Burning Thoughts

A Civic Agenda for Renewal

The Promise We Were Given

Do you long for American policies that support your life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? Do you wish for a brighter future for your family and community?

The American Dream was never meant to be a slogan. It was a covenant—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—not just for the privileged, but for every citizen. Today, that promise feels fractured. Armed agents deport hard-working immigrants more often than criminals. Scientific inquiry is stifled. Economic policy ricochets between populist impulse and corporate capture. Dictators are treated as allies while democratic partners are sidelined.

This agenda is not a partisan wish list. It is a constitutional reclamation. A moral architecture. A blueprint for restoring the integrity of our democracy and the dignity of its people.

Constitutional Integrity in a Modern Republic

At the heart of this agenda lies a simple proposition: the Constitution must be enforced, evolved, and made legible to the 21st century. Democracy is not merely majority rule—it is the protection of individual rights through representative fairness and institutional restraint.

We must reaffirm the limits of executive power, restore the role of Congress, and clarify that our founding documents are not relics—they are living commitments.

Let’s refresh—not abandon—the principles that made America great. Let’s build a platform that the average American can understand and support.

Structural Reforms: Bridging Founding Design with Present Need

Federal vs. State Authority

• When a woman’s right to choose, a student’s access to education, or a patient’s access to medicine depends on their zip code, we are no longer one nation. We must clarify constitutional boundaries to ensure civil rights are not subject to state whim.
  • The battle over abortion, drug policy, and suicide reveals a deeper tension: are we one country or fifty independent states? Shared regulation is not federal overreach—it’s civic coherence.

Electoral Representation

• Winner-takes-all elections silence minority voices. Let’s embrace proportional representation: progressives, conservatives, libertarians, greens, religious moralists, LGBTQ+, techno-hawks, business-first advocates, and internationalists—all deserve a seat at the table if they exceed a 5% threshold.

Judicial Reform

• The Supreme Court must not be a lifetime throne. Justices should serve no more than 12 years, adhere to a strict ethics code, and face real consequences for violating their oath. Public trust demands it.

Executive Power Checks

• No president should wield unchecked power. Executive amnesty must be limited to once per term.
• Evasion of oversight should trigger automatic gag orders.
• Even volunteer aides must be vetted and approved by the Senate if they act on behalf of the people.

Congressional Authority

• Congress must reclaim its constitutional role.
• War powers, tariff decisions, and the deployment of federal troops must be subject to legislative consent—not executive fiat.

Power, Wealth, and the Constitution: A Blueprint for Civic Balance

• We need a constitutional ombudsman—an independent conduit to the Supreme Court for citizens facing unconstitutional actions. SCOTUS must respond within a week.
  • Justice delayed is justice denied.
• Tax reform must be universal: one progressive code for individuals, corporations, and religious organizations.
  • FICA taxes should apply across all income levels.
  • Capital gains should be reported annually or reconciled at probate. Step-up basis must end.
  • Wealth taxation should begin with a flash-cut valuation date, ensuring fairness and transparency.
• Annual federal budgets should be paired with national net worth statements.
  • The goal: budget deficits must not exceed net worth gains.

Consequences: Civic Renewal in Action

Universal Healthcare

• The pandemic proved what should have been obvious: healthcare must be universal. Millions of workers deemed “essential”—grocery clerks, delivery drivers, home aides, sanitation crews—risked their lives without guaranteed coverage. The economy runs on their labor. Our healthcare system should honor that.
• Americans spend twice as much per capita as other nations, yet 40% of that goes to paperwork. A single-payer system would reduce overhead, improve outcomes, and honor the lessons of crisis.
  • Your doctor may bill $250 but accept $75 from Medicare—and still stay open. Efficiency is not the enemy of compassion.

Corporate Responsibility

• Corporations must be constitutionally bound to serve more than profit.
  • That have four stakeholders: stockholders, employees, customers, and society.
• Buybacks must be matched by income boosts, discounts, or donations.
• CEO-to-worker pay ratios must be capped at 50:1.
  • Fifty-to-one isn’t a punishment—it’s a pact. A signal that no one’s success comes at the cost of someone else’s survival.
  • A CEO stands on the shoulders of thousands. If those shoulders buckle from hunger or untreated illness, the whole enterprise stumbles.
• Proxy votes must be binding—not symbolic.

Education: The Engine of Representative Government

• Education is not a privilege—it is the foundation of liberty.
• We call for a federal baseline of factual integrity and equity, grounded in Brown v. Board, Plyler v. Doe, and Title VI.
• Civic literacy is the soil from which democracy grows.
• Schools must teach facts—not suppress inconvenient truths or advocate ideological choices.

Liberty requires informed citizens.

Will the Next Generation See the American Dream

When we embrace reform as resilience, not disruption, and commit to the Reclaim American Dream agenda, we give future generations a real chance to claim it

America’s foundation will be steadier, personal rights more secure, and the future possibilities more shared.

Innovation will continue. Creators can still roam the country on unicorns. The wealthy remain free to pursue their ambitions, but workers will finally earn in proportion to their contributions.

Main Street will share in the gains of GDP growth more fully than at any time since the country was founded—not as an exception, but as part of a broader civic renewal.

This is more than a policy agenda. It is a moral challenge. A civic invitation. A chance to reclaim the dream we were promised—and finally build the nation worthy of it.

    This agenda is offered not as a final answer, but as a civic blueprint—an attempt to clarify what’s broken and     imagine what could be built. It reflects my belief that the American Dream must be reclaimed, not remembered.

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Citations
Image Great Seal of US. By Ssolbergj – Own work + File:Seal of the House of Representatives.svg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12832888
Image Corporate Buildings. By paul (dex) bica from toronto, canada – LA morning, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22419448
Image Hospital. By Cleveland Clinic – Provided by Cleveland Clinic, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62643130
Image School Bus. By No machine-readable author provided. PRA assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=549844