Toward a new Reconstruction to rebuild the American polity

Toward a new Reconstruction was cross posted from Not Unmindful.

The first Reconstruction happened after the Civil War as we all were taught. It fell apart in the face of racism and institutional recalcitrance. The civil rights movement of the mid twentieth century has been called the second reconstruction. Now, the norms and gains from that are under assault and falling quickly.

It is clear that America needs a new Reconstruction. This time, however, no half measures should be contemplated. We must be all in. Fascism, oligarchy, racism, and authoritarianism must be confronted head on and dug up by the roots. And we must salt the ground behind that.

MAGA delende est.

In the last decade, America’s unseen institutional weaknesses allowed authoritarian takeovers of all governmental branches. The 2024 election was both a failure of the United States as a country and as a nation, with democratic institutions unable to prevent an autocratic leader from coming to power and begin moving inexorably toward fascism, all abetted by other branches of government and those institutional bulwarks we had counted on.

That said, as Nicholas Kristof has noted (link below), “nations like America with strong institutions are hardy” and the “typical authoritarian model isn’t the police state conjured by Hitlerian nightmares” but rather “competitive authoritarianism” where “elections still matter even if the playing field is tilted”. Even this looks a rosy view these days with ICE and the National Guard in city streets.

While his assessment is optimistic, it gets at the institutional memory that may still exist. This could serve our purposes moving forward at least as a start.

Today, we require not only rebuilt versions of what existed, but also better structures and new solutions. Our new Reconstruction must address systemic vulnerabilities while strengthening democratic resilience for the future.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but I intend it as a staring point. For organizational purposes, I’ve grouped these ideas into the four categories: Executive, Legistlative, Judicial, Societal. Of course, action across all of these areas will be required to make this a reality.

I. Constitutional

The constinturion was designed to be pliable and flexible to meet new conditions. That’s what amendments are for.

Currently, the constitution has 27 amendments. That’s roughly about an amendment per decade (or generation if you leave the Bill of Rights out of it). The last amendment, however, was ratified in 1992, over 30 years ago. The constiution is due a bit of a refresh.

We should look to use this method to codify things in a more nationwide manner than using the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbiter for all (more on that lot later).

Normalize amending the constitution again. Here some potential things too look at. These, obviously, are just a start.

Enshrine a new right to privacy and bodily autonomy.
End Gerrymandering by mandating that redistricting happen only once per decade and that it follow statistical, not political, methods
Revise the Second Amendment to clarify what “well regulated” and “militia” mean in our current society. (Ed. Note: something like, “The right of the people to keep and bear regulated and properly licensed Arms, shall not be infringed.”)
An amendment to strengthen press freedoms and protection granted by the first First Amendment (new or revised)
An amendment to protect academic and scientific freedom free from political interference
Removing or reforming the electoral college to more accurately represent the will of all Americans

II. Executive

A. Limiting Presidential Powers

Insurrection Act reform with Congressional approval requirements
Limit emergency powers with automatic sunset clauses
Restrict pardon power to prevent abuse
Independent inspector generals with tenure protection

B. Protecting the Civil Service

Insulate career civil servants from political hiring and firing whims
Strengthen merit-based hiring and political activity restrictions
Expand civil service protections to prevent political purges
Independent oversight of personnel decisions
Whistleblower protection enhancement
Federal worker protection from political retaliation and mass firings

C. Rebuilding Federal Agencies

Rebuild science agencies, including the CDC, restore the NIH grant system (and grants), rebuild the EPA’s scientific capacity and give it teeth
Restore the scientific workforce, create career rehabilitation programs, reform the foreign scientist visa process (not for $100k a pop), reconstruct research labs, listen to scientists
Create a cabinet-level coordinator position to oversee systematic rebuilding
Provide anti-retaliation protections for whistle-blowing scientists and federal workers in all departments

D. Reforming Law Enforcement

Eliminate ICE and enact comprehensive immigration reform
Restructure the Border Patrol with a humanitarian focus
Provide federal oversight of all law enforcement agencies
Re-establish the structural independence the Department of Justice from White House interference
Shift law enforcement funding to mental health resources
De-militarize local police forces by removing war equipment from their arsenals, and ensure no more Cop Cities

