What would a left-wing version of the very successful right-wing project to destory public education by undermining it with charter schools and vouchers look like? (Doesn't need to be in education, trying to brainstorm some ideas here)
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the viral "LAFD calling for volunteers" thing this week has me obsessed with gov training of civilian volunteers (NOT NATIONAL GUARD) to help in these scenarios. supplementing professional crisis response with community volunteers would undermine conspiracy theories and have so many other benefits.
Eliminate means testing for social programs, and wherever possible give cash assistance. Overstaff any and every agency that has a public face—the DMVs, the Post Office, Social Security. Pull back some of the administrative burden that has been placed on individual people, mostly women, to carry.
Actually helping small businesses, giving them a financial advantage over big conglomerates, and clearing bureaucratic hurdles for them. Go crazy with the antitrust enforcement while we’re at it.
A liberal/progressive Fox News, and a Sinclair-like hydra of local radio, online and print media selling fear and hatred of the wealthy across the entire republic.
I think the most effective method would be to tie funding to “school systems” that can handle red tape while burying the one off and scam schools Ryan Cooper mentioned in his reply with administrative burdens that would cause them to either go out of business or not be able to claim state funds.
When emphasizing schools systems, you’d want to ally with Catholic school systems to dull the claim that this is an attack on religious schools. And the reality is Catholic schools already teach a normal curriculum and are no more segregated than the usual urban-suburban divide.
Mostly the right succeeds because it creates cycles of destruction: undermine the economic and moral base of a service, the service degrades, point to the degradation as an excuse to undermine it some more. Pretty difficult to replicate if you want to build stuff instead.
Add: the United States really could use a Minister of Sports (possibly even a Minister of Culture!) and that will simply never happen under a conservative administration.
Actively prosecute Christian organizations that participated in large scale pedophilia. Just dismantle and imprison every official of most Christian churches and organizations, brand them all as child predators (which they are), run wall to wall coverage of the trials.
treat all the right-wing think tanks that lobby to legalize bribery and corruption as organized crime/racketeers
(I am not a lawyer I'm sure there's a better way to phrase this)
mandate that all teachers must be trained in X, where X is anything extremely aggravating without a ton of of student benefit for an extended period of time.
I've thought about treating guns like cars. You need an authorized license to own and carry (and special licenses for deadlier weapons; like how just a standard class-c driver's license doesn't mean you get to drive a freight delivery truck). Also you gotta have firearms insurance cuz ur liable.
And significant insurance requirements as well as personal and corporate liability for wrongful deaths. Show of insurance when you buy a gun, buy ammo, visit a gun range. Rates vary by kind of gun, gun storage, etc.
Yup, you want your "freedom?" Show to everyone you're responsible with it.
I'd have licensing exams where you're tested on what type of firearm you're getting, how it works, proper gun etiquette, the difference between having it in private vs taking it in public. Have a firearms DMV!
Similar licensing/insurance for your storage if you store it at home. Though of course you could rent storage at your shooting range or hunting club if you want to save that insurance cost. Semiautomatic rifles or high-capacity magazines require life insurance policies, 1 per bullet fired/minute.
Just gotta play devil's advocate for a second, let's see if I can remember how they put it... *ahem* ... "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!" I think they typically add a subtle threat, not putting that part.
If we're talking undermining good things while not straight up making it illegal ---
Also require all guns to be in bright shades of fuscia, yellow, etc. Gun works the same, but no more "cool" gunmetal grays, blacks, and manly wood finishes.
I genuinely think guns being "cool" is a big part of why they have become so dangerous and that this might be surprisingly effective at preventing gun violence.
Exactly. I walk into my local grocery store, and at a glance, I think they carry at least 3 or 4 DIFFERENT gun related magazines? And of course, every photo makes them look COOOOOL.
I have had this thought too!! Make it mandatory for guns and attachments to have clashing patterns in bright colours, stretched pixelated pictures, etc
I've seen multiple people say this and the easy way the conservatives have found to square this circle is what DeSantis did in Florida where you require all cars to be sold through dealerships EXCEPT Teslas. Big giveaway to both dealers and Musk simultaneously. https://bsky.app/profile/aftd.dev/post/3lfglpkizjc2s
Yes, but it's so blatantly a giveaway that the left should just take the talking point and hit them over the head with it.
After decades of "Dems are against school choice because they're beholden to teacher's unions", seems only fair to raise an actual example of "beholden".
Too many suggestions are simply good ideas. That’s too obvious. You need political jiu-jitsu: things that have a patina of conservatism but which serves as a white elephant
If your job involves violence (cop, bar bouncer, security guard) you need a violence license that gets renewed every year, pending a review that you haven’t misused the privilege.
A commitment to firm deficit limits in %GDP as a constitutional amendment. The trick is, if you want that (and they all profess they do) you can only fund spending increases (which Republicans always do when in power) and right-wing pet projects through *tax increases*
Would be undermined by right wing types 3D printing weapons and making off grid gun production networks, while feeding into their distrust of government in the first place. Our aim is to make government work better, so making something shitty in order to discomfit maga puts us on their playground
In this same vein: the post office running free hunter's safety, free concealed carry permit courses, and taking over the Civilian Marksmanship Program charter.
Good idea but I don't see how that particularly weakens the Right, unless you are talking about building such a sheer amount of social housing that private landlords go broke. And frankly that seems harder to implement incrementally.
ahh ok I think I misread the question then. In that case, I think screwing with the mortgage interest deduction and the 30yr fixed rate mortgage is a good call.
e.g. move from just underwriting mortgages and construction loans to underwriting large-scale apartment/condo construction and favorable tax treatment for rent payment.
I've been thinking about this. There needs to be a way to go after the outsized influence right-wing fundamentalist evangelical Christians have on public policy. You have to attack their bankrupt theology and lust for worldly power. At least 70% of the population hates their vision for the country.
Undermine unnecessary middleman petty bourgeoisie propped up by unnecessary legal requirements. Real estate agents, car dealerships, rental magnates, tort law lawyer parasites, et cetera.
A la NCLB reforms, close every police department that doesn’t have constantly increasing clearance rates, fire and decertify officers with the highest number of use of force and arrests leading to acquittal or recidivism. The funding in those instances goes to unarmed social workers.
I like the direction you're going, but in this idea the police would only lean even more heavily into petty bullshit infranctions rather than trying to solve/address murder, rape, major crime (which are harder to clear).
Regulate nutritional supplements/herbs like medicines. Factory inspections, accurate labels as to contents, fact-checking of medical claims and implications. Would gut the grifter funding ecosystem.
It would also transform supplements into genuine health aids. As someone with a chronic illness that has received minimal research, I’m at the mercy of trying to DYI my health with supplements that may or may not contain what the label says they contain and may or may not do anything.
Eliminating the 3 tier alcohol distribution laws. In the same vein as direct to consumer auto sales as far as wiping out some politically powerful rich guys
Lower taxation on work, raise taxation on all income based on owning or investing.
Eliminate tax exemptions for charitable donations over 10k annually or so. If you can afford that much charity in a year, you can afford to be taxed on it.
make churches pay taxes and stay out of politics and then walk out their long and varied histories abusing children. it's their organizational place and the heart of their education. talk about all the associated "christian affiliated" organization as fruit from the poisonous tree.
They’re certainly useful *to* the right, as a source of generational wealth and power in rural/impoverished districts, but I struggle to see how they are a useful institution to the public in and of themselves
- allow direct purchases from car manufacturers instead of mandating the car dealership model
- regulate private schools and homeschooling significantly more
- eliminate the ability to opt out of vaccinations for religious reasons
- require supplements to get FDA approval and do quality testing
I think progressives can make a lot of progress with protecting and growing Medicare. Starting with everyone from birth to age 18 is now on Medicare and/or everyone 55 and up is now on Medicare. Everyone agrees that private medical insurance is a rip off even if they have good insurance like I do.
