By Hazel Henderson and - -
SAINT AUGUSTINE, Sep 1 2006 (IPS)

As the administration finds it harder to spin the tragic fiasco in Iraq, a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, bungling over Hurricane Katrina, immigration policy, the nightmarish Homeland Security Administration, turf battles between the CIA and FBI, spiraling debt, and revelations of corruption, and now the Mark Foley scandal, Americans are also increasingly disenchanted with Democrats, who are often mired in the same Washington sleaze, writes Hazel Henderson, whose new book, \’\’Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy\’\’ , covers reform of capitalism and unsustainable, fossilized industrialism. She created the TV series \’\’Ethical Markets\’\’ and the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators. In this analysis, Henderson writes that the two-party political duopoly makes a mockery of \’\’bi-partisan\’\’ cooperation and hypocritical calls for national unity. Too many voters see only collusion between the powerful corporate and financial special interests and legislators with the burgeoning lobbying industry making the deals that leave out ordinary citizens. The rigidly-controlled two-party system, largely supported by contributions from similar corporations, makes third parties unviable unless led by billionaires. Both parties control the TV debates. Systemic reforms of the US political system are essential and go well beyond regime change:overhaul and standardise elections nationally, abolish the Electoral College, require all election supervisors and officials to be unaffiliated to political parties; require all voting machines be transparent to voters and provide paper ballot receipts, introducing universal health care.

Increasingly desperate Republican politicians are trying to distance themselves from President Bush and his co-president Cheney as the administration finds it harder to spin the tragic fiasco in Iraq, a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, bureaucratic bungling over Hurricane Katrina, immigration policy, the nightmarish Homeland Security Administration, turf battles between the CIA and FBI and now over the 9/11 Commission Report, spiraling debt, revelations of corruption, and now the Mark Foley scandal.

But Americans are also increasingly disenchanted with Democrats, who are often mired in the same Washington sleaze, money-grubbing, and gerrymandering to protect incumbents. The two-party duopoly makes a mockery of ”bi-partisan” cooperation and hypocritical calls for national unity. Too many voters see only collusion between the powerful corporate and financial special interests and legislators with the burgeoning lobbying industry making the deals that leave out ordinary citizens.

The rigidly-controlled duopoly machine, largely supported by contributions from similar corporations, makes third parties unviable unless led by billionaires like Ross Perot. Both parties control the TV debates, which are now ”sponsored” by corporations, no longer by the grassroots League of Women Voters. Thus all these issues are polled and spun by political insiders and converge on a narrow set of slogans that avoid most of the deep domestic crises in the US: out-of-control fiscal and trade deficits, spiraling medical costs with 46 percent of Americans without health coverage and over 90,000 deaths annually due to medical mistakes; failing schools, skyrocketing college tuition; corporations reneging on health and pension plans; outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing, stagnant wages amid soaring corporate profits, and the rising revolt against illegal immigration encouraged by corporate employers seeking cheap labor.

In a multi-party democracy, most of the issues find a party and are in play. In the US duopoly, they are trumped by the sensationalizing of the ”war on terror” and fears over personal security, trivializing values related to family life and patriotism. Mainstream media, owned by a few huge conglomerates geared toward mass consumerism and corporate profits, are at last being end-run by independents on the Internet and in the blogosphere. Whether they and well-motivated, honest politicians can break through in the upcoming November elections, or in 2008, remains to be seen. Many fear that the dysfunctional electronic voting machines, which over 80 percent of US voters must use, can be hacked, and many do not yet have the paper ballots which some states have mandated to allow voters to verify their ballots.

Clearly, systemic reforms of the US political system are essential and go well beyond regime change:

– reform of campaign financing to make public financing the rule;

– returning to the requirements that all media licensed to use the public’s airwaves abide by the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time provisions of the Communications Act of 1934;

– overhaul and standardisation of elections nationally, abolishment of the Electoral College, requirement that all election supervisors and officials are unaffiliated to political parties and that all voting machines are transparent to voters and provide paper ballot receipts and make voting easier or mandatory, as in Australia.

– Reform of the inequitable and overly complex federal tax code to treat work and its income more fairly vis-a -vis profits and gains from capital investments.

– Reform of the banking system to increase fractional reserve requirements (to reduce reckless lending), and the requirement that the Federal Reserve use all the tools it has available to cool inflation (raising fractional reserve requirements, raising margin rates on securities purchases, encouraging more credit unions, etc) rather than relying solely on raising interest rates or lowering them to avoid recessions

– Introduction of universal health care, which is standard in all other major democracies and would reduce costs substantially.

– Use of new indicators to measure ecologically-sustainable, equitable progress toward human development. These must be multi-disciplinary and go beyond money-denominated indices such as GNP and GDP. Many such new indicators are available, including the United Nations Human Development Report, the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators for the USA, and the many new indices of corporate, social, environmental, and ethical performance (at www.EthicalMarkets.com).

These are some of the systemic reforms the next US regime must address. Happily, a new book, ”The Plan: Big Ideas for America”, by an obscure Democratic Congressman, Rahm Emanuel from Illinois and Bruce Reed, editor of Blueprint and President of the Democratic Leadership Council, have stepped up to the challenge. Their Plan addresses many of the needed reforms in a New Social Contract of mutual obligation between the US government and its citizens.

The Plan calls for real tax reform, universal citizen service to the community for all between 18 and 25, universal college education, steps toward universal healthcare paid for by cutting today’s billions of corporate welfare subsidies and wasteful weapons systems, restoring a fair tax code, steps to an economy less dependent on fossil fuels and many other sensible reforms.

The Plan (www.readtheplan.com) deserves a wide audience and coverage by mainstream media. This might demonstrate to the rest of the world that political discourse in the US is not brain-dead and that more than half of our citizens are seeking regime change. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

Excerpt: