Back from a well-deserved political sabbatical, wherein I sorted a great degree of treaty rights ready for the legal pipeline, I am reorganizing around the social vision of my late father, Ogemaw Robert Gopher (Andotaan Benesi), or Listening Thunder. His vision is needed more than ever.
In watching this political theatre from the back chairs of the auditorium, I gave myself time to absorb and soak in all that has transpired, from 2010 when I did run for the state of Montana Democratic Nomination for the U.S. House. The progressive voices, which I am one; became loud, powerful, effective.
Mass political genocide began by an entrenched elite culture of white male patriarchy that is the establishment Democratic wing of the party. This legion, who retained and regained, with the regime installation that is occurring with the Biden campaign. I am no stranger to infighting. It is a much aligned, but necessary function of the political system. The progressives are a demonized political force, painted as to-be-loathed socialists, while Mitch McConnell brazenly packs federal courts where cronyism will linger for decades to come. The purpose of the monied elite is to ensure that socialism, and the government troughs will continue to exist for their exclusive benefit, to our exclusion. Biden and his regime have no problem with this, they are ardent participants and benefactors.
In the nation of Canada, where I am admittedly a Trudeau supporter, this political infighting has actually worked, and reaped a greater social engagement as Trudeau clung to power whilst his base felt disengaged, abandoned and betrayed, including the powerful indigenous voting bloc. Under new leadership of Jagmeet Singh, the NDP captured enough seats in the Canadian Parliament to exert influence. Trudeau must concede to the powerful NDP in a new powersharing arrangement that promises long sought social change to our neighbor to the north. Trudeau is a young leader, a good leader, he had the instinct to accede to the better option, not fight it. He knows how to win, and bring his nation forward. He embraced inevitability.
America's two party system is so corrupt and rotted, it threatens to turn our nation into a failed state, in many respects it already is a failed state with respect to the very irresponsible pandemic leadership. We have had our two presidential candidates back away, and policy shame each other, by clinging to a failed for profit system that has abandoned its consumers during a deadly global pandemic.
In our opening salvo as I organized the long sought after goal of returning to my late father's legacy, the Robert Gopher Policy Institute will focus our goals on a political and social agenda that will move our nation forward, as it was always his goal for the advancement of every member of the human race.
CLIMATE CHANGE
He was an effective environmental leader: he could see as members of the human family that, both red states and blue states needed clean drinking water. He did not see red and blue states: he saw and invader race that planted themselves here, and felt their goals of manifest destiny equated to wanton environmental destruction with impunity. He set about his progressivism as man of vision and hope. He set the environmental standard that was an example to the water protectors of Standing Rock. He emboldened a generation of political and environmental leaders in Montana, a notorious red state.
He was an original water protector. With his vision, I hope to address and influence national policy regarding climate change. I hope to advance the work he started, to continue his optimism, his hope, his respect for Mother Earth, these are the values he instilled in us.
MEDICARE FOR ALL
The pandemic ripped off the mask of American independence and gumption. It revealed hidden, broken, third world conditions devoid of basic health care; a system so broken it has cost the lives of over 200,000 of our fellow citizens. Our political leaders tell us the for profit system will rise to the task of meeting health care needs as the world heads into the winter of 2021. The pandemic is unfolding in front of us, we don't know what is coming this winter, but it promises to be bleak, deadly, and tragic.
As the leader of the industrialized world, our lack of universal care is denegrating the nation into a third world cesspool, a failed state. We are already here and the pandemic is just winding up. Our candidates tell us that they have effective plans to eliminate even more health care options, and strip millions of their already flawed insurance during this pandemic. There is no one in either established party, that is advocating for the average citizens devastated by this disease. We are unprepared, a nation caught with its collective pants down, for the world to see. We are better than this. As I hang on to my ballot, I wonder how many hundreds of thousands will die before whoever is the winner: will concede universal care is needed? How many deaths will convince our eventual president to fix this system? We are unsafe, this is a national security issue.
UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
The economy, and small businesses were already stuggling as the economy began to cool, bigger retailers were going under. The pandemic is disaster capitalism; the standard of living for the average person stagnating into the first of the year, we staggered into a catastrophe we are unprepared for. All 50 states have housing economies that exceed the means of most working people. Jobs are being lost to automation, and this is an ever growing trend, where are Americans supposed to live? Are there enough bridges for all of us to live under? Biden crowed about increasing the minimum wage to a paltry 15.00/hr. While it is better than what it is now, it must be supplemented with UBI for those under a certain income threshold. As we move to a high technology production society, we need UBI, so say the young academics in my family, and I agree--to keep the American economy afloat, to keep the youth afloat who have been robbed of their inheritance by fat cats of both parties since those "wonderful" Reagan years. The Grim Reaper McConnell has allowed hundreds of bills to die on his desk, while Kentucky, a very red state, and also among the poorest, grapple as if they are losing someone great: there is now where to go but UP, Kentucky! You have hit rock bottom!
THE STUDENT DEBT CRISIS
The working class are already subsidizing the rich. Educational costs only go up. Our goal is to accomplish two things:
1. Wipe out student debt, and tax credits for those who have paid back their student loans, going back a decade.
2. Full ride tuition for all, this will apply to all universities. We need to end Ivy League status, as the college scandals have illustrated, the rich simply bribe their way into good schools.
GUARANTEED HOUSING FOR ALL/PUBLIC BANKING
This is the wealthiest nation on earth, the federal reserve exists to enrich the already rich. Public banking is needed to ensure there is housing for all, especially those who suffer from mental health issues. Tie their housing to their disability/disability benefit. We are not so poor a nation that our mentally ill should suffer on the street on a park bench, or by a dumpster. How well we care for our vulnerable should always be how strong we are. The Trump contingent point to this as a nanny state, something to be ashamed of. We are already a nanny state for the wealthy, the people that can already afford to pay their way. Free market principles should not be the only factor in whether our citizens live in dignity; housing is a human right.
EXPAND THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
The current stasis of the SCOTUS is a throwback to the pre-Civil War years. It is a backward anachronism to white supremacy, a bastion of racial superiority buttressed by the bald and naked abuse of power of Mitch McConnell. This nation is bleeding for change, in every death of our melanin blessed brothers and sisters at the hands of police, and my own Native Americans, whose fatalities exceed those experienced by our counterparts. A pre-civil war SCOTUS cannot meet modern realities. The Republicans argued us out of Merrick Garland and appoint Barrett in a power grab. We must unabashedly answer by expanding the court. If the Democratic party ever want the minority support in future years, if there is even a party left, it must rise in meeting our life and death need to reform the Republican owned, busted out, redneck, lynch happy chickenshack that is the Supreme Court of the United States. It is substandard institution and its brazen manipulation is a great shame on this nation.
I CARRY MY FATHERS MANTLE, NAME, AND LEGACY FORWARD
My goal in pushing for these social policies is in keeping with the wisdom of my late father. He was a man who sang in our thirst lodges, highly qualified and knowledgable in these rites. Yet, he was too humble to take on the role and run them himself. He was a gifted political visionary, he challenged the puritan culture of Eurocentricism: he denied manifest destiny and dominion, and exhorted to us, if the white race embraced our vision--the human race will go on much longer. If not, the human race will perish. He was environmentalist, policy maker, student of Chinese cuisine (no one beats his deep fried sweet and sour chicken, to this day), fisherman, photographer, gifted painter.
He used to tell us: "when I am gone, don't mourn me, don't get lonely. Do what I did when I lost my own father at the age of sixteen. I would look at my hands and say "My father's blood flows through my veins. I am my father."
I do this often. I am my father, and its good to be back in political life. From my place, I urge a nation to embrace its inevitability, peacefully with hopeful eyes to the future, or be torn apart by Trump's divisive legacy.
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