Archie Kobain

Do you look in the mirror? 
Who do you think of?
Does he look like me?

…or does he look like this guy?

That’s right.  It’s the start of The Archie Revolution.
We’ll get to that in a minute.

First, I heard that someone read my blog and said to themselves, “Ugh… What a Republican.”  OK look.  You don’t have to like my stuff but there’s no need for insults.

That is the #1 problem with our country’s dual party system.  It keeps us divided.  It creates an “us vs. them” mentality.  You automatically believe that every person is either with you or they are against you.  This adversarial mentality is what prevents our country from moving forward.  It’s what prevents our cars from getting 70 miles per gallon.  It’s the reason that we continue to have politicians who are bought in a political auction, instead of actual elected officials.

I’m not on the left or on the right side of the room.  I’m standing outside the building, wondering how to burn it down and build a spherical room that has no left side or right side.

Just because I don’t like the way the Democratic Party rolls, doesn’t make me a Republican.  Although,  I will say that most of the Republican’s bullshit is easier for me to ignore, but that’s a topic for another time.  Here’s my best analogy…  You think that because I don’t like chocolate ice cream, I must like vanilla ice cream.  But you’re wrong.  Dead wrong.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Oh… I bet he’s going to say he likes Strawberry ice cream.”  Wrong again.  Do you know what my favorite ice cream flavor in the whole world is?

It’s Bryers Checkered Flag.  You know why?  Because it’s the perfect blend of Bryers Natural Vanilla and Chocolate.  AND it’s not split down the middle.  There’s no competition between the flavors.  It’s in balance.  It works.

Be open-minded.  Try Bryers Checkered Flag Ice Cream.  It’s delicious.

This is what we need in Washington.  We need a political party that looks like Bryers Checkered Flag Ice Cream, the perfect balance of the best ideas from both parties in a non-adversarial blend that eventually melts a little and turns into something even better after only a short time.

This is the perfect time to return to…  The Archie Revolution.

I bet most of you thought that I took last week off just to goof around.  Not the case.  I was working.  I was thinking.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this idea of a new political party and what it should look like.  Here’s what I came up with, in what I am calling…

The Coalition Movement Manifesto

Not A Party
To start with, it can’t be a political party – not yet.  You see, right now, if you aren’t either a Democrat or a Republican, you don’t have a prayer at being taken seriously, much less of winning an election.  Most of the alternative political parties get started, a handful of people join, and then they fizzle out into obscurity.  We don’t want to do that.  Therefore, we all need to remain Democrats and Republicans for now.  If you’re a member of some of other party, that’s OK too.  In fact, you probably understand the challenges better than most.  So, for now, let’s just call it a politcal movement.

Not A Disguise
Another thing that our movement cannot be, is a disguise for an existing party.  Let’s take the Tea Party, for example.  They aren’t a real political party.  When you are asked to register to vote, you can’t pick “Tea”.  The so-called Tea Party, complete with its stupid name, is really just a subgroup of Republicans who tend to lean further to the right than most. We don’t want to be anything like that.

Focus on Unity Not Division
I truly believe that America’s political system , today, is designed to divide us instead of unite us.  The only thing that this division accomplishes is that it keep the politicians in power and prevents us from properly addressing our country’s real challenges.  Let’s get back to the things that “we the people” actually want from government.  Let’s stop talking about all the issues that shouldn’t have anything to do with politics. Let’s unite our citizens on common ground, instead of dividing them on the issues that we’ll never agree on.  This should be pretty easy.  Most of what we want is right there in the bill of rights.

Speaking of unity…  There are a whole bunch of small political parties out there who agree on many of our ideas. As the party of consolidation and unity, maybe we should be looking to bring a number of those together?  Oh, yeah.

Freedom and Justice For All
When our country was founded, it was launched under the precepts of freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion and, by defacto, freedom from religion.  Our founding fathers (and mothers) wanted this to be a country where people would not be persecuted for the words they spoke or for what they believed.  In essence, if you don’t like what someone else has to say, too bad. They have the right to say it.  Today’s era of political correctness really seems to supress our freedom of speech.  I don’t like it. Similarly, if someone is doing something that seems to go against your religion but it’s OK with others – that should be your clue.  That must be an area that lawmakers shouldn’t be involved in.  You don’t get to push your political agenda onto others.  You have to respect their freedom of religion.  Personal freedoms run long and deep, I could go on and on.

This includes things like same-sex marriages.  Government shouldn’t regulate who can and who can’t get married, and you shouldn’t care if your neighbor wants to marry a man or a woman.  If you’re a guy and you’re against gay marriage, then don’t marry another guy.  That was easy.  But remember, your neighbor still deserve his version of life, liberty and the pursuit of (his) happiness.

So does that sound like I am pro-gay marriage?
I wouldn’t say that I am pro-gay marriage.  I wouldn’t marry another guy.
But also, I am not against it.  I am pro-YOU marrying whoever YOU want to marry.
Now are you getting me?  Bryers Checkered Flag Ice Cream. 

Same goes for things like abortion.  You don’t believe in abortion – don’t have one, but don’t go around telling women what they can or can’t do with their bodies.  That’s not for you to decide and, again, government should not be involved in this.  I think it’s personal and “choice” should be protected under freedom of religion or, maybe, as I like to say, freedom from religion.

I think you get my point.

The Removal of Money From Politics
One of the biggest obstacles gridlocking American politics and preventing our country from properly addressing our challenges is money in politics and the fact that today’s elected officials are basically bought in a political auction.  It has been shown over and over again that over 95% of the time, the politician with the most money wins.  Big money comes into these political campaigns from large corporations, banks, and other special interest groups and then those contributors basically own that candidate.  Right now this is almost impossible to stop.  It can’t happen voluntarily.  If a politican stopped playing the game, he/she would surely lose the next election and become totally ineffective.  Our only hope is to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision (Citizen’s United) that essentially declared, “corporations are people” and that giving money is the same as voicing your opinion.  Therefore, large corporations making enormous political contributions is protected under freedom of speech.  Isn’t that just crazy?

