Which party and president will put the country in forward or reverse?

The Divided States of America has so many issues caused by the greatest economic inequality in the world it probably will take decades to solve them.

It is quite evident from actions and inactions of recent administrations and congresses it is going to be difficult to create “common good” for all citizens. What are the real issues in the 2024 elections? Book bans? Which bathroom to use? “Wokeness?” Masks and vaccines? Transgender politics?

None of the above. 

How about economic inequality, immigration, abortion, wealth taxes, voting rights, gerrymandering, Electoral College, senate composition, court ethics, gun control, monopolies, social media, homelessness, unions, pensions, infrastructure, originalism, light and dark campaign funding, Social Security, Medicare, drug costs, universal health care and military spending?

The big question is: which political party will attempt to rectify the serious issues which face us? In the balance of this column, I’m going point out problems from some of the real issues listed above. 

Following the description, you may wish to check which party will support and tackle the issue.

1. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention there is no safe level of exposure to lead for children. Lead causes developmental delays and learning and behavioral problems. Any exposure can cause permanent cognitive damage. The Environmental Protection Agency states that we need to replace 10 million lead pipes that supply our homes with drinking water. The estimate is it will take 10 years and $45 billion to accomplish the task.  D___R___

2. In 2021, 86,000 infants, or about 2% of all births, were born in the Divided 

States of America through Infertile Vitro Fertilization and other reproductive technologies.  R___D___

3. In 2023, California law enforcement agencies seized 62,000 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill 16 billion people on earth.  D___R___

4. The National Center for Health Statistics has reported that children in low-income households are more likely to be absent from school for health reasons. Absenteeism has increased since COVID-19. Missing 15 to 18 days of school has doubled between 2019 and 2022. That means an additional 6.5 million children were chronically absent during that period. R___D___

5. Now we have right-wing school boards redacting chapters in textbooks that cover such topics as vaccines, the wearing of masks, human growth, diversity and climate change. Cypress, a suburb of Houston, Texas, with a 200,000 population, is rejecting science textbooks in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District because they have paragraphs about climate change and fossil fuels. The vote was 6-1 from a school board dominated by right-wingers who also ban library books containing information about sexual subjects and imprison librarians for making “sexy” choices. The Texas Freedom to Read Project is protesting these decisions. D__R__

6. Although the number of deaths in the world due to heat is dramatically increasing each year, the federal government through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has failed to come up with rules regarding breaks, availability of water, shade and other health aids. In fact, the Texas Legislature has passed laws preventing local governments from establishing rules to be used during heat waves. A good example to use in debating heat deaths is Phoenix, Arizona, which recorded 645 heat deaths in 2023. That’s up 50% from 2022. In 2023, the daily average temperature for the months of June, July, and August was 97F. The high temps during the day were often in the 115F range. People who fell and landed on bare asphalt or concrete during the day often suffered second and third-degree burns from 165 F surface temperatures.  R__D__

7. The UN summit on climate change called Cop28 (in its 28^th year) has signed up 34 billionaires as delegates to the meeting that is attracting about 100,000 people this year in the United Arab Emirates. At least a dozen are attending to protect the sources of their income: oil production, petrochemicals, mining, beef production and other polluting industries. Most of them flew there in their private jets. The 34 are worth a total of $500 billion. The director of the organization called Oxfam, which tracks such things in the world, states: “The number of billionaires at Cop is shocking and further evidence of their influence behind the scenes. The super rich, who have done most to cause climate change (a superyacht can burn more fossil fuel crossing the ocean than a small country will use preparing meals!), are mobilizing to drown out the voices of communities who are suffering its consequences.” D___R___

8. Nearly half of DSA parents are providing some kind of financial support to adult children, with 21% providing support to children who are between the ages of 28 to 59. The most common reason? Higher food and living costs, particularly rent or mortgage costs. The study by Savings.com points out young people are not benefiting from the recovery of the U.S. economy even if there is high employment and relatively low inflation as compared with other countries. Most parents think children should be financially independent by age 25. Adults between the ages 18-27 are averaging about $1,515 a month assistance. R__D__

9. Affordable housing is in very short supply while 30-year fixed rate mortgages are at 8%, more than a 20-year high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average age of homebuyers in 2023 was 49. More than 60% of renters of all ages say they will never be able to buy a home, and younger generations with huge student loans make lower wages and are unable to pay rent or help their parents while living in the basement. The Divided States of America average about 650,000 homeless a night with only 300,000 beds available in shelters. D__R__