Major targets should include megachurches, scam charities, fraternities, car dealerships and the entire wellness industry. Attacking those will harm the conservative movement.
But to really get at them you need to destroy billionaire wealth and power. That's the biggest thing.
Every federal Firearms Sales Bureau staff member is paid £1m/yr. The maximum number of staff is on the ballot each year and gun owning voters can choose between lots of people / high taxes to pay them – or mind-shatteringly long queues. Also, the staff are all LGBTQ+.
If we’re saying it’s a “right,” then firearms and ammo should only be produced and provided by the Gov. One model. Once you finish your 16 week safety course, go to the DMV and show proof of firearm insurance and your gun safe receipt in order to pick up your free single barrel shot gun.
I don't see it as an infringement, but as a access control.
Those who should, can.
Those who probably shouldn't, would have a harder time, and objectively, I'm ok with it.
Oh, so you’d be perfectly fine with having to ask permission to speak? Or maybe you’d like to fill out some forms at the post office before you can express yourself online? While we’re at it, how about a nice little waiting period before you’re allowed to practice a particular religion?
(Don’t worry, it’s not an infringement… just “access control,” right?)
The Second Amendment is not some second-class right you can casually regulate out of existence because it makes you uncomfortable. A right you have to beg the government for isn’t a right at all—it’s a privilege.
And once you let them turn one right into a privilege, the rest will follow. But hey, I’m sure the people who “probably shouldn’t” have free speech or due process will agree with your objective, enlightened approach.
Well first off, put back all the things the right-wingers took away - gymnasiums, arts programs, free three meals a day, school supplies not paid for by teachers but by the state, ESL & disabled/special Ed accomodations & staff, etc. Flood the schools with cash.
Already too historically handicapped by decades of lobbying sabotage. Do it at state and local level. And weaponize that "states right" jingle back at em.
I am somewhat convinced that the 2024 election is because a much bigger proportion of small and medium business owners is engaged in rampant tax fraud than we suspect, and they absolutely knew that Trump would roll back the IRS funding.
That doesn't explain the worldwide slide toward fascism. The far right is winning elections all over the world: I mean, who would have predicted that a neo-Nazi party would win elected office in Germany . Dictators are everywhere
The right wing agenda has been throwing itself at its own unpopularity for 25 years, it's gotten more popular support in the last five mostly because of the pandemic/inflation and increased immigration due to war/climate.
Incumbent governments worldwide got nailed for being in charge during covid.
If we’re using the right-wing dirty tricks playbook, privatize the interstates (because “freedom”) and make them have to compete on a level playing field with trains/planes.
(Obviously the real left wing move would be to build a US transit infrastructure as part of a real New New Deal)
I'd sooner just mandate public grade school for all. Mandatory public K-12 for all, or until they reach the age of majority. If they want tutoring, private-, religious-, or home-schooling, that can all be funded on their own, and done on their own time, outside public school hours, *in addition*.
Appeal to the sentimental (like me) who have significant emotional reactions to the look and feel of old buildings by promising to keep and maintain the facades for 100 years as a tradeoff for handing over the property for public use.
Separate amateur sports from academic institutions. Once sports are all pro, the tethers right wingers have with most universities will deteriorate, isolating them as out-of-touch malingerers.
-Allowing car sales direct from manufacturers.
-No tax exemption for religious institutions.
-Extremely close and strict audit of religious non-profit charities to ensure they are not doing anything prohibited.
Following the same logic: 1) What would the left most want to destroy? Bankers? Guns? 2) How would they insert something into the banking system to break it? Nationalised lenders, pension investments, strict laws on hedging, derivatives? Taxes on shares?
-Allow car companies to sell directly to consumers.
-End tax-exempt status for churches and religious organizations, while at the same time creating/privileging/promoting secular civic organizations.
-A secret third thing to round out the list.
