Americans. We need to also end the absurd wealth gap in the US, as well as nonsense like Citizens United. How can we say we have a democracy and then allow absurd amounts of $$$$$ to buy and control elected officials, as well as determining essentially who the candidates are and who will win by spewing propaganda with unlimited funding.

Fox News is the most toxic thing I've ever seen in my 69 years on Earth. Every time they lie, every Democratic Politician should publicly rebut it.

There has always been wingnut media. 80 years ago, it was the Chicago Tribune and the Hearst papers. The problem now is that NBC is now owned by wingers, and CNN is increasingly presenting "tabloid" type (read: Nancy Grace) coverage of events.

Sounds backwards, but it's actually the only way it can possibly work.

Very few people try to show their leaders what kind of leaders they want.

The small act is the prototype for the large act.

IMO, integrity and honesty have eroded in many aspects of society - not merely politics.

So few of us do anything to demonstrate a higher standard than what we complain about.

This is a call to Democrats everywhere. A call for justice.

I don't know if there is even a mechanism for such. but it would be a good way to let elected leaders know directly what we expect of them. I'd like to see a national ban on torture on the ballot in 2016. Obama penned an executive order in 2009, but a public ballot would carry a bit more weight.

Of course, thinking about that sort of thing, there's a lot of other things that come to mind - police behavior, for one. National tracking of police shootings and independent federal oversight of investigation should be automatic.

That was my impression, anyway.

I think the bottom line, and I agree with it, is that we need to focus more inward, to all the work that's needed HERE, before we start going out and imposing "our way" on other countries. Especially when I agree that we also need, even more seriously, to do some self-examination and maybe revised view of what America is. And who we are. We can't presume to "fix" the rest of the world before we've put our own house in order, or at least started to clean it up.

Beautifully put! I really like the part about redefining American foreign policy in terms of being part of a greater collective.

"We need to craft a foreign policy that defines "American interest" as joining with nations that support those principles, and not allying with nations out of simple economic interest."

This too:

"5: Tax and economic policy that leads toward the banana republic economic model (5% or less of the people owning 90% or more of the land and business) is incompatible with representative democracy, and needs to stop."

It's not JUST about us. We DO have to back off the world-leadership-at-all-costs business. We have to share this planet and everything on it. It's not just ours alone to dominate and plunder and run roughshod through! We DO have to look long-term and plan and behave accordingly. We can't just go for the quick-and-dirty, cheap-ass fix, or the next quarterly earnings. We will have to fight to reassess the whole spectacularly selfish notion of "American Exceptionalism." WHAT THE HELL does THAT mean? We're separate and above it all and privileged and entitled to the top spot? Have we behaved as though we do? Particularly over the last decade or so? If we were a young kid, would this kind of behavior be taught, rewarded, praised, emulated, and imposed on others? Sorry - I look at a lot of things from the lens of being a mom. We're also going to have to reconsider the whole concept of capitalism and the free market. And it's gonna be an uphill battle because of who the enemy is: relentless ayn randers who have been salivating over some sort of formalized justification for selfishness - ever since they were told they had to pay taxes to support the poor and needy. They're selfish, spoiled babies who don't want to have to share. They don't want to have to help. They'll roar over you all day about how much more American and Christian and God-fearing they are. And their behavior utterly puts the lie to it all. But they're solid and well-funded in their assertions and they're not gonna back down.

It's the essence of the baser human nature that's manifesting here, seems to me. Us at our worst. And that's what we're up against. There never was an Abel without a Cain.

On Pay Per View.

Also open up their personal fortunes to civil lawsuits.