10. The Supreme Court of the Divided States has the lowest approval rating at any time in modern history. There are plenty of reasons, and not in order: (1) McConnell blocked the appointment made by Obama for more than a year, and Gorsuch was selected to replace Scalia; (2) Barrett quickly replaced Ginsburg just weeks before the 2016 election; (3) Catholics opposed to abortion and homosexuality had the majority on the court; (4) Thomas accepted cash, vacations, an expensive motor home, had billionaire “friends” and failed to follow laws pertaining to judges and federal employees, and listened to his wife Ginni; (5) Alito flew the “Stop the Steal” flag upside down, probably leaked his copy of the Roe VS. Wade decision prior to release, gave speeches around the world bragging about his position on abortion and accepted fishing trips from rich “friends” without reporting them; and (6) Roberts seems to be living in some kind of shameless, ethics-absent silo by turning it into another right-wing political party. R___D___

11. Scott Herndon, a Republican candidate for the Michigan state senate and the highest-rated politician in the Freedom Foundation, stated his position on abortion in a campaign debate: “I’m a abortion abolitionist who says a 13-year-old girl raped by a family member should have the child because it is an opportunity to have a child in those terrible circumstances. I have read about a Montana mother who had found it ‘incredibly cathartic’ to carry her rapist’s child to term.” D___R____

12. Repeal the Supreme Court’s anti-democracy Citizens United decision to restore limitations on political campaign funds. R___D___

13. The prime ministers of Brazil, Germany, Spain and South Africa have proposed that the world’s billionaires pay a 2% wealth tax to be used to fight economic inequality, poverty, climate change and homelessness. When the G20 countries meet this year, Brazil as the chairing government is going to propose that all 195 member countries pass the proposal. Some countries have suggested that the top Ten Percent pay the 25% wealth tax. The New York Times has reported that America’s richest 400 households pay 23% of their income on taxes, while the bottom half of Divided States workers pay 24%. Economist Gabriel Zucman of the Paris School of Economics states: “The idea that billionaires should pay a minimum amount of income tax is not a radical idea. What is radical is continuing to allow the wealthiest people in the world to pay a smaller percentage in income tax than nearly everybody else.”  D___R___

14. Boothill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, got its name from the number of residents who had such bad reputations they died with their boots on. Many used “Fire!” “Aim!” “Ready!” and were drunk. It still is a symbol for the American way of settling personal differences by blasting each other with millions of firearms accessible at any time. The Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association should attend a vigil there before their annual convention. There is a famous epitaph on a slab that draws tourists: “Here Lies Lester Moore, Four slugs from a .44. No Les No More.” There is no Lester in the grave. The epitaph was made up to draw tourists. But, I digress.

The New York Times has created a map of every gun homicide since 2020 in the Divided States of America. The paper then drew a quarter-mile circle to determine how many people lived in close proximity to the killings. It reported: “Often, it was not just one killing, but two or three. In extreme cases, a dozen fatal shootings or more fell within these circles. Americans are still shooting and killing one another more frequently than they did in the years before the coronavirus arrived.” Firearms are now killing 55,000 and wounding 110,000 a year in arguments, domestic fights, suicides, murders, school shootings and shootings in homes. During the pandemic an additional 8.7 million Americans live in a block where a killing occurred, a 23% increase from pre-pandemic years. Half of all homicides happen where just 6% of Americans live. One in seven Americans lived within a quarter mile of a 2023 shooting. The yearly slaughter costs us hundreds of billions of dollars in social, economic, death care and health care expenses. 

Schools are being turned into prisons to protect students from the one-in-20 firearm owner who cuddles an AR-15. Why are killer manufacturers allowed to sell ”junior” JR-15s to middle school students? We spend $14.5 billion on security personnel for K-12 students. Bullets are now the main cause of death for children in a country that is buried in about 435 million firearms. R__D___

15. The UN estimates that the world, because of wars and economic inequality, will have 130 million refugees roaming the earth looking for a home in 2024. What should the DSA do? Complete the border wall? Deport 25 million undocumented? Repeal the laws regarding asylum? Use the military to guard borders? D___R___