Pass an interstate transit law exempting public transportation construction (specifically excluding interstates from this) from local comment and environmental review. Furthermore, if the proposed line spurs into an airport, it is considered interstate transit and exempt from state laws.
medicare for all. medical insurance is one of the most broken systems every single american has had some experience with getting screwed over by. i am not exaggerating when i say i feel it is one of the biggest factors pushing toward class consciousness here.
Universalize direct-to-consumer sales of cars, thereby killing off car dealerships? (yeah yeah scope's too small, the real answer is probably "end tax exempt status for Republican partisan "nonprofits" and especially churches")
Ending tax exempt status for churches will simply push more conservatives to megachurches while black and liberal Christians will all lose their churches.
"we shouldn't do a thing that is necessary, the clear explicit letter of the law, *and* the spirit of the law because the opposition will escalate and retaliate" is great logic, 11/10 no notes
The law forbids tax-exempt churches from participating in campaigns for specific candidates. Federal law does not allow removing it just for "being Republican," that's a new thing.
Honestly don't even have to go that far (though I would be fine with it). Make them have to use personal days like teachers or illegal to strike like airline workers and watch them lose their minds that next time they do a "slow down" day because of the latest grievance.
Strong data privacy laws & regulate the pervasive end user agreements. All should have at a minimum have a short, less than one page summary to start. "Can be changed at any time" not allowed. Any product that has one needs to be returnable at the point of agreement/disagreement.
If you are looking for education though:
- Ban homeschooling except for disabled or special needs kids where their doctor testifies it would be in their interest.
- Make calling yourself a "university" and awarding recognised degrees a formally licensed thing.
I don't have a direct answer (the car dealerships idea is great) but making capital in general scared would be a good side project. Quintuple the budgets of the IRS, FTC, SEC, Dept. of Labor, NLRB, DOJ Anti-Trust. Repeal Taft-Hartley. Start to put execs and Wall Street types in their place.
Mandate a specific, new type of insurance be held per gun, then legislate it so that the insurance is expensive. Make non compliance a federal felony, & run a no questions asked federal buyback program
Beat them to the punch. Get with sympathetic billionaires to fund a Rosenwald-style private school system and then abolish the dept of ed (local as well as fed). They don't really want to abolish this. Vouchers etc. are just their way of getting that sweet sweet tax money for themselves.
1) Direct sales of cars to consumers in every Blue State
2)Yacht/private plane taxes
3) Carbon tax, though I would phase this in real slowly
4) Massive publicly owned apartments/mixed use buildings in major metros
5) High Speed Rail anywhere with 2 cities <400 miles apart.
Bingo. Esp. a public insurance option for under-65s. The big insurers would be unable to compete, which is why they insisted on having it removed from the ACA.
Eliminating tax write-offs for charitable contributions as a way to discourage people from donating to religious institutions and ultimately weakening the cultural and political and economic power of those institutions in the process.
Forming a strong, successful, extremely powerful lobbying group bent on instituting strong workers and consumer rights laws (including things like decriminalizing sex work), and pushing for strong privacy laws that would neutralize the surveillance state.
Social Security Plus. Opt-In defined benefit pension plan that follows you from job to job and enhances your SS payouts when you retire in exchange for higher payroll contributions and employer matches now
If that's too ambitious, change the law so employees choose their own 401k that follows them from job to job and to which employers directly contribute (no more roll overs or having to use the company's benefits provider)
* continued antitrust suits and legislation against real estate agents and REITs
* remove tax advantages for inventory for car dealerships and similar
* all crypto prosecuted as securities fraud
* hypothecated assets are immediately taxable
Charter schools would be the way to undermine public education from either “side.” They were championed by the left and the right for reasons that were consistent with each group’s ideology. There is no analogous case in another sector.
It’s even difficult to distinguish a different motive. GOP wanted to destroy public education (because socialism). Dems wanted to “reform,” but not small changes. More akin to “burning it all down & starting over.” Perhaps they didn’t realize if they burned it down, it might go away for good?
