease the wealth gap.
Simple and so important.
REAL campaign-finance reform would solve many problems with our elected leaders
The defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last summer cast a very dark cloud over U.S. media, but one with a possible silver lining: There’s a day in the not-too-distant future, when Trump and his anti-free press lackeys are gone — when we'll have a real chance to rebuild a sector that was already in need of a rethink prior to his arrival on the political scene. "When that moment comes — and it may be a fleeting one — we’ll need to be ready with new blueprints and a vision that goes far beyond what we just lost," my colleague Craig Aaron writes in Pressing Issues. We need to start organizing now, in advance of that day, so we'll be ready with an innovative new approach to funding a public-interest press, and a powerful constituency of people ready to reinvent, advocate and win better public media for all.
Thank you, Tim, and for your work.
Please allow me to go meta. It's SO hard to pick just one problem. On top of that, they are hopelessly intertwined. So, where do you begin?
For example, you can't get Medicare for All without getting money out of politics, which you can't do without expanding the Supreme Court, which you can't do without electing a radically progressive Congress, which you can't do without a better-informed electorate, which you can't do without...You get the idea!
So you need to FIND the change that allows the PROCESS of change to become durably started. That's my BHAG: Finding source of the Mississippi River [of common-good change].
It's difficult but not impossible. And the good news is, we don't have to invent it. Instead, look to Hungary. How did they get started? Is their change really irreversible? An understanding of Orban's ouster might serve as our template. Turn this into a national conversation.
You have to start somewhere. That's as good a place as any!
Thanks, you’re right, and I want to explore the point you raise at the end about Hungary. Considering a trip.
Dark money has to go. Campaign financing reform is a must
My BHAG is simple - bring Trump and his enablers and co-conspirators to justice, bring the oligarchs to heel. Until justice and equality are restored, we cannot progress as a nation.
I agree with one caveat: I think the focus of any legal accountability needs to be on reparations to the the people Trump and his collaborators have harmed. Seeing them fitted for orange jumpsuits would be satisfying but not really do much for those harmed. Specifically, Trump et al should be compelled to pay reparations but reparations should not be delayed until they can be forced to pay. I understand one of his collaborators has just become a trillionnaire - sounds like a good place to start.
If it were up to me I would confiscate all of the assets of Musk and the entire Trump family the minute the next president is inaugurated. Those assets to be used to repair all the physical damage. Orange jumpsuits to repair the psychological and societal damage.
I understand. But I think that the priority - if we have to choose one - is reparations to those harmed.
And I think repairs to the White House and other structures Trump, et al have vandalized will provide much of the psychological and societal repair without the damaged prolonged criminal trials are likely to cause. Not saying no accountability or even no criminal trials but I don't think that should be the focus.
This was my BHAG. Accountability has been the missing piece since at least the end of the Civil War, through the rise of the Klan, the Silver Shirts, the German American Bund, the McCarthyites, the Birchers, the “Moral Majority,” the Tea Party, to MAGA.
Me too. Rapid accountability for every broken law for high level and low level criminals!