7 May 2013

If Schweitzer runs for the Senate, he’ll need a good primary opponent

If Brian Schweitzer runs for the U.S. Senate, I expect Denise Juneau and Monica Lindeen to support him and not seek the Democratic nomination for the office. Still, Schweitzer will need a primary opponent for practical considerations, fundraising especially, and as a sparring partner to help him shake off the ring rust.

Democrats will want a safe primary opponent for Schweitzer, a party loyalist who’s virtually unknown, and will not suffer from over-exertion during the campaign. Someone like Heather Margolis, who dutifully played the Bum of the Month Club palooka for Steve Bullock in 2012.

With luck, however, Schweitzer’s token primary opponent will be joined by a genuine ideas candidate, someone who uses his candidacy as a bully pulpit for proposals for necessary — and bold — changes in our governing structure and in public policy. There’s a long and honorable tradition in American politics for that kind of candidacy, and it would enliven and enlighten the campaign provided the candidate was not a crackpot or gadfly.

What should an ideas candidate discuss? I have some suggestions:

1. Constitutional reform. Just 17.8 percent of the population elects a majority in the Senate. The Connecticut Compromise that made the Constitution possible now it undermines democracy. No useful purpose is served by requiring that revenue bills originate only in the House of Representative.


2. Size of the House of Representatives. Congress sets the size of the House, but has not enlarged it for a century. Adding approximately 300 new members would ensure that Montana had two representatives, and reduce the workload on each representative.


3. Banking. The question is not whether the big banks should be broken-up into small enough to fail pieces, but how and when (now). Glass-Steagall’s iron wall separating commercial from “investment” (gambling with other people’s money) should be restored and guarded with nuclear weapons.


4. Health care. Obamacare is too little, too late, too expensive, and way the hell too complicated. Replace it with a zero dollar (no deductibles), everyone covered for everything, federal single-payer system. (It might be difficult to gain distance from Schweitzer on this issue.)


5. Energy. A 50-year plan to convert the U.S. to solar and wind, with particular emphasis on electrifying surface transportation and distributed generation and thermal collection (rooftop photovoltaic panels and hot water collectors). Stop growing corn and other food crops to convert to ethanol.


6. Education. National standards for curriculum, teacher and professor certification, and testing. High school or college chemistry in, say, Alabama should be exactly the same as high school or college chemistry in, say, Minnesota. Expand the school year from nine to eleven months.


7. Agriculture. Stop subsidizing farmers.


8. Social insurance. Expand Social Security so that it become the primary retirement program for all but the Mitt-rich. Roll all private and state pension plans into Social Security by 2050. Go beyond what the New America Foundation proposes. Use progressive financing mechanisms. Condemn Obama and Pelosi and all others who embrace the Chained CPI.


9. Taxation. Plug loopholes, and raise rates progressively.


10. Civil liberties. Repeal the Patriot Act. Close the prison at Guantanamo. End indefinite “detention” (and use the correct word for the practice: imprisonment).


11. War on drugs. We’ve lost it. Stop fighting it and admit defeat. Legalize, and regulate, marijuana. Get rid of the DEA. Repeal all laws pertaining to Schedule 1 drugs, etc. Stop the war on prescription painkillers. Treat addiction as a disease.

It's time to discuss these and other issues and ideas, and the 2014 primary is a good place to start the conversation. Is there a serious Democrat in Montana who can be that candidate? Who will be that candidate?