Freedom of Speech is for people, not corporations.

Eventually, we need to reverse Citizen’s United and pass a constitutional amendment that gets the money out of politics.  Until then, big banks, big oil companies, big government contractors and other big corporations will continue to make big dollars, decide which fuels power our cars, decide how much gas mileage we get, and get bailed out when they make giant mistakes, while the average American continues to get screwed and pay way too much for things.

Transparency
We need to operate transparently.  We can’t have secret meetings or closed door strategy sessions.  There is enough secrecy in today’s politics and government to flood the planet.  We need to be the opposite of that.  We need to tell the people of The United States what we’re thinking.  We need to tell them what we’re going to do.  Then we need to do it.  It’s that simple.

Although not a member, I recently attended a Rotary Club meeting.  One of the concepts that I’ve always liked about Rotary is their 4 way test.  They say to always ask yourself the following questions of the things you think, say or do…

• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Good stuff.  Our movement needs to be similar.  I’ll say..

• Is it good for America?
• Does it help America’s economy?
• Is it good for the majority of Americans?
• Does it help to restore confidence in America?

Go ahead… Add you own.

Americans First
This leads us to the concept of “Americans First”. We need to put the interest of the average American citizen first, the 99% – not the 1%.  We need to focus on the things that are good for the average American then America, as whole, not just what’s good for our oil companies, banks or government contractors.  The 99% aren’t here to feed the 1% or be taken advantage of by them.

America Must be Self-Sufficient
Americans don’t want to send their money overseas but  today, we have become overly dependant on everyone else.  We power our automobiles on fuels that we cannot provide 100% domestically.  We look to China to produce many of our goods, and India to provide us with inexpensive labor.  What would the unemployment rate look like if we started producing everything here and started hiring everyone we needed here – even if it cost a little more?  And what if we found an alternate fuel source – here, and demanded cars that ran on our domestic fuel source.  And how many jobs might that create?  And how could it positively affect our $500 Billion per year trade deficit?

The bottom line here is that we need to create more from less, we need to be self-sustainable, and we need to be the best at everything we do .  Again, America needs to be self-sufficient and this self-suffieciancy needs to be a core value of our platform.

A Hand-Up for Those in Need – Not Socialism
One of the hardest things for us to overcome, as either a political movement, party or just as everyday citizens, will be our natural propensity to become overly radical in our deepest beliefs.  For example, it’s easy to classify any kind of assistance as socialism. We don’t want socialism and we don’t want to promote socialistic behavior.  When you reward people for not working, it gives them little incentive to be productive and it encourages others around them to follow in those footsteps – just look at Detroit.

That said, this is America and our least fortunate citizens shouldn’t be living in third-world conditions, unless it is their choice to live that way.  We shouldn’t have citizens without food and shelter, again, unless they choose to live that way.  The plan, however, needs to be a hand-up – not a hand-out.  There’s a big difference between a hand-up and a hand-out.  Except for those who simply can not take care of themselves, we should only be assisting those who are in genuine need of help and wanting to become, or return to being, a productive citizen.  Assistance along these lines would only make all of  us and our country stronger.  This is a tricky subject. We’ll figure it out.

Healthcare
This is America and we’ve already covered that America needs to be #1.  That includes Healthcare.  I don’t have the answers for how we’re going to do this but I know the end goal.

In America, everyone should get the best care possible, regardless of their income or ability to pay.  Healthcare needs to stop being about the money.  It also needs to stop being run like most of our airlines.  When you fly somewhere, the price you pay seems to have little to do with the airline’s actual cost of delivering you from one place to another.  It’s some arbitrary number.  Sometime flying to NYC cost $180 round-trip, at other times it’s $460.  I have to think that it always costs that airline the same to fly me there and back.

Similarly, when you go to a hospital, 100 games are played.  You get all sorts of bills, then the insurance company starts playing their game, and at the end of the day, doctors can barely afford to make their car payments these days.  The whole thing is ridiculous and can not continue.

Again, in America, everyone deserves to be healthy and to have access to the best possible healthcare.  I’ll say it again – regardless of their income or ability to pay.  Do you know why?  Because this is America and that’s how we roll.  “Never leave your wingman” translates to “never leave your fellow America during his/her time of need”.

Someone tell me how we do this?

Work in Progress
These are all just a few of my ideas.  It’s a work in progress.
I welcome your ideas.

But again – I really think that America needs to abandon this very unproductive Democrats vs. Republicans mentality.  These aren’t football teams and election day isn’t the Superbowl.  We need to think outside the box.  We need better, more intelligent choices.  We need to demand better and more intelligent choices.

And that, my friends, is The Coalition Movement Manifesto.
And the start of The Archie Revolution.

Finito!

That’s it.  That’s all I have today.

What?

Oh, Barnsley thinks we should do the redhead of the week.
Actually, that sounds like fun.  Get it?  “Do” the…  OK, nevermind.
Sometime the Beavis & Butthead in me just jumps out and dances across the floor.

Here’s you go, Barnsley.  I think you’re going to like her…

Wow.  There should be a “like” button around here somewhere.  I started to say, “Wow…  I’d like to hit her like button” but I didn’t want to get labeled as a Democrat.  🙂

OK, gotta run…

Thanks for reading.
And as always, be a lover – not a hater.

See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya…

Love yous, anyway…

– Arch