Okay, we’ve now gone through the bitter-sweet 250th anniversary. Now let’s get to work.
Every day brings more news of Trump’s greed, incompetence, cruelty, and criminality. Raking in $2.2 billion in his first year in office, much of it siphoned off from taxpayers and gullible followers. His Iran debacle. His malignant narcissism, putting his face and name everywhere. His cruel mass deportations. His use of the Justice Department to prosecute anyone he feels has wronged him. And so on.
As journalist Tom Edsall writes, “The damage President Trump has inflicted on the United States and the world is so enormous and wide-ranging that it is hard to grasp.”
I think it important to separate the loathsomeness of Trump as a person from the horrendous things he’s doing. Trump won’t change, but we can begin seeking changes in our system to prevent such awfulness in the future — especially if/when we boot out the Republican cowards and sycophants from Congress.
What basic reforms are necessary to begin cleaning up the mess? I’m not talking about specific policies such as reducing the size of the military, saving the planet from climate change, providing Medicare for All, or dealing with AI — as important as they are. I’m focusing on basic meat-and-potatoes reforms of how our government functions — reforms that will be necessary to get anything done.
I’ve tried to boil it down to 10 bare essentials. Herewith:
1. Subject Supreme Court justices to term limits. Limit the terms of justices to 18 years, after which time they must move to courts of appeals or district courts. Justices already on the high court can remain only until they’ve been there for 18 years. Those who are beyond this limit must immediately move to other courts. (Another reform is to expand the number of justices, but FDR tried this and it proved so politically unpopular that he had to abandon it.)
2. Prevent conflicts of interest. End the exemption of the president and vice president from conflicts of interest laws. Require all federally elected officials to put their investments into blind trusts. Prohibit all trading of specific shares of stock.
3. Stop a president from using the Justice Department. Prohibit a president from having any involvement in decisions about whom to prosecute. Require congressional review of any pardons or commutations.
4. End gerrymanders. Require states to create independent commissions to draw congressional district lines.
5. Revive voting rights. Reenact Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (which barred voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity) and Section 5 (which required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to obtain federal approval before changing any voting laws or procedures).
6. Protect press freedom and independence. Amend the Sherman and Clayton antitrust acts to bar large corporations, or any person already owning major media, from purchasing major media networks or platforms.
7. Protect the freedom of inquiry. Bar the executive branch from conditioning research or other educational grants to universities on any ideological litmus test. Researchers should be free to pursue truth.
8. Get big money out of politics. Establish public matching funds for small-dollar donations for all federal elected offices. Encourage states to grant corporate charters only on condition that corporations refrain from political activity (as Hawaii has done and Montana is considering, and hopefully California will do). Pursue a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United and establish Congress’s authority to limit big money in politics.
9. Tax large aggregations of personal wealth. Enact a wealth tax. Eliminate the “stepped-up basis at death” rule that allows large fortunes to be transferred from one generation to the next without paying taxes on capital gains.
10. Eliminate the Electoral College. Pursue a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College and base the selection of president and vice president on whichever ticket wins the overall popular vote. In the meantime, seek a compact among states (and the District of Columbia) to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote.
You may have different priorities, in which case please add them in your comments below (but indicate which of the above you’d knock off so we can keep the list manageable).
The point is that we need to begin talking about major structural reforms of how our government functions — and pushing candidates for every level of government to support them. Trump has revealed how easily the system can be abused. When we have the power, we must act to end such abuses.
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/.