The following is a guest post by Wilmington resident Clem Dinsmore. He is looking for concerned citizens interested in what it will take to fix our civil society.  

I am a member of a Wilmington, Delaware faith community and an individual with a lifelong interest in the nature, equity and integrity of American society. I am seeking to identify fellow citizens around the country, who are interested in considering and discussing among friends, acquaintances and others two questions:

  1. What are elements essential to a humane, functioning civil society?
  2. By what means may it be possible to create such a society?

I have considered these questions and developed a 10 point thought piece (below) that I am sharing as a prompt for discussion. I am NOT marketing my piece as THE answers to the questions. I acknowledge that I do not address many material issues such as immigration and housing design, location and financing. Developing a robust strategy for reformation of our society and its governance can evolve from the many discussions I seek to prompt.

Please contact me (clem.dinsmore@gmail.com, 202-281-6870) if my initiative interests you sufficiently for you to want to participate in organizing the discussions I seek.

Our society and the legitimacy and functioning of its national governance have been dissolving for many decades. Current behaviors of the Trump Administration are accelerating this dissolution. When societal institutions cease to function effectively, efficiently and for the material benefit of all American citizens and lawful residents, it is time to undertake reformation of that society and its governance.

ACTIONS NECESSARY TO CREATE A HUMANE, FUNCTIONING CIVIL SOCIETY

  1. Collect all revenue due the Federal Government; establish the capacity of the Internal Revenue Service to collect tax revenue of any kind that is due
  2. Review carefully each budget year the expenditures of the Federal Government. Consider which expenditures can be cut and which reduced or increased. Direct all Congressional committees to exercise competently and timely within the Government’s fiscal year their agency oversight responsibilities.
  3. Adjust periodically the roles, responsibilities and authorities of each agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government taking account of public/societal needs that have lessened and increased.
  4. Assess more fully and carefully the needs to invest in the Nation’s human capital and increase the capacity of employers, community colleges, technical institutes, other relevant societal entities and the Federal, State and local governments to undertake cooperative workforce development and employment skills training programs.
  5. Restore the capacity of the Federal Government to evaluate, mitigate and adapt to climate change including the capacity of all Federal agencies that have responsibilities for monitoring and reporting climate and/or weather conditions or responding to natural disasters whether or not associated with climate change.
  6. Prompt a review by Federal, State and local governments of the teaching at all levels of education including secondary schools and colleges/universities regarding how our society and various levels of government function. Make material improvements to civics education in light of that review. Also, improve the teaching of math and English, so that primary and secondary school children can meet grade level standards of literacy and numeracy.
  7. Amend Federal statutes governing all agencies and instrumentalities of the Federal Government to prevent the abuses and misuses of such agencies’ authorities by the Trump Administration and any future administration.
  8. Review and amend all Federal statutes pertaining to the President’s authority to declare and enforce tariffs on goods and services of any kind imported into the United States. Limit such authority to prevent abuse of such authority by the President and agencies of the Federal Government. Clarify the circumstances in which tariffs can be imposed and require careful, competent economic and political analysis of proposed tariffs prior to their imposition.
  9. Amend the U.S. Constitution to protect the voting rights of all American citizens and replace the current Electoral College system with a suitable form of proportional representation of American voters.
  10. Amend the U.S. Constitution to void the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision that defined the circumstances in which the President is immune from criminal liability for his/her exercise of official duties.