Our Mission
To educate and empower people to engage deeply with the critical social and political issues facing our country.
Our Vision
To restore American democracy—underpinned by transparency, ethical leadership and policymaking within a government that truly reflects and acts upon the will of its diverse people.
Our Goals
MAKE AMERICA THINK AGAIN (MATA):
PRIORITIES LIST
We want to provide our members with provocative concepts for long term positive change to bring more fairness, justice, and happiness to our American Republic. Here is a list of ideas to provoke thoughtful discussion and debate. Please feel free to email us with your suggestion(s) to add to our list.
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The links below take you to the Brennan Center for Justice to explain this most important matter:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained
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Pass Federal Legislation to withhold 5% - 10% of Federal Highway Funds from all states which DO NOT, within three years thereafter pass the following gun safety laws:
1) raise their State law to purchase a gun to 21 years of age, 2) ban ownership of “ghost” guns, automatic assault weapons and “bump stocks”, 3) require trigger locks on all guns when not in use. There is precedent: In 1985 President Ronald Reagan, a conservative Republican, proposed and signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act - Wikipedia)
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Below link takes you to the Brennan Center for Justice to explain this important matter:
https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/reform-money-politics/public-campaign-financingiption
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Below is a link to a recent Campaign Legal Center (CLC) post:
Below is a link to the U. S. Congressional website on ethics: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R40760
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Below is a link to Edutopia’s article on the benefits of teaching ethics:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-teaching-ethical-dilemmas/
Below is a link to Brookings.edu presentation on Civics teachings in America:
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Below is a link to the Brennan Center for Justice view written 21 days after SCOTUS’ vast definition of Trump’s Presidential Immunity ruling:
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“What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.” - Alexis de Tocqueville
Below is a link to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy 2023 comments entitled “The Estate Tax is irrelevant to More than 99% of Americans”:
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The below link will take you to a discussion of advantages of proportional representation
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Faith in SCOTUS is at an all-time low. Here’s a link to the Brennan Center’s Proposed Solution:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/saving-supreme-court
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Below is a link that will take you to a debate at the National Judicial College website:
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The National Constitution Centerdiscussion of this issue:
https://constitutioncenter.org/media/files/national-service-thw.pdf
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Below is a link to the American Psychological Association’s pros and cons:
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Below is a link to a PBS debate on the subject;
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Here are links to a 2021 proposal made by Senator Bernie Sanders and New York State Assemblyman Phil Steck:
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Below is a link to a Cato Institute critique on current federal Cannabis law:
https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2023/limiting-federal-regulation-cannabis
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The below link will take you to a 2024 bill submitted by Senator Robert P. Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3819/text
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Decide for yourself. Here’s a link to a recent debate on the subject on:
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Led by pragmatic populists Chris Deluzio (D-PA) and Pat Ryan (D-NY), there is a new movement in Congress that combines an appeal to communitarianism and economic patriotism with a stance on corporate power that hearkens back to the party’s anti-monopoly tradition. It is called New Economic Patriots.
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Ethical Government Now recently followed a thought-provoking path that led through several political blogs to a (very active), open to the public, “monitor website” that tracks and displays all daily, monthly and yearly stock trades for the past three years by all elected members of Congress. The site has a-play-on-words moniker CAPITOL TRADES, a link to which appears below. The ethical issue is that given their access to pre-legislative “earliest news” and the ability to both affect and effect stock prices.
Here is the link: https://www.capitoltrades.com/