Dixie Chick: Wealthy Westchester suburbanite goes south
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Who does she think she is, Hillary?
AOC speech was cringe. The fake accent was way too much for me. Back snapped. I called it. DNC is cringe as all get out. pic.twitter.com/dbVorXVlnu
— LCTRfan (@LCTRfan) August 20, 2024
AOC and Bernie Sanders, by the way, are not the only Democrats who support the goals and aims of the Democratic Socialists of America. If you review the DSA’s platform, some highlights of which I post below, you’ll note that much of it is already incorporated into Kampallawalla’s own platform, and almost all of it is supported by rank-and-file Democrats.
Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually towards zero
Fire officers with excessive force complaints and freeze new hires
End investment in police training or facility renovations
Remove police from all hospitals and care facilities and prohibit law enforcement access to private patient information
End all police contracts with social services, care services, and government agencies providing care
Decertify police unions and associations
End the criminalization of working-class survival
End all misdemeanor offenses, accounting for 80% of total court dockets, reduce jail churn by reducing arrests, and cut funding to prosecutor’s offices
End all fines and fees associated with the criminal legal process, including ticketing, cash bail, court costs, and parole and probation fees
Abolish all asset forfeiture programs and laws
End mandatory arrest and failure to protect laws that lead to the criminalization of survivors of gendered violence; grant clemency to criminalized survivors
Freedom for all incarcerated people
Free all people from involuntary confinement
Stop all funding of prison expansion, stop funding of new buildings, and close local jails
End pre-trial detention, civil commitment, and imprisonment for parole violations
Reject “alternatives to incarceration” that are carceral in nature, including problem-solving courts and electronic monitoring and coercive restorative justice programs
Demilitarize the police and end colonial policing of our cities and neighborhoods
Disarm law enforcement officers, including the police and private security
Decarcerate our schools by repealing truancy laws, ending all zero tolerance disciplinary policies, suspensions and expulsions, surveillance of students, and removing police — both public and private — from all schools, colleges, and universities
Decarcerate our hospitals and care facilities, removing police and prohibiting law enforcement access to private patient information prohibit law en
End all data and resource sharing with ICE, end immigration detention, end family separation, and let our undocumented community members come home
Abolition of White Supremacy
Our demands:
Pass reparations legislation like the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.” Coming out of the commission, we would want budget lines for reparations at municipal, state, and federal levels.
Decarceration and eventual abolition of the carceral state, which disproportionately targets and impacts Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other people of color.
Enact “Ban the Box” nationwide, making it illegal to ask about past criminal history on a job application, and pass legislation that puts an end to the use of past criminal history as a criterion for eligibility for education, employment, housing, loans, and voting.
A Powerful Labor Movement
The socialist movement and the labor movement will rise or fall together. Our demands:
Social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure
Work for all who want it: full employment through a federal jobs guarantee
A just transition for fossil fuel workers, as well as all other workers whose current jobs do not serve the common good, including fully funded retraining and transition to union public sector jobs or dignified retirement with robust pensions.
A four-day, 32-hour work week with no reduction in wages or benefits
End “at will” employment
End “right to work” laws
Economic Justice
We propose a program of transformative regulation, nationalization, social ownership, and internationalism that builds the solidarity and democratic power necessary for us to succeed. We call for the nationalization of businesses like utilities and critical manufacturing and technology companies,
We fight for the abolition of capitalism and the creation of a democratically run economy that provides for people’s needs. Our demands:
Social ownership and democratic control of utilities and key industries including water, gas, electric, telecommunications, media, and internet service providers and other critical sectors of the economy through direct government support, public banks, and pension funds at every level of government
Nationalize and socialize (through worker and community ownership and control) institutions of monetary policy, insurance, real estate, and finance
Ensure that employees have the right to purchase businesses and are able to secure funding to facilitate their cooperative ownership in the event of a sale or closure
Ensure public control of communications technology and expand infrastructure
Implement public or commonly owned WiFi networks with high-speed broadband, internet management, technology services, internet service providers, and data storage to curtail the unprecedented power of technology companies over media, communications, and political life
Extend individuals’ rights to data privacy, control, and portability with respect to all applications, providers, and devices
Expand physical, green infrastructure such as transportation, technology and data centers, and building retrofitting
Protect and expand social insurance and pensions:
Fully fund public and private pension funds and allow them to consider interests beyond maximum profits in choosing where to invest
Fully fund Social Security and disability benefits and introduce new and comprehensive public pension benefits that are under worker control
Immediate increase to disability funds for individuals and families
End means testing for disability-based Social Security Insurance, including an end to using spouse income to means test for SSI
End the current state-based unemployment insurance and adopt a generous, universal dignified national unemployment insurance system that supports and is supported by organized labor.
Ensure free and democratic public college and, where viable, free private college for all students and democratize and fund instruction inclusive of all students while minimizing testing at all levels of education
Cancel all student loan and medical debt, reform bankruptcy laws to make it easier to file for individual bankruptcy, provide a right to counsel for all debtors facing litigation
Disconnect property taxes from school funding and fully fund public education
Create a unified, democratic, and public banking system that will socialize the fuel of the capitalist system; finance.
Regulation of the economy:
Patent and copyright: end or limit counterproductive protections, particularly in medicine and agriculture, create a technology commons, and facilitate the transfer of technology through the non-industrialized world
Food and farming: regulate food prices and safety and protect small farmers through limitations on food commodity trading, pricing, and supply management
Corporations: end corporate personhood, punish corporate bad actors by dechartering corporations, limit the size and power of businesses not susceptible to nationalization or social control, and limit maximum wages
Taxation: [I]ncrease tax rates on upper income earners, institute wealth taxes, increase estate taxes, and tax financial transactions, capital gains, luxury purchases, and domestic and global corporations
Green New Deal
Our demands:
Decarbonize the economy within a decade.
Nationalize fossil fuel producers to phase them out as quickly as necessary—no new fossil fuel projects can be authorized or built.
All patients, regardless of race, gender, medical history, income, or immigration status, must receive high-quality, equitable care. Our demands:
Public ownership and funding of our healthcare system, including hospitals and other healthcare providers, pharmaceutical research and production, and other medical research and production facilities
Medicare for All, which is:
A Single Health Program: Everyone will be covered by one health insurance program, administered by the federal government, providing equitable medical services and treatments
Comprehensive Coverage: All medically necessary services will be fully covered. Everyone goes to the provider of their choice. Dental, vision, mental health, reproductive health, long-term care, and pharmaceuticals are all included.
Free at the point of service: All healthcare costs will be financed through taxes, predominantly on the wealthy and corporations; no copays, no fees, no deductibles and no premiums. Ever.
Universal Coverage: Coverage for all United States residents — non-citizens included.
Free medical school, nursing school, and other training for healthcare workers
Housing for All
Public housing for all
Pass a universal tenants’ bill of rights that includes right to renew your lease, universal rent control, right to organize a tenants’ union in your home, and a universal right to free counsel in housing court
Ensure universal housing voucher acceptance to prevent discrimination based on income source.
Mandate increase accessibility requirements of new constructions and make funds available to remodel private housing stock for low or fixed income households to accommodate individuals with disabilities
Abolish homelessness
End homelessness in the United State by implementing housing-first relief programs
End discrimination on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, and religion at all shelters nationwide
