I wanted to drop a link I've been circulating on another platform. Felt it was a good fit for this community. As that's against community rules I opted to share the content of that post. As the author that seems like something I could do.
You deserve better. You deserve more than scraping by and living paycheck to paycheck. You can't vote your way out of this mess either.
The courts declared the parties are private corporations and they have the right and are encouraged to weigh primaries to the opponent that best represents the party. (See democrats ****ing over Bernie. Twice.) Democrats and Republicans have a history suing other parties off the ballot. The voters rights act people are demanding get passed is loaded with poison pills to make it even harder for 3rd parties to get on the ballot. Increasing small dollar donation requirements by like 5x. Increasing signature needs to get on the ballot. Those are the two I remember off hand but there were at least 4 within the bill.
Based on audits from 2016 by Jill Stein said for every 170 votes accepted 1 was thrown out. (159,633,396 Americans voted in 2020. 5% 3rd parties crow for would be 7,981,670. It's actually 669.8. But a fraction of a person can't vote.) Nearly 1 million votes were thrown out last election in this fashion. 939,019. And that's just the proven fuckery. A lot of people watched election votes live and took screen caps. Every hour the green party lost a few thousand votes. I thought it was strange personally that they never got about 0.2% when I checked in. I never took screen caps to compare. But I saw some on my newsfeed others had taken.
This is why I feel a general strike is the only way forward. You can strike any time. For anything you want. You can only vote once a year. And only certain positions are effected with each vote. And you have to do a lot of work to get stuff on the ballot as a separate issue.
I propose a general strike that starts on May day. May 1 2022.
Things to strike for
•Minimum standard of living. Minimum wage and social security become tied to congressional salary. $174,000/year is the goal. With the programs tied to congressional salary, we won't need to fight for wage increases. They are pretty good about voting in cost of living adjustments. I will note they haven't had a raise in 12 years either. But I'm not exactly sorry for them. With their insider stock trade knowledge and regular bribes…I mean um “lobbiests gifts”. Fight for 15 became a movement in 2012. I'm pretty sure I signed petitions as early as 2006 or 2008 on the matter.
•single payer healthcare. I don't care what we call it. Patriot care. Americare. Medicare4all. But it needs to cover EVERYONE and it needs to be not for profit.
•housing as a human right. It varies by location but I've heard anywhere from there are 3 empty homes for every homeless person to there are 10 empty homes for every homeless person. I'm suggesting we do “everyone gets a plate before anyone gets seconds”
•Forgive medical and student debt. Hundreds of thousands of Americans go bankrupt every year from medical debt. That shouldn't be the case. Student loans follow you even through bankruptcy. And interest rates are so high people have paid back thousands more than the loan was worth and still have barely scratched the principle. Forgive them loans Joe.
•Shorter work weeks. I know 40 hours is the standard full time shift. But most employers hire part timers so they don't have to pay benefits. I propose 20 hours being considered “full time” and benefits packages would be much different if your housing was guaranteed and you were making 174k/year. And medical care was both guaranteed and no longer allowed to operate at a profit.
•End fossil fuels subsidies. We are actively funding our destruction by giving deep government grants to gas, oil, and coal production.
•Legalize all drugs. All of them. And provide rights to grow anything that's naturally occurring. Like cannabis and psilocybin and tobacco. You can buy cigarettes. Why can't you grow tobacco?
•Defund the police. Stop the pipeline of overflow military gear to local police stations. Why does some podunk farm town need a tank?
•Fund infrastructure. Bridges are collapsing under the weight of traffic. Roads are developing sink holes. Internet is required for everything from paying bills, managing your money, investing, learning, filing taxes. WHY are there parts of the United States that can't get a hard lined, high speed connection?
What do you think is worth striking for?