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To the editor:
A great deal is riding on Nov. 3. Limits must be placed on the lawless, corrupt and militaristic Trump administration.
Its MAGA, sycophant Republican Party that has controlled Congress must be defeated. That party has enabled Trump to carry out his destructive agenda that undermines our democracy.
Given our two-party duopoly, the only alternative to Trump and the Republican party is to vote for a deeply flawed and too often pro-corporate Democratic Party with troubling foreign and national security policies.
It’s led by two establishment politicians from NYC: Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries. Should the Democratic Party win the House and possibly the Senate, it will naturally take worthy initial steps.
These include reversing the Trump administration’s attacks on healthcare, welfare and oversight by Congress. It will also enforce the War Powers Act to end the war in Iran. The Trump administration’s massive corruption will be investigated.
The Democratic Party in its broader, long-term agenda, has to fight for structural changes in both domestic and foreign policy. There needs to be an update and major expansion of the New Deal and Great Society domestic programs.
These include Medicare for All; universal childcare, paid family leave and sick leave; strengthening labor rights for workers; addressing gross income and wealth inequality by increasing taxes on the rich and corporations, while closing tax loopholes; abolishing ICE and creating a humane immigration system; and supporting institutional reform of a Supreme Court, that among other rulings, has undermined the Voting Rights Act and damaged campaign-finance laws.
In foreign policy, actions could include: major cuts in an over trillion dollar military budget; a review of whether the U.S. needs 861 military bases abroad in 95 countries; examining the consequences of major high-tech companies and AI being integrated into the country’s military-industrial complex and war strategy; U.S. addressing not only the existential threat of climate change, but also of nuclear weapons; ending the illegal and imperial interventions in Latin America; and enforcing the Leahy Law and two other laws that restrict weapon transfers to governments who violate human rights and commit war crimes.
Howard Elterman
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