Welcome to the Uncommon Sense Project
This project is focused on securing the rights of people living in the United States through common sense public policy and law
Public trust, the percent who say they trust the government to do what is right at least most of the time, peaked around 1964 at 77 percent. That public trust had eroded to under 25 percent by 2007 and has hovered around 20 percent for nearly two decades. 1 That means that despite nine major federal elections, only 1 in 5 people can ever trust our government.
When looking at the historical approval ratings of our elected branches of government, congressional approval ratings 2 are consistently well below that of the president 3. This pattern likely reflects sustained congressional inaction on issues and solutions with public and scientific agreement. The trend also helps explain our recent turn toward increased executive power with it being made damagingly clear that a large portion of the public feel that the only thing worse than executive overreach is congressional inaction.
Now faced with unprecedented executive overreach that will exacerbate the issues faced by people living in the United States, restoring sense to Congress is our most immediate remedy. In 1776, Congress wrote:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” 4
This project asserts that congress has become a destructive force that can and should be fundamentally altered in the radical pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness
Rights
Rights guarantee people the ability to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. While the rights we defend will often have legal footing within the United States and internationally, the guiding principle will always be life, liberty, and happiness.
Data rights
Data rights guarantee people protections against misuse or unauthorized use of personal data
Economic rights
Economic rights guarantee people the ability to secure resources needed to meet their basic needs
Education rights
Education rights guarantee people everyone receives the best possible primary education and has access to secondary education
Health rights
Health rights guarantee people the highest attainable standard of health
Voter rights
Voter rights guarantee citizens the ability to participate freely, fairly, and equally in elections
Issues
The issues we cover will be cases where individuals, organizations, or governments systemically infringe upon the rights of an individual or group of individuals.
Example issue
Example rights guarantee guarantee-group example guarantee. This issue violates this guarantee because of this reason. We or our elected leaders should do this to solve this issue.
Access to healthcare
Health rights must guarantee access to high-quality healthcare services. 26 million Americans are uninsured and 120 million live in a county without proper access to medical care. Women and trans people are being denied appropriate medical care at the behest of lawmakers ignorant of best of medical practices. Congress must pass universal coverage, address medical deserts, and restore rights to reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare.
The cost of healthcare
Health rights require managing the costs of providing healthcare. The amount spent on healthcare in the U.S has risen exponentially year over year and we spend far more relative to the rest of the world. Reducing what we spend starts by eliminating the profit motive and administrative burden of for-profit insurers and monopolistic hospital systems. Ensuring free access to preventive services and medicine will further reduce expensive medical episodes. The costs of prescription drugs can be addressed through Medicare price negotiation and more aggressively pursuing generic availability.
Commercial surveillance
Data rights protect people from the misuse of their personal information. Technology companies have become increasingly hostile in their collection and monetization of our data with little respect for privacy. This trend, combined with grossly inadequate protections, is increasingly worrisome as advances in technology rapidly expands the information these companies are capable of collecting. Congress MUST enact digital privacy protections that shifts decision-making back to the people.
Unwarranted mass surveillance
Data rights protect people from the unauthorized use of their personal information. The government has exploited section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens and section 215 of the Patriot Act to engage in mass surveillance of phone and email records, internet searches, and credit card transactions. These provisions should be repealed, privacy laws should be modernized, and records obtained without a warrant should be destroyed.
Solutions
The solutions we cover will be public policy or laws that can be passed by congress to remedy an issue.
Example solution
This example solution addresses the example issue by doing this. This is the summary of supporting evidence. This is the summary of the action Congress should take.