If we want to clean up the mayhem Trump and his regime have created — and prevent anything like this from happening again — here are the 10 big reforms every political candidate should support.
They’re structural reforms in how our political system works, rather than policies such as Medicare for All, affordable housing, childcare, or a $20 minimum wage. But these structural reforms are necessary prerequisites to getting good policies enacted. They must be passed by Congress in order for anything else to get done.
Here are the 10 necessary structural reforms:
1: Enact Supreme Court term limits. Limit justices to 18-year terms, after which they return to lower federal courts.
2: Crack down on conflicts of interest. Apply federal conflict-of-interest laws to the president and vice president, ban all elected officials (and Cabinet members) from trading individual shares of stock, and require their financial holdings be put in a blind trust.
3: Stop political interference in criminal prosecutions. Prohibit presidents from influencing Justice Department prosecutions and require congressional review of pardons and commutations.
4: End the gerrymandering wars. Require all states to create independent commissions that draw congressional district maps.
5. Restore the Voting Rights Act. Reinstate protections against racially discriminatory voting maps and restore federal oversight of states with a history of voter discrimination.
6. Protect the freedom of the press. Prevent media monopolies by stopping large corporations and major media owners from buying up more news outlets.
7: Eliminate political litmus tests for federal funding. Hold the president in contempt for impounding funds appropriated by Congress. This includes funding for academic and scientific research, which should be free from political influence.
8. Tax extreme wealth. Enact a wealth tax on multimillionaires and billionaires and end the stepped-up basis loophole that allows huge fortunes to be inherited without having to pay taxes on capital gains.
9. Elect presidents by the popular vote. Replace the Electoral College through a constitutional amendment or a compact among states to award their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner.
10. Get big money out of politics. Expand public financing to match small-dollar campaign donations and pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision.
Trump has revealed how easily our system can be abused. But opposing him isn’t enough. We need lasting structural reforms that make it harder for anyone — president, speaker of the House, Supreme Court justice, or other officials — to abuse their power in the future.
Please send this list to any candidate you’d like to win on November 3.
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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.