The United States is the longest-running democracy and a cradle for innovation. Its higher education institutions are among the best in the world. It is the only country that landed humans on the moon, developed radio, television and computers.
However, the United States is a mess with horrible train service, gridlock in Congress, immigrants crossing the border in droves, plastic pollution, massive student debt, out-of-control wildfires and a shortage of fresh water. As a nation we have made many drastic mistakes. I will highlight the Dozen Dumbest mistakes that we have made.
- Electoral College
The electoral college has produced two minority presidents in the past twenty years, George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016. These two minority presidents have appointed the majority of the Supreme Court, which has issued decisions supporting minority positions on voters' rights, abortion, gun control, consumer's rights and many others.
The electoral college is undemocratic. It can be replaced without amending the constitution. Several states and the District of Columbia have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Those jurisdictions joining the compact agree to pledge their electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The compact will not go into effect until the number of states agreeing to the compact form a majority (at least 270) of all electors. The compact is based on the current rule in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which gives each state legislature the power to determine how it chooses its electors. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact; collectively, these jurisdictions control 196 electoral votes, which is 73% of the 270 required for the compact to take effect
- Lack of Good Train Service and Dangerous Grade-level Crossings
In 2022, according to Statista, we had 10,035 railroad accidents, 6,364 injuries and 950 fatalities involving railroads. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 2,197 highway-rail grade crossing collisions occurred in 2022. There were 274 crossing fatalities and 812 crossing injuries in that year. We have the slowest trains in the advanced world. Recently, we have had serious and dangerous train derailments polluting East Palestine, Ohio, and many other communities because trains and tracks have not been maintained properly. We need to upgrade our rail system with high-speed trains, bridges and tunnels.
- Above-Ground Wires
In 2020, a team of researchers studied the impact of California's 2018 wildfire season and estimated that its economic damage totaled $148.5 billion.
For sixty to one hundred billion dollars, less than the cost of repairing the damage caused by one year's fires, California can afford to bury all of its high-voltage power lines. High-voltage power lines are the cause of most of California's forest fires. Because high-voltage power lines are usually not insulated, when dry brush is touched by uninsulated wires, massive fires erupt and spread easily. The recent wildfires in Hawaii are another example of how much damage above-ground power lines cause. Putting wires underground will save billions of dollars and hundreds of lives.
- Life Tenure for Federal Judges
The Constitution provides that federal judges have life tenure for judicial independence. When the Constitution was drafted 240 years ago, life expectancy was 36 years of age. I personally argued a case before an 85-year-old federal judge who could not remember a ruling he made five minutes earlier.
There are superior paths to judicial independence. Germany and France use fixed terms of office for their high courts. Countries like Australia, Canada and Israel have mandatory retirement ages. These changes would require a constitutional amendment but would greatly improve our judicial system.
- Lack of Gun Control
In 1994, Congress passed the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, a federal assault weapons ban that prohibited the manufacturing of more than 100 firearms for civilian use, including the AR-15. That ban lapsed in 2004, as Congress failed to secure sufficient votes to renew it. According to Center for Disease Control data, 48,117 people died from guns in 2022, an average of one person every 11 minutes. We are the only advanced country that has so many gun fatalities. Banning assault weapons, strengthening background checks and passing red flag laws will help reduce our astonishingly high fatality rate from guns. A friend of mine who lives in Europe will not allow her son to visit the United States because of the fear of gun violence. We are a pariah nation concerning gun control.
- Lack of Plastic Regulations
We are choking ourselves with plastic trash from disposable bags, straws, cups, cigarette filters and bottles. Every species on the planet now has plastic microparticles in its blood stream. Plastic is also killing bees. Albert Einstein said that if we kill off all bees humans will have four years to live.
- No National Health Insurance Program
The United States is the only advanced nation not to have a national heath insurance program. Because of this, U.S. manufacturing companies are put at a disadvantage. Every car built in the U.S. includes $1,500 for health insurance thus making our auto industry uncompetitive.
- Lack of Desalination Plants
With rising sea levels and diminishing freshwater lakes, we have a serious water crisis. A viable solution is to build thousands of desalinization plants to be used for drinking, bathing and agriculture. This will help end the drought epidemic in the United States and in other nations, while counteracting rising sea levels globally.
- No College Loan-Reduction Program
Student loan debt in the United States now totals $1.5 trillion, and it keeps rising. This puts a yoke around the necks of recent college graduates and hurts the economy. My proposal allows those with student loan debt to reduce their loans by volunteering for public service, in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorp, the military, as a teacher or a doctor in underserved communities. In other words, a reduction in student loan debt should be earned, not given away.
10. Lack of Separate Bicycle Paths
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