We Asked Our Community How We Can Make America Great—Here's What They Said

We recently posed a simple question to our community on Facebook: How can we make America great? We got hundreds of comments. 

By taking a loose tally of the most common suggestions, this is what we get:

The Top 12 Most Commonly Suggested Solutions

1. Overturn Citizens United & ban corporate dark money in elections
2. Establish Medicare for All
3. Forgive student loan debt
4. Cut the military budget
5. Implement ranked-choice voting
6. Tax the rich and reduce taxes on the bottom 90%
7. Make higher education free or affordable
8. Legalize marijuana and expunge records
9. End gerrymandering & establish fair voting districts
10. Strengthen labor unions (e.g. The PRO Act)
11. Enact term limits on congress and judges
12. Invest in high-speed rail

At its core, this vision isn’t radical—it’s just good governance and basic fairness. Overturning Citizens United and ending dark money in elections ensure that politicians answer to voters, not corporate donors. Ranked-choice voting and fair districting empower citizens and reduce partisan gridlock. Strengthening labor unions, making healthcare universal, and ensuring education is affordable uplift working people regardless of political affiliation. Cutting excessive military spending and reinvesting in domestic priorities isn’t just progressive—it’s fiscally responsible. Legalizing marijuana and expunging records restores justice and aligns with the overwhelming majority of public opinion. 

For the establishment politicians bought by corporate donors, these ideas are impossibly unrealistic; but to most Americans across the political spectrum, they’re common-sense policies that create a fairer, stronger, and more democratic society for everyone.

That said, these 12 ideas just scratch the surface! What stood out most to us was the sheer depth and thoughtfulness of the ideas shared, showcasing a collective desire from everyone for meaningful change. 

After organizing the responses, here is the full list of solutions our community suggested:

Democracy & Political Reform

• Overturn Citizens United and remove Super PACs from politics.
• Implement publicly funded elections and cap campaign spending.
• Establish ranked-choice voting.
• End gerrymandering and create fair, nonpartisan voting districts.
• Implement mandatory voting (like in Australia) with a “None of the Above” option.
• Apply term limits for Congress and Supreme Court justices.
• Ban former Congress members from becoming lobbyists.
• Lift the cap on Social Security contributions to ensure its long-term viability.
• Strengthen federal voting rights protections to prevent suppression tactics.
• Ban corporate contributions to political campaigns or lobbying efforts.
• Increase transparency in political donations and campaign financing.
• Bring back civics education in schools to improve democratic literacy.
• Invest in democratic Public Ownership of utilities

Economic & Social Justice

• Turn Large Corporations into Worker-Owned Businesses if they pay anyone over $1 million a year, or if it has more than 100 employees
• Tax the 1% with progressive brackets and establish a wealth cap (e.g., limiting personal wealth beyond a certain threshold).
• Implement universal basic income.
• Cap corporate profits in essential industries (housing, energy, food, etc.).
• Ban large corporations from purchasing residential properties and farmland.
• Strengthen labor unions and worker protections.
• Reinstate strong antitrust laws to break up monopolies.
• Create a federal jobs guarantee program.
• Implement a four-day workweek and six-hour workdays.
• Enforce profit-sharing for workers in large corporations.
• Encourage cooperative business models and worker-owned enterprises.
• Implement price controls or profit caps on essential goods like rent, food, and energy.
• Reinstate robust consumer protections against predatory lending and corporate fraud.
• Ban billionaires from owning media conglomerates to prevent excessive media influence.
• Strengthen laws against financial speculation and excessive Wall Street risk-taking.
• Create public banks to fund community-led priorities like renewable energy, public transportation and regenerative, cooperative enterprises

Healthcare & Education

• Establish Medicare for All (single-payer healthcare system).
• Make community college and public university tuition-free.
• Forgive all predatory student loans and regulate interest rates.
• Expand SNAP and other assistance programs as interim measures until universal coverage is achieved.
• Ensure free meals for all K-12 students.
• Tax private universities that operate like for-profit businesses.
• Regulate food quality standards to ban harmful additives and processed junk foods.
• Include dental and vision care in public health programs.
• Free birth control access and reproductive healthcare.
• Decriminalize sex work and implement worker protections.
• Expand education to include gardening, farming, and land stewardship.

Military & Foreign Policy

• Pursue an international Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to address resource-driven conflicts and accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.
• Cut the military budget by at least 50-90% over the next two decades, accompanied by international demilitarization treaties.
• Close unnecessary military bases abroad.
• End U.S. involvement in regime change and foreign conflicts.
• Redirect defense spending to infrastructure, healthcare, and public services.
• Support the Global Peace Dividend, which would have each member nation redirect 2% of their military expenditures into social investment every year for 5 years.
• Stop overthrowing democracies and interfering in other nations’ affairs.
• Shift military spending to domestic priorities.
• Stop government surveillance overreach and protect privacy rights.

Environmental & Infrastructure Priorities

• Strengthen environmental protections and reinstate key regulations.
• Invest in high-speed rail, public transit, and green energy.
• Modernize the electrical grid, water systems, and bridges.
• Transition to degrowth policies (renewables must replace fossil fuel use, not just increase our total energy use)
• Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.
• Enforce strict corporate environmental accountability with heavy penalties, including revoking charters for repeat offenders like Monsanto.
• Phase out extractive industries that irreversibly harm ecosystems.
• Protect and invest in sustainable farming and local food systems.
• Expand the EPA’s power to enforce environmental protections.
• Create stronger regulations on logging, mining, and oil drilling.
• Regulate corporate farming and encourage organic/local food production.
• Make public transportation free or heavily subsidized.

Human Rights & Social Progress

• Codify Roe v. Wade (or an equivalent) to ensure women’s autonomy.
• Legalize marijuana and expunge records of non-violent drug offenders.
• Strengthen voting rights and accessibility.
• Guarantee LGBTQ+ protections and enforce anti-discrimination laws.
• Recognize housing, food, and healthcare as basic human rights.
• Abolish for-profit prisons and end cash bail systems.
• End planned obsolescence and hold manufacturers accountable.
• Invest in mental health support for veterans and the general population.
• Decriminalize and regulate all currently illegal drugs.

Corporate & Economic Accountability

• Tax churches and religious institutions that engage in political activity.
• Close corporate tax loopholes and enforce fair taxation.
• Penalize corporations for price gouging and rent-seeking.
• Increase IRS funding to ensure the wealthy pay their share.
• Require corporations to invest locally or democratize their workplaces in exchange for tax breaks.
• Reinstate strict banking regulations, including Glass-Steagall Act-type separation of commercial and investment banking, to prevent another financial crisis.

These proposals reflect a community-driven vision for an America that is more democratic, equitable, and sustainable. While ambitious, many of these policies have precedents in other countries or in our own past, suggesting they can be achieved with sufficient political will. If we truly want to “make America great again,” let’s start by making it work for everyone.

What do you think? Which of these solutions would you prioritize? Let’s keep the conversation going.