So in an upside down way progressives were actually trying to save public education through destroying it. 🙃 But in a wild game of interest convergence, the right was like “Bet!” And here we are.
Undermining industries that are either incredibly hostile to the consumer they supposedly serve, out-and-out scams, or both.
Car dealerships, supplement manufacturers, MLMs, etc. Create stifling regulations ala TRAP laws that don’t ban them per se, but make it way less lucrative.
Fully funding forensic accounting and major white collar crime investigations at the state and municipal level including extradition of companies "shelled" in Delaware. Wage theft violations alone approach 4bil. annually nationwide.
children can just voluntarily leave their family and go stay at a local government safe house as long as they want. the parents don't get in trouble or anything, they just can't make the kid go home if the kid doesn't want to. this remains true forever. the agents can go pick up their stuff too.
the obvious goal here is to destroy the power of the family by making it both free and easy to leave. no need to prove abuse in a court of law, no need to get emancipated, just call 911 and ask for Child Agency. they will sign your sex ed waiver too.
I read this as asking for education ideas. More programs like Squam Lake Science Center advertising themselves as focused on homeschooling kids but instilling a love of nature and animals in young and old. They also teach a lot about ecosystems and resilience without explicitly mentioning climate
Not a direct answer but in a similar vein, I’ve always said a concerted effort to allow direct manufacturer sale of cars to eliminate dealerships would be the equivalent to the long war on organized labor.
The safety patrols on Trimet in Portland read more "safety" than "security" to me, like firefighters or construction flaggers rather than cops, and it's amazing how much more comfortable that has made me having them around.
Tax policies that make it impossible to become - or remain - a billionaire or even a centi-millionaire.
The biggest thing driving the right-wing project is the concentration of money - and therefore power - into the hands of a few people. Break that, and you break the movement.
Yup. If you decide to get in a legal fight with the government over taxes, the government should have the ability to pay legal fees longer than you have the ability to remain solvent, regardless of how rich you are at the start.
Make police officers carry personal malpractice insurance let the claims adjusters decide if their actions are a risk to the bottom line instead of the city having to pay for their crimes.
Ratchet down on consumer protection to shrink the car dealership business model to the vanishing point
Anything that enables healthy relationships, especially dating
Post office banking
WPA-style internet: back end like dams and bridges, front end like murals
Rental vacancy tax on real estate
taxing churches, ending private schools, national curriculum, a national regency exam in science, math, history, English, and Spanish, guaranteed higher ed for everyone who wants it, and a 50% wealth tax on every realized dollar and loan against capital on people with holdings over $200M.
Human civilization needs this or some type of social media platform that is not a for profit entity. As long as they are, we can expect enshittification eventually. Even Bluesky (I hope I'm wrong).
Automation of as many functions performed by police (particularly traffic enforcement) as possible, coupled with introduction of non-lethal first responders on critical infrastructure like mass transit. Shrink them down as much as possible, and highlight their corruption.
Every firearm sold has to carry liability insurance. Premiums set by factors like how many guns you already own, stats on that type of gun being used for mass violence. Insurance pays out to the victims if your weapon is used in a crime.
A dedication to equality as in experience, not outcomes. To make everyone the same, educational standards will have to be lowered. High school expectations will not change of course. People will be very confused why poorer people don't take APs. They had the same experience (but not the tutors)
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I'm at the legal betting parlour
I'm at the safe injection site
I'm at the combination safe injection site and legal betting parlour.
Allow car companies to sell directly to consumers. No more franchise dealerships
Ban multi-level marketing, or short of outright ban, throw as much sand in the gears as possible
And also fear and hatred of car dealerships.
(I am not a lawyer I'm sure there's a better way to phrase this)
I'd have licensing exams where you're tested on what type of firearm you're getting, how it works, proper gun etiquette, the difference between having it in private vs taking it in public. Have a firearms DMV!
