After enduring two years of the agony of President Trump’s second term, I and millions of Americans surged to the polls to vote in the midterm election. It was a historic election, the most historic of my lifetime. The country voted to restore our democracy and stem Donald Trump’s autocratic usurpation of power and blatant corruption. Punchbowl News called it an extinction event for the Republican Party. To me, the Republican Party’s pied-piper strategy of abject fealty to the Trump administration led to a near-total renunciation by American voters.
Unfortunately, Representative Mike Rogers survived the wave despite a strong alternative on the ballot: Lee McGinnis. And Alabama elected Tommy Tuberville to be the next governor, although Doug Jones came close. Bless Alabama’s red heart.
Yesterday, I wrote Rogers and Senator Katie Britt, hoping “this election renews within you humility and alignment with the people who elected you to serve them — not the president, not the tech bros or large corporations who fund you to minimize regulations and maximize their shareholder value.”
I also conveyed my priorities for Congress during the coming months and the remainder of the president’s term, hoping Alabama Republicans can support bipartisan efforts to address them:
1-Demand an end to the war with Iran, reopening the Straight of Hormuz and negotiating an agreement that Iran will not pursue development of a nuclear weapon.
2-Eliminate the tariffs that have increased prices for American businesses and consumers. End the punitive trade war with Canada which is based on the president’s pique.
3-Establish a federal agency to regulate AI, staffed with the technical expertise to manage its deployment, not simply rubber stamp the positions of the industry. Development of new data centers should be a transparent process where the citizens near the proposed location have approval.
4-Reinstate sanctions on Russia and resume material weapons support for Ukraine. Prevent Elon Musk’s ability to restrict or downgrade the performance of the Starlink satellite constellation for services provided to governments under the auspices of U.S. foreign policy.
5-Tie future support for Israel with an end to the wanton killing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza and theft of Palestinian property in the West Bank.
6-Pass legislation that reforms U.S. immigration policy and ends ICE’s indiscriminate roundup and family separation of immigrants who have been in the country for years and are part of the fabric of our communities.
7-Stop redistricting for political gain. Time map changes to the Census and have them drawn by independent and neutral experts.
8-Establish term limits and mandatory retirement ages for members of Congress. Prohibit active stock trading while in office.
9-Establish means to publicly fund federal campaigns so mega-donors like Elon Musk cannot attempt to buy Congress and the presidency. Eliminate funding channels that allow donors to be anonymous. Every donation to a campaign should be transparent back to the source.
10-Establish an ethics code for the Supreme Court that restricts the largess of private donors and makes any donation public.
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