E. Reset National Security

Re-iterate support for and commitment to NATO
Fund Ukraine to fight fascist Russia
Recognize the Palestinian state
Cease all arms shipments to Israel
Isolate Israel until they rejoin the community of reasonable nations
End all idiotic tariffs and reconcile with Canda nd Mexico, whatever it takes
Strengthen Pacific alliances
Try to influence India on retuning to a full democracy beyond Modi while working to smooth tensions in South Asia
Cease fascination with Venezuela and end extra-judicial killings

III. Legislative

A. Overhaul the Electoral System and Voting Rights

Eliminate voting restrictions and make voting more accessible (i.e., restoring voting rights to felons who have served their time)
Stop purging voter rolls so frequently’ once.per census is enough.
National voting standards ensuring uniform access. Nationalize mail in voting
Automatic voter registration and expanded early voting
Electoral College reform or abolition.
Campaign finance reform to reduce oligarchic influence.Legistlate Citzens United out of existence. Money does not equal speech and corporations are not people
Public funding for elections
Make Election Day a national holiday
Gerrymandering elimination through independent redistricting commissions
Voting Rights Act restoration and expansion. Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights act.
Accommodate for multiple languages and make voting ADA compliant for accessibility

B. Create a Modern Legislative Agenda

Enact a Green New Deal, subsidizing green energy to lessen dependence of fossil fuels; invest in nationwide smart grid technology to modernize electrical infrastructure
Make climate change the top of any agenda as it is the largest threat currently facing our planet
Restore national lands, removing them from private use beyond grazing rights agree to with native tribes
Enact an abundance agenda to reflect productivity gains over the last 75 years. This would include a minimum basic income, a 32 hour work week, and a living minimum wage ($25+ per hour)
Ban further offshore drilling
Add national parks, monuments, and forests
Require minimum fuel standard for vehicles with internal combustion engines
Repeal tariffs
Expand Medicaid and endeavor to institute single-payer universal healthcare and re-establish vaccine programs and other public health initiatives
Invest in scientific and medical research and participate in international cooperation on these issues
Re-establish environmental regulations and give the EPA teeth to enforce them
Retake the reins from Silicon Valley with oversight of cutting technologies
(AI, autonomous vehicles) while investing in new areas

C. Modify How Congressional Works

Wrest control over the ability to declare war and authorize military operations from the Executive Branch
Kill the filibuster for precedural votes and executive nominations to prevent minority obstruction
Enforce ethics standards with independent oversight and censure
Restrict lobbying and limit the revolving door between the Hill and K. Street
Require transparancy for all legislative activities save top secret intel hearings

D. Reform Taxation

Allow Trump tax cuts to expire
Increase the marginal tax rate above $1 Million. Greatly increase it aboiiut $1 Billion. Make billionaires foot the bill for a new great abundance agenda as they serve no purpose
Make income between $50k and $1m taxable for FICA to fund social security
Bring capital gains tax rates inline with personal income taxes. Make wealth equal to work
Decrease the amount that is immune from inheritance taxes
Close corporate loopholes and tax offshore companies

E. Expand the Union

Grant D.C. statehood immediately
Grant Puerto Rico statehood should the populace wish
Make other territories feel at ease about petitioning for statehood

IV. Judicial

A. Reform the Courts from the Top

Expand the court to restore representation for all: one justice for each appellate circuit (14). The number of justices is only fixed by recent tradtion anyway. Let’s not get to concerned about the even number (14).
Enact term limits for justices to prevent excessive political influence (20 years)
Create Ethics enforcement mechanisms with real consequences
Reform the nomination process reform to reduce partisan influence
Lower the bar for impeachment of judges, including the supreme court justices
Outlaw the shadow docket

B. Justice System Independence

Provide special counsel protections with Congressional oversight
Protect career prosecutor and defenders from political retaliation
Require transparency for all prosecutorial decisions
Allow, encourage and abide by legal challenges to and decisions against authoritarian actions

B. Protecting the Legal Profession

Provide independence protections for lawyers and legal organizations
Grant pro bono representation guarantees for targets of political persecution
Expand legal aid for those facing government retaliation

V. Societal

I’m not going to lie. This will be the hardest for many reasons: years of disinformation, inherent racism, rampant anti-intellectualism, general narrowness, xenophobia, ignorance, etc., etc. But just getting them down will give us a North Star to make all that has come above more achievable.

A. Civil Rights and Social Justice

Declare complete victory over the confederacy once and for all. It was the first total war, not is the time for total victory. The root of much of today’s evils—the lost cause mythology feeding racist hate
Remove all remnants of the confederacy insofar is possible, madatiing it in public space and highly incentivizing it in private ones, including the name of my alma mater.
Remove statues. Restore non dogwhistle names to renamed army bases. Rename streets. Ban the confederate flag in all of its forms. I recognize Stone Mountain will be impossible, but contextualize it as racist and let it erode on its own.
Make clear at all junctures that the confederacy was rebelling agains the United States of America and fighting the United States Army (not the Union)
Enforce civil rights comprehensively across all sectors and states
Add additional teeth to hate crime legislation with enhanced penalties
Ensure equal access to education, healthcare, and employment
Address misogyny, racism, and LGBTQ+ phobia from the top down as Truman did with integrating the military
Stop demonization of trans people

B. Economic Democracy and Justice

Guarantee labor rights and the ability to join unions. Reconstruct the NLRB, roll back “right to work” (hahahaha) laws ala Michigan
Enact Affordable housing mandates, anti-speculation measures, transit-oriented development
Implement inflation control, employment recovery programs, tariff policy reversal
Demilitarization local police and make them accountable to their communities

C. Information Ecosystem and Media

Protection from harassment of critical media
Anti-SLAPP legislation expansion
Expand public media as alternative to corporate-captured outlets
Revise the telecommunications act of 1996 to make media decrease media consolidation (from 50 companies to 5 in 50 years); restore a revised fairness doctrine to combat propaganda (Fox News)
Create a fact-checking infrastructure independent of media companies

D. Democratic Participation and Civic Renewal

Create civic literacy requirements teaching recognition of authoritarianism, media literacy education, and U.S. civics and government.
Provide community organizing support, citizens’ assemblies, and participatory budgeting locally
Strengthen democratic alliances. Prioritize diplomacy over. military intervention. (Jaw jaw is better than war war. —Churchill)

E. Implementation and Coalition Building

Create a cross-partisan democracy defenders coalition (not just democrats and republicans, but also greens, libertarians, democratic socialists, socialists, etc.
Continually assess institutional resilience assessment and provide support
Conduct generational planning to acknowledge the long time horizon (20+ year reconstruction timeline)

F. Other Issues

Housing: work toward walkable neighborhoods. More planning independent of motor vehicles
Transportation: re-invest in mass transit and high-speed rails, much as did for Interstate Highways in the 1950s. Greater regulation of autonomous vehicles.
Accountability for current abuses: prosecute all Trump political appointees who carried out illegal orders and otherwise abetted his administration
Education: strengthen public schools and provide not money to private, charter schools; Increase teacher salaries, and reform funding for higher education (i.e., outlawing predatory student loans and granting student loan forgiveness). Invest in civics and scientific education
Expertise: rebuild trust in experts in science, policy, health, etc.

Conclusion

Political scientists surveyed by Bright Line Watch gave American democracy a rating of 67 after Trump’s election, which plummeted to 55 just weeks into his second term—”a precipitous drop” representing the biggest decline since 2017. As Harvard professor Steven Levitsky warns, “We’ve slid into some form of authoritarianism… we are no longer living in a liberal democracy.”

However much Trump is weakening America’s core strengths— “higher education, scientific research, rule of law, a melting pot of immigrants, recruitment of the world’s best minds, the strong dollar, American soft power”—recovery is still possible, as outlined above. It won’t be easy,but is anything that is truly worth it ever easy?

In the immediate term,this new reconstruction will likely lead to more intense partisan division and ill-feeling. But it must go beyond restoration to transformation, creating a democracy more resilient to authoritarian threats while expanding genuine participation and equality.

The task will require sustained commitment across multiple election cycles and the courage to make fundamental changes to systems that have proven vulnerable to abuse.

The scope of damage is unprecedented. It ranges from the systematic destruction of scientific institutions to the demoralization of the federal workforce to the capture of major legal and academic institutions. Recovery will require not just policy changes but a generational commitment to rebuilding democratic culture and institutions from the ground up.

Are you up for it?

Success depends on building a broad coalition committed to democratic values over partisan advantage. We must maintain hope that “this is a time for a rebirth of liberal patriotism.”

Most importantly, we must acknowledge the severity of the damage and the historical precedent that such systems can be overcome through sustained democratic resistance.

Partial List of Sources, Inspirations, Links

Help support Not Unmindful.

Support Not Unmindful

Help keep Not Unmindful viable

Contribute

Note: Claude.ai was used to help outline this list into manageable subdivisions. However, the text was not in any way written by AI.