We should stop manufacturing weapons with external magazines
It's that ability to quickly reload that enables mass shootings
Also require all guns to be in bright shades of fuscia, yellow, etc. Gun works the same, but no more "cool" gunmetal grays, blacks, and manly wood finishes.
"Here's your cyberpunk barbie rifle."
After decades of "Dems are against school choice because they're beholden to teacher's unions", seems only fair to raise an actual example of "beholden".
Clean energy.
Citizen directed vouchers to purchase news subscriptions.
Citizen directed vouchers for electoral contributions, funded by high-end taxes.
Direct to consumer auto sales bypassing local dealer oligopolies.
https://www.justice.gov/atr/economic-effects-state-bans-direct-manufacturer-sales-car-buyers
The President's 100 brought to you by the USPS!
Ghettoside covered it pretty nicely
Eliminate tax exemptions for charitable donations over 10k annually or so. If you can afford that much charity in a year, you can afford to be taxed on it.
- regulate private schools and homeschooling significantly more
- eliminate the ability to opt out of vaccinations for religious reasons
- require supplements to get FDA approval and do quality testing
But to really get at them you need to destroy billionaire wealth and power. That's the biggest thing.
Actually pretty much anything the Black Panthers did.
Those who should, can.
Those who probably shouldn't, would have a harder time, and objectively, I'm ok with it.
The Second Amendment is not some second-class right you can casually regulate out of existence because it makes you uncomfortable. A right you have to beg the government for isn’t a right at all—it’s a privilege.
Militia: Armed citizenry
"Boost the military" is the sales pitch but really its a sneaky way to get Americans more bought into and connected to their public services.
-Mandatory sectoral unions
-Mandatory public K-12 education. No homeschooling, private, or parochial schools. Ban charging tuition for education
-Mandatory voting, & lower voting age
-DC & PR statehood. Possibly subdivision of, eg, California
-Pass (& Congress ratify) NPVIC
-Abolish the Senate, or, as a consolation, give every state a 3rd Senator so there's always a Senate seat up every election
Incumbent governments worldwide got nailed for being in charge during covid.
(Obviously the real left wing move would be to build a US transit infrastructure as part of a real New New Deal)
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Probably starting with making them ineligible for GI Bill.
-No tax exemption for religious institutions.
-Extremely close and strict audit of religious non-profit charities to ensure they are not doing anything prohibited.
-End tax-exempt status for churches and religious organizations, while at the same time creating/privileging/promoting secular civic organizations.
-A secret third thing to round out the list.
Semi-actually? Non-toxic and supportive programs like Kenji Lopez-Alt's cooking shows.
Now that i realize it, all the gun manufacturers too
- Ban homeschooling except for disabled or special needs kids where their doctor testifies it would be in their interest.
- Make calling yourself a "university" and awarding recognised degrees a formally licensed thing.
https://bsky.app/profile/shawnconnery.bsky.social/post/3lffwe3iepk2p
(an attack on one of the most powerful GOP power centers, car dealers)
2)Yacht/private plane taxes
3) Carbon tax, though I would phase this in real slowly
4) Massive publicly owned apartments/mixed use buildings in major metros
5) High Speed Rail anywhere with 2 cities <400 miles apart.
-Ban MLMS
-Allow direct sales of cars.
Both easier said than done
Regulate campaign finance and BAN PACs.
Re-institute media ownership rules to end the pervasive yellow journalism.
* remove tax advantages for inventory for car dealerships and similar
* all crypto prosecuted as securities fraud
* hypothecated assets are immediately taxable
Car dealerships, supplement manufacturers, MLMs, etc. Create stifling regulations ala TRAP laws that don’t ban them per se, but make it way less lucrative.
Wait
Compete with that, leviathan banks.
The biggest thing driving the right-wing project is the concentration of money - and therefore power - into the hands of a few people. Break that, and you break the movement.
Love the idea but not sure it applies to the question.
Anything that enables healthy relationships, especially dating
Post office banking
WPA-style internet: back end like dams and bridges, front end like murals
Rental vacancy tax on real estate