Don't let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good.

If I were "King of the World", or at least the Supreme Dictator of the US, I would immediately enact

• Medicare for All.
• Free college tuition.
• Taxes on the rich and corporations to pay for it.
• Placement of solar panels and wind turbines all over the country.
• An end coal mining.
• Major funding cuts to the military.
• Severe cutbacks on other fossil fuels.
• Abolition of the Electoral College.
• Equal Pay for women for equal work.
• Laws to keep abortion legal but with restrictions.
• Laws to make marijuana legal but with restrictions.

All are good ideas, and if I could snap my fingers and make them all happen I would.  But I'm unfortunately a realist and a pragmatist, too.  In the same way we don't put on a pair of ice skates for the first time and become Olympic athletes within a day, none of these things will happen quickly or easily.  And some of them will NEVER happen.

There are those, even among my dearest friends, who simply don't see why these things can't be accomplished immediately -- that's the "Perfect".  They need to realize that having "Good" is better than not having "Perfect.".  There are those who simply don't see these things as necessary at all.

But I'm a Libra.  I look for balance.  I look for order.  I look for sustainability.  I look for fairness.  And to me, this is how I REALLY would accomplish these goals.

Allow people to buy into Medicare down to age 60.  Then within a year, lower that to 55, then to 50.  See how it goes.  Maybe we should pay for that by increasing the income tax on the super-wealthy by just 5%.  Really, how can society justify the rich buying a 10th yacht when people in their 50s are dying from preventable or treatable conditions because they can't afford insurance?  And don't tell me the rich WORKED for it.  So what?

Make college free for the first year (oh, and lower the interest rate to 0% for the other years).  Again, that 10th yacht would go a long way toward paying tuition for a first in the family college student.

We give fossil fuel companies (and others) BILLIONS per year in subsidies, yet conservatives say we can't afford to subsidize solar and wind power.  Begin by investing 10% of what we give to Exxon-Mobil to renewables.  Then next year increase that to 20%, and keep going.  Sure it'll take 10 years before we end the subsidy to the oil companies, but if they get into renewables, they would benefit that way, too.

Some things CAN be done immediately, like equal pay for equal work, legalization of marijuana, and abolition of the Electoral College.  And we SHOULD do those things.

My message to my liberal, radical, progressive friends?  Just because I don't believe in taking the car down the road at 120 MPH doesn't mean I don't want to go for a ride.

Take it easy, keep pushing, don't expect miracles yesterday.