Political Survey on How to Save the World

By Roger Copple

This survey has 27 questions that deal with very important issues for our local communities, our nation, and the world.  My answer to each question, which actually is a specific demand to make of members of the U.S. Congress, is "No. 4-- Totally Agree."   This survey has questions that are longer and more thought-provoking than typical survey questions that have you choose which candidate or product you prefer.   If the survey causes participants to think about certain issues for the first time, then it serves as a teaching tool.    

 Many people take only a psycho-spiritual approach to world betterment: “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me” is an example of this.  Personally, I believe there has to be an equal focus on passing better laws and amendments.  Masses of people praying, meditating, or singing in large stadiums for world peace might change hearts, but it won’t change governments.  And just believing and hoping that the current Congress will make radical improvements will not make it happen. 

But if masses of people are in agreement about what the U.S. Congress must do now and demand it in widespread, nonviolent protest gatherings in major cities at the same time--amazing things will start to happen.   When the power of informed citizens united together is greater than the influence of corporations, members of Congress will start listening to their constituents when their jobs depend on it.  Surveys like this one can help us find our common dreams and make our common demands.    

My favorite analogy is to compare the world to the human body.  Just as all the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems must work together--the neighborhood block clubs, precincts, townships, counties, states, and nations must cooperate as well; otherwise, the body or the world lacks unity and disintegrates. 

Often when I try to engage people to consider public policy issues, the response is “Oh, I’m not political,” which makes me think, “Why not?”  I then think of the wealthiest one percent of the nation, who have an inordinate influence on government, corporations, and the mass media: they just love it when the masses are too preoccupied with frivolous entertainments, or their own personal survival, to question why so much money is spent on security and surveillance at home and idiotic wars abroad. 

Perhaps that is why President Eisenhower, in his farewell address to the nation, warned the American people to keep a careful eye on the military-industrial complex.  Actually, the truth is, we can have homeland security when the world and the Earth become our homeland, and every individual is considered part of the family, when we can love all, and exclude none.  With family members, we may not always approve or understand their behavior, but we never stop loving and caring for them.  We can strive to maintain and choose this attitude on a daily basis.   

Many people believe that if they are personally honest, fair, and kind to others, then they are being good citizens.  But it takes more than that: we have a responsibility to become well-informed, world citizens—especially in regards to ecology, U.S. foreign policy, geography, and history.  

We all have acquired or developed political beliefs and values, whether we consider ourselves political or apolitical; and our political beliefs and values affect the world, for better or worse.   For me, maximizing democracy domestically and creating peace and happiness internationally are top political priorities.  I want to better understand the unique needs, resources, and character of every country in the world. 

Political Survey

Definitions:

Neoconservatives (Neocons, for short) are for an interventionist foreign policy: they believe it is necessary for our government to police the world with a strong and very costly military; this policy is supported by the majority of Republicans and Democrats.    

Paleoconservatives (Paleocons, for short) are traditional or constitutional Republicans who believe in capitalism, and they are socially conservative, but they are against the interventionist foreign policy of the Neocons.                                              

Libertarians are often laissez-faire capitalists and socially liberal, but they are against the interventionist foreign policy of the Neocons.                                                                            

The Greens are an environmental group who are socially liberal; promote social justice mostly through capitalism; and they are against the interventionist foreign policy of the Neocons.                                                                                                                    

Leftists are socially liberal, anti-capitalists, who often support ecological wisdom; they usually advocate a democratic form of socialism or communism; and they too are against the interventionist foreign policy of the Neocons. 

Circle 1 of the 7 groups below that you identify with the most:

1. Paleoconservatives (Paleocons)
2. Libertarians
3. Greens
4. Leftists (Socialists or Communists)
5. Republicans
6. Democrats
7. Independent:

For each of the following 27 potential amendments and laws that can be demanded of members of Congress:

Write 1 in the blank if you Disagree with the Demand. 

Write 2 in the blank if you Are Not Sure, or are Undecided. 

Write 3 in the blank if you Agree with the Demand, but think it should be modified slightly. 

Write 4 in the blank if you Totally Agree with the Demand, as it is written.

­­____ 1. Dismantle all nuclear weapons and nuclear energy power plants, simultaneously and voluntarily, the world over as soon as possible.

____ 2. Bring home all U.S. troops and close down the government’s 700-1000 military bases around the world.  Even with such a drawdown, our nation would retain more than enough capacity to defend its own borders.  The money previously spent on the military would be used to create jobs and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure: “[A]nd they shall turn their swords into ploughshares.” (Isaiah 2:4).  Military ships, submarines, and planes can be used for low-budget travel and tourism. 

____ 3. Establish Single Payer Health Insurance with the federal government as the single payer. 

____ 4. Remove the influence of private financial contributions and of lobbyists on members of Congress in the traditional way.  The Library of Congress will create a website that will become an online forum and clearinghouse for the advocacy of all public policy.  All positions and arguments will be publicized.  Everyone will know who is lobbying for what and why.   Publicly provide the same finances to the political campaigns of the seven largest, national political parties, and give all seven parties equal public exposure.   

____ 5. Elect the U.S. House of Representatives through a system of Proportional Representation, and abolish the U.S. Senate: Why should California and Wyoming have the same number of senators when California’s population is about 70 times greater? The seven largest, national political parties will be empowered in a single-chambered, national legislature.  Under proportional representation, the National Green Party may get 15 percent of the vote, for example, in the 435-membered House of Representatives, and Indiana’s population currently allows it to have ten members in the House of Representatives.  But it may be that of the seven national political parties, the Indiana Republican Party will get to select five of Indiana’s ten representatives in the House of Representatives because Indiana is a conservative state. 

____ 6. Abolish the Electoral College System for electing a president.  A president must win by a majority of individual votes (not just a plurality of votes) using the method of Instant Runoff Voting, in which each voter will rank slated candidates from most favorite to least favorite. And it may take two or more rounds of voting to eliminate the candidate with the least amount of votes, until eventually one of the remaining candidates captures at least 51 percent of the vote.   

____ 7. Allow Congress--not the president--to select Supreme Court judges who will serve for 4 year terms.  Judges may serve multiple terms.  

____ 8. Implement a decentralized, non-hierarchical, or grassroots, approach to public schools:  The neighbors who live within the boundaries of each public elementary, middle, and high school will democratically establish their own school philosophy and curriculum, using public funds.  There will no longer be federal, state, county, or township control of neighborhood schools.  This should improve neighborhood togetherness, as neighbors ideally become tribal, in a new and modern way.

____ 9. Abolish the Federal Reserve and allow the Treasury Department to oversee a publicly owned banking system like the Bank of North Dakota. 

____ 10. Strive to establish a democratic world government that provides equal pay for equal work, with no one earning more than three times the wages of the lowest paid worker.  This will eliminate the extremes of poverty and wealth and provide adequate food, housing, and jobs for all citizens of the world.  A system of workplace democracy will be instituted.  The world map can be divided into 500 rectangular-shaped, legislative districts of equal population. The World Legislative Council could then make executive and judicial branch appointments.  

____ 11. Implement a Progressive income tax up to 94 percent for any income amounts over $100,000 with a simplified tax code.  

____ 12. Abolish compulsory education—learning is a choice. 

____ 13.  Phase out fossil fuels through government incentives.

____ 14. Provide free post high school, public education for students whose parent(s) have an annual income of less than $100,000. 

____ 15. Reduce taxes for small businesses; increase taxes on large corporations. 

____ 16. Provide more restrictions on the ownership of firearms--with comprehensive registration, background checks, and national standardization.

____ 17. Legalize commercial hemp, medical marijuana, and the private use of marijuana for adults, on a national level. 

____ 18. Call for a new, independent investigation of 9/11 with subpoena powers, especially in regards to Building 7, which was not even hit by a plane, but fell at the speed of gravity into its own footprints at 5 pm on that tragic day.  And Building 7 was not even mentioned in the initial Official 9/11 Commission Report, an investigation that was not done until 2 years later and then by government insiders, with an extremely limited budget.   

____ 19. Provide incentives for local and organic food production and alternative health practices.  Require that all genetically modified foods be labeled. 

____ 20. Allow citizens of the 50 states to restructure their state governments from the bottom-up, not the top-down: from the neighborhood block club, to the precinct, township, county, and state levels. Each level of legislative government can make executive and judicial branch appointments.  Representatives at a state level, for example, can be voted out of office completely at all levels by the voters in the precinct, township, or county that the state representative emerged from. Representatives at each level would vote among themselves to send a representative to the next level above it.  State constitutions can be rewritten using a democratic process.   

____ 21. Increase abortion rights and the rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals.

____ 22. Empower the seven largest, national political parties, using a system of proportional representation to elect 100 individuals to meet at a Constitutional Convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution, in which the delegates will work for three entire months to get a 51 percent or higher approval of any proposed, new constitution.  (In other writings, this author has laid out a 23-month timeline for this process to occur).

____ 23. Establish workplace democracy in companies that have seven or more employees. 

____ 24. Allow Americans to visit Cuba if they choose.

____25. Support the National Emergency Employment Defense Act (N.E.E.D. Act HR 2990) which could produce U.S. Notes, specifically for infrastructure, Social Security, universal health care, and it would make the Federal Reserve a department under the Treasury.  Reducing the debt crisis with debt-free United States Notes was actually done under President Lincoln with the original “Greenbacks” to defeat the South during the Civil War, when the New York City Banks wanted 24-36 percent interest.  Currently the Federal Reserve has pumped $16 trillion into the central banking system, as many people wonder, “Where is my bailout?”  (As of August 2013, this bill, unfortunately, has died in committee.)  

____26. Stop the drone strikes, the Guantanamo torture prison, the abuse of the Patriot Acts, needless NSA spying, and excessive security checks at airports.

____27. Make buses and trains more affordable and available to reduce the number of cars and trucks on roads and highways.

Note: If Gallup or Pew or some other large polling agency desired to use this survey, I would be surprised and eager to see the results.  In the meantime, other options are now being explored to make this survey available at various websites. 

Roger Copple is 63 years old. He retired 3 years ago in 2010 from teaching general elementary, mostly 3^rd grade, and high school special education in Indianapolis.  He now lives in the Bradenton/Sarasota area of Florida.  He is deeply grateful that he stuck it out to get a teacher’s pension and started getting his Social Security early at age 62.  He now hopes to make a contribution to society through further study, reflection, and writing.  Roger can be emailed: roger.copple@gmail.com   His website: www.NowSaveTheWorld.com