Games Without Frontiers-- A Guest Post By Nicholas Ruiz III And A Video By Peter Gabriel

Nicholas Ruiz ran for Congress in central Florida as a Green in 2010. This year he's running as a Democrat and he's been endorsed by Blue America. Here's another is a series of posts he's written for DWT that paint a picture of what kind of a congressman he'd be if he wins in 2012. Try imagining fewer like Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and John Boehner and more like Nick Ruiz.

In the following, I aim to present some progressive ideas for America's future. Taking a deep look at our national commitments, we see that for too long our consideration of the vulnerable, that which is equitable, what might be just and conscientious-- are values that have fallen into neglect and disrepair.

I believe that we must first acknowledge that no social status is superior. No gender is superior. No race is superior. No sexual orientation is superior. No age is superior. No religion is superior. No ability, or disability, is superior. Legal equality is the foundation of democracy. Our laws must reflect such truths, and not trample upon the freedom and civil rights of our people. Our commonwealth must lift up all people.
 
Problems? We have more than a few; most of them caused by the callousness and undemocratic philosophy of the past thirty years, beginning with the carelessness of Ronald Reagan. Here’s how we mend them.
 
Social security-– raise FICA with no limit-– that’s how we pay for it. Lower the retirement eligibility age to 55. Open up the opportunity for a new influx of workers. Raise the social security benefit by 15-20%-- encourage people to retire sooner and enjoy the fruits of society’s labor. Society has a new, better future.
 
Universal healthcare-– national security starts with police, fire-– and health protection. Obamacare is not a dirty word. Let’s say Obamacare is the beginning, but certainly, not the end. It ends when everyone is comprehensively covered, universally, without exception. Just like the fire department and the police department cover everyone, without exception. We remember how to manage progressive taxation-– that’s part of the reason the boomtown 1950s were possible, there was a generous tax base from which to pay for government-– we reapply past lessons learned, and correct the mistake of Reagan’s fairy tale of ever increasing tax cuts that lead to nowhere over the rainbow. And runaway healthcare costs are controlled by regulation of the healthcare industry in the same sense that any municipality is regulated. Whether by single-payer or multi-payer, healthcare must be comprehensively and reasonably distributed, and prices must be more reflective of fundamental costs, as in the example of the healthcare systems employed by many of our international friends. Healthcare cannot be subject to rampant profiteering, any more than police or fire department services. That’s how we pay for it.
 
The minimum wage must be a livable wage: $15 per hour. Bubble profits for a tiny fraction of society ala capital gains, dividends, mergers and acquisitions, property and royalty income and so on-- reported via quarterly statements, quarter after quarter, year after year, while wages are artificially suppressed with regulatory restrictions that do not allow wages to rise according to the cost of living is tantamount to indentured servitude for Main Street. People make more-– corporations make less… that’s how we pay for it.
 
Wall Street owes Main Street. Not the other way around. We create a federal Public Trust. Every issuance of equities, commodities, debt instruments and so on-– delivers 10% of the float to the Public Trust, which federal traders trade for the people, long and short. Quarterly earnings now bring benefits for Wall Street and Main Street. Profits from the Public Trust are used to subsidize anything from healthcare to gas prices to green energy incentives. When gas prices go through the roof because oil futures hit $120 per barrel-- Main Street is entitled to some relief, no? The Public Trust will provide that relief. Wall Street must be Main Street’s partner, not its master. As the Wall Street economy and its service analogs represent an ever larger share of U.S. output, Main Street must be allowed to participate in that economy, not simply shuffled off via job-outsourcing and outright tax evasion by corporations.
 
War is a sponge that absorbs half of our tax revenue. Get out of Iraq. Get out of Afghanistan. Help Libya’s people, but don’t drop bombs on them. Cut the trillion dollar per year defense budget by 25%. The war industry must be better regulated. This is how we do it.
 
Workers have rights-– regardless of unions. We have to extend labor laws so that shared governance and collective bargaining are deemed basic civil rights. Union membership continues to plummet. They cannot hold the line alone. Why not? Because U.S. manufacturing infrastructure and labor are disappearing; the bedrock of union organizations, is disappearing. But U.S. service sectors are expanding. More and more, workers are employed in jobs that have zero union presence. Temporary and part-time work is becoming the norm. Workers must be protected with 21st century labor laws. Better wage laws that are tethered to the consumer price index, and better benefit and shared governance structures must be written into law. Workers must be protected whether or not they belong to a union.
 
America deserves a better future. This is simply part of how we get it done.
 
America is more than a corporation. America is more than its wealth. America is a concept. If you believe in it-– then fight for it.
 
Put a progressive Democrat in Congress.
 
In other words, that’s how we roll: