Eight ideas to arm America with progress

By Gary Kroeger

August 15, 2026

Most Americans saw this coming. We knew in 2015 that a self-serving, pathological, narcissistic, bully, would be a dangerous president. We knew in 2024 that his re-election would usher in his revenge policies. We knew in 2025 that appointing unqualified, sycophants into his cabinet would be a shit show without a shred of wisdom or inspiring leadership. And it has all come to roost.

Nothing is better. America is not great again. Prices remain high, wages remain flat, billionaires envision becoming trillionaires while the poor are ignored. Services have been cut, gas is still going up, and as insidious is the declining reputation of the United States. Former allies issuing statements to distance their countries from Trump’s capricious and dangerous aggression, faltering alliances and malignant mistrust.

Domestically, bullying is on the rise and more vulnerable young people are being chastised and left unprotected.  Concurrently, crimes against immigrants are on the rise. White supremacists are emboldened and even fly Nazi flags at the president’s rallies.

A billion dollars a day is spent on war while Americans can’t pay for health care. Trump gets double the war funding from his lapdog Congress which would leave programs that give Americans opportunities to wither and die. Those same Americans are the ones paying for war and paying the cost of tariffs because billionaires are left alone.

The Republican Senate galvanizes instead over excoriating the man who rose to the nearly impossible task of organizing the fight against a global pandemic but pass on investigating the evidence of a cabal of privileged men who trafficked and raped young girls.

This is the abject failure most of us knew would be the result of electing people to government who haven’t a clue how, or even the desire, to truly govern.

That’s the present. Now. What about the future?

Should the midterms see a swing back to a vestige of sanity and should 2028 put a nail in the MAGA coffin, we have to have plans to rebuild that are more than “owning the MAGA’s” as they so deliciously savored “owning the libs.” It’s time to start building policy designed from a healthier vision.

I’ll start with my 8 ideas to correct our course. This isn’t a list to “liberalize” America; these are all concepts that were once in the domain of political cooperation:

1.      Building International Diplomacy from the foundation of leadership, not threats.

2.      Establishing taxes that end loopholes and shelters where wealth escapes with lower tax rates. Using that revenue to fund healthcare and education.

3.      Stabilizing the economy by ending prohibitive trade wars from tariffs.

4.      De-carbonizing the power grid, accelerating electric vehicle adoption, and investing in industrial efficiency. Strengthening renewable energy sources and promoting green manufacturing.

5.      Securing Social Security by eliminating the cap.

6.      Establish universal daycare.

7.      Provide federal grants and tax credits (such as expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit), and subsidies to build, rebuild, or convert structures into affordable housing.

8.      And improve mental health services and long-term care for disabilities.

There is one more from my personal playbook: To re-establish diversity, equity, and inclusion in American curriculum. If I had a magic wand I would wave it over the purple mountain’s majesty and amber waves of grain and say: “This land is your land, and all Americans will find refuge here from discrimination.”

I’m not asking, nor could I expect, everyone to agree with everything here, but it is necessary to put America’s focus back onto the Preamble of the Constitution; to ensure domestic tranquility by providing shared security, protecting liberty and creating a more effective, unified country.

That means that we should come to the argument in the Town Square armed to the teeth - with ideas.

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