It All Starts with a Platform...

Donald Trump hasn't been in office for a month, and the decisions he has made thus far have met with the approval of some, while appalling others. In just a few weeks, he has launched a controversial immigration bill, vowed to scale back Dodd-Frank, green-lighted the Keystone XL and Dakota pipelines and the construction of a Border Wall, among others. And he's just getting started.

Many who voted for Trump are applauding the president's actions. They feel that he his keeping his word and fulfilling his campaign promises. Wall Street is rallying on the Trump honeymoon, boosted in hopes that the companies and industries that are poised to benefit the most from his decisions will continue to thrive.

But the flurry of executive orders has also created a Resistance Movement. In my view, it is currently a chaotic resistance movement that lacks structure.  People are lashing out in protest on multiple fronts, but from a larger perspective, these protests appear to be scatter-shot.

Maybe this is being done by design. The president could be throwing so many controversial balls into the air to deliberately divide and fracture the opposition.

It All Starts with a Platform

The key to mounting an effective resistance is to develop a platform that the majority of Americans who oppose the current administration can get behind. The simpler the platform the better, and should be grounded in principles that most Americans can find agreement. Some of the core principles could include:

• American citizens, regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or economic status should be treated equally, and without fear of persecution.
• Healthcare should be affordable and accessible for all. Nobody should be forced to lose their home or declare bankruptcy because they sought life-saving medical treatment. Get the best minds together and solve the problem.
• Our infrastructure is in shambles. Both parties agree on this. Prioritize the projects that are needed the most, and put people to work. The Border Wall is an infrastructure project, but is it a higher priority than, say, the Flint, Michigan water system, or major bridges with structural design flaws?
  
  Infrastructure projects are desperately needed, and will put many Americans to work in well-paying jobs.
• Most immigrants come to America to flee political persecution, war, famine, or severe economic hardship. Many of our forefathers fled their country of birth for the same reason. Immigrants represent the fabric of America, and many first-generation immigrants willingly take jobs that most Americans won't do. Our strength as a country lies in our diversity.
• Protect the environment, and don't destroy it. Any industries that produce widespread air pollution, poisons ground water, or produce massive amounts of toxic waste need to be replaced with industries that have far less of a detrimental impact on the environment.
• Prisons should exist for people who pose a serious threat to life, public safety and property. Nonviolent offenders, including drug or alcohol-related offenders should be released or remanded to treatment and counseling facilities.
• Clean energy is becoming more available and affordable. Embrace it and move forward, instead of doubling down on oil. No environmental disasters ever came from wind or solar power generation. But the Deepwater Horizon oil spill tainted the entire Gulf of Mexico.
  
  Americans are willing to pay for the energy they need to consume. All things being equal, if the energy needs of every household can be delivered predominately from clean, renewable sources, then jobs are domestically created and we live in a better America.
• Education needs to be a priority. America lags the rest of the world in education. If we are going to be the world leader we claim to be, then our citizens need to embrace education and not ignore it. To meet our healthcare, technology, infrastructure, security and clean energy needs, we need the best and the brightest in the field.
  
  America needs engineers, doctors, medical researchers, scientists and many other skilled professions to lead the world again. And it starts with education.
• National defense will always be a priority, and the president promises to increase defense spending. But the Pentagon has never been subject to an audit, despite demands from Congress to be able to account for an audit. The Pentagon also admits that it is nowhere close to being audit-ready.  According to Reuters, "the United States Army’s finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced."
  
  This is simply unacceptable. The Department of Defense should be able to properly account for all of its expenditures. Otherwise, it leaves the door wide open for misappropriation, wasteful spending and even fraud.

I have several other thoughts on these subjects and others.

My hope is that these thoughts can be viewed as a starting point - a ball of clay that needs to be shaped.

If a properly organized resistance is formed, then a clearly understandable Platform is something that all Opposition candidates can agree on and adopt.

The sooner, the better. Voters need to clearly understand what their candidates stand for going into the mid-terms and for local elected offices.