Republican Rebirth at Ripon–Part III

Under my Republican “Rebirth at Ripon” plan, conservatives would be required to take the following JUNIOR YEAR classes:

Third Year—First Semester

HIS: 330: WWII AND ITS ORIGINS: Learn what caused the German aggression in Poland, and the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. Know the WWII battles and the price each nation paid. Study the Soviet experience on the Eastern Front, which caused their postwar fear of another invasion, in the subsequent Cold War. As the war ended, how did the UN change world order?

PS: 310: UNITED NATIONS: Learn the organizational structure of the UN and the content of Assembly and Security Council resolutions. Understand every nation on earth, except Israel and the U.S., support statehood for Palestine. Accept the UN as a valuable organization. Don’t threaten to defund it. Work with it.

EC: 350: ECON: HEALTH CARE: Admit the U.S. has a health care crisis. How would the single-payer Canadian system work? Why do European systems, like the one in the Netherlands based on private insurance, work so much better than ours? Why are insurance premiums so high in the U.S.? Can we actually decide on the amount of an affordable premium? How much profit is taken from premiums by the insurance industry? How can we control health care costs? What’s wrong with fee-for-service billing? How much in profits do health care providers take from each bill? Can we at least agree on Medicare facts? Who would lose under Ryan’s voucher plan? Since workers comp and auto insurances are required, can health insurance also be mandated? What phys. ed. and nutrition classes should be taught in schools?

EC: 340: ECON: SOCIAL SECURITY: Learn the history of Social Security retirement. How do European systems work? What would be the economic risks of privatizing retirement in the market? What if the elderly lost all their savings in the market?

LAW: 315: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: Accept the constitutional authority of Congress to regulate business, by delegating the authority to write rules to various administrative agencies. Stop trying to close agencies and departments. Make them more efficient.

Third Year—Second Semester

HIS: 320: MODERN MIDEAST HISTORY: All aspiring politicians must learn Mideast history, from the end of WWI, when the Ottoman Empire dissolved, through the present. What was the “Balfour Declaration”? What happened after Britain received a League of Nations mandate to govern Palestine? What Arab-Israeli conflicts subsequently erupted in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Golan Heights? Understand the Palestinian view regarding the 1967 borders. Don’t just pander to Israel.

PS: 320: EUROPEAN UNION: Learn the history and structure of the European Union, and the EU Monetary Union, as to the Euro crisis. Should Britain adopt the Euro? Understand how the EU Monetary Union constrains national monetary and fiscal policies. Don’t just say the Greek debt crisis is their problem, as the U.S. is now part of a global economy. We simply cannot ignore Europe.

EC: 330: LABOR ECONOMICS: Know the U.S. government would have been overthrown in the 1930s if the right to organize unions, right to strike, and right to bargain collectively had not been allowed. Learn what causes recession and unemployment. Study fiscal and monetary tools for controlling downturns. Stop saying we would be better off without minimum wage laws– it’s embarrassing. Know the workplace is much safer now thanks to OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Stop trying to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board. Just work with it.

EC: 350: ECON: INTERNATIONAL TRADE: What are the economics of free trade and protectionism? Do tariffs lead to retaliatory tariffs and overall reductions in trade? What was the effect of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act? What about politically based economic sanctions? Learn the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941 was caused by a U.S. trade embargo; that sanctions against the white racist South African regime helped bring them down; and the 50-year U.S. trade embargo against Cuba failed, because the world refused to join. Study trade; don’t just use it to pander.

LAW: 325: PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW: Learn the U.S. is not the master of the world. 193 nations belong to the UN. Treaties are the principle way in which international law is written and the U.S. is not above it–we have an obligation to obey it. Stop acting like a Texas cowboy in foreign affairs.