Take a good look at the calendar folks. It's 1929. The ride has just started. Better hold on tight cause it's gonna get pretty rough.

I just pray people don't wait terribly long before they realize that drastic changes are needed in our economy and in how we are organized as a society. If we opt for the sort of wimpy half measures and tiny incremental changes Democrats have settled for decades, the new depression is going to last longer and be harder to leave behind.  Over the past 30-40 years much of the New Deal was repealed or allowed to atrophy. Business has ruled the nation (as it always does) ruthlessly and selfishly and with astounding short-sightedness. What we are experiencing is the logical conclusion of capitalism without supervision or regulation.

As an economic system, capitalism requires regulation in order to sustain itself in the long term. Otherwise, capitalism spins out of control in an orgy of excess and unrestrained greed just as we have seen it do in the present as well as in past cycles of boom and bust.

The hell of it is that always prior to the crash (which has just started) there is a period of ostentatious prosperity which is merely a symptom of the feverish greed and thievery taking place in the name of commerce and industry. But that sypmtom is universally regarded as a sign of excellent health during the phase where the illness could be effectively managed. Ironically, only in hindsight is the symptom recognized as a harbinger of disasterous economic illness and that is far too late in the progression of the pathology to blunt the disaster that continues building steam, in the present case, even now. This time, however, they may have taken their binge too far to turn back and recover.

A few of the things that need to come out of this mess (but certainly ot everything) in my opinion are:

1. A real, comprehensive national health care system not a half-assed "reform" of the health insurance system we have today. If it's socialism to do this as all our allies in europe have been doing for decades, much to their great benefit and to the benefit of their businesses, then so be it.

2. Reinvigorated regulation of industry, commerce and banking that cannot simply be cast aside in the future because some con-men convince some opportunistic politicians that "modern" business people would never engage in the sort of risky behavior that would crash the economy.

3. Public financing of ALL federal elections that, by it's very nature, eliminates the influence of predatory wealth from the legislative and governmental process.  Campaign contributions are at the heart of the problem in today's political setup.  Politicians need the green and the powerful and wealthy interests of business maintain the imbalance of power for themselves by using it with great skill.  Politicians respond to those that can help them get elected.  If they don't have to have their hand out all the time the most important people for politicians will suddenly become the people who can actually vote for them (a.k.a. their constituents) and they will be free to focus on what they believe to be the public interest without having to keep their thumb on the scales in order to achieve the aims of their corporate paymasters.

4. A new minimum wage law that permanently indexes the minimum wage to inflation automatically and that can never be hald hostage again by any party because it gets brownie points for carrying the water for business interests that don't care if workers are paid enough to live on.

5. Reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting and bust up the large national and regional communications conglomerates int he print and electronic media. Disallow the owning of more than one of each channel, station, paper, etc... in any given market. These two things must be done to prevent future corporate control of our airwaves, etc... as we have now and which so clearly and decisively helped to undemrine democracy in America these past 8 years particularly.  This is an area where I think a genuine consensus can be reached in Washington.  The right sees the threat that corporate consolidation of the media represents to democracy in America.  It's just bad for our country and the world to have the means of public communication in so few hands.  We must bust up the great media monopolies and never allow them to accumulate the power they have amassed in this area ever again.  If our democracy means anything to us, this measure is of vital and urgent importance to every freedom loving American regardless of ideology.

6. Guarantee a college education to every man and woman who qualifies. America can no longer afford an undereducated population and our democracy demands we do a better job of educating the population if we wish the nature of our society to remain free and democratic.  The investment will pay off abundantly as we learned with the GI Bill experience after WWII.  We must realize this is something that can no longer be thought of as a special benefit but instead as a necessity for two things: first, our continuing economic prosperity, but more importantly our democracy cannot long survive in the modern era without a well educated population.  Robert F. Kennedy wrote me a letter in 1967 in respnse to one I had sent him, in which he wrote something that is as true today as it was then, perhaps even more so:

"A well-informed, well-educated young America is our country's best hope for the future."

I deeply believe, that if we love our country, we must make genuine first class education and college for all who qualify a national priority of the first order for the reason RFK told me all those years ago.  We no longer have the luxury of ignoring his wisdom.

7. Last but not least, drastic and mandatory measures, if need be, for a crash program that puts the US on environmentally sound ground. We cannot afford to dicker and argue about global warming any longer. That time has passed. We must act and do so decisively or we will destroy the beautiful planet we inherited and which belongs to our children and to our posterity. We have no right to destroy the environment, indeed, we have an affirmative and solemn obligation to preserve it for the future so the blessings of this nation are available to those to come as they have been to us. We must also do this as a matter of national security and protecting world peace. The less we need oil, the more independent we are. It's just that simple.  Should we fail to preserve the earth and it's natural provision of all human needs, we will have been complicit in the greatest crime against humanity that could possibly be perpetrated.  We cannot fail to step up to our responsibility.  Those of us who are adults today, particularly those over 30 must see to it that we do whatever is necessary to keep our earth and it's environment healthy so that the future continues to be where human beings place their greatest hopes and dreams.  If we cannot make our world a better place for our posterity then we will have failed at what every other generation of Americans has succeeded.  This is, to me, unthinkable.

All these things and more are now required if we hope to regain our nation's economic, political and social health. If America is ever to become what all Americans have always hoped it could be someday, we must do these things and more.  We cannot be passive.  We cannot sit idly by and assume our polticial representatives will do the work of the people for us.  That has never been the case.  Our politicians have historically only done what is right when the people have demanded such action forcefully and overwhelmingly.  I believe we now find ourselves at such a moment.  If the Democrats in Congress continue to operate on a business as usual basis instead of dramatically seizing the historic moment they will have early next year to take dramatic and sweeping measures we may have missed our only chance to fulfill our obligation to our children and theirs and all the generations to follow.  We simply must make sure we don't let this chance slip away.  No excuse or set of excuses will suffice or make a difference to those who will pay a far higher price than we will if we fail.

NOTE: You may have seen this from me or something very similar to it already.  I had posted most of this on another thread and it was suggested that I post it on it's own so I decided to follow that advice.