Thank you for such an honest and thoughtful response, and forgive my delay.
We probably agree on a lot of politics. I do believe in a national healthcare system (socialized medicine?), because our current approach is so unjust, and because I fundamentally believe that a democratic government is the tool that people use to collectively better themselves. I also believe in free higher education for the same reason. I think both would pay for themselves.
That said, I know actually doing those things (especially healthcare) in the U.S. would be quite tricky and that the practical implementation of something matters as much as what should ideally be.
In general I believe in intellectual honesty, integrity in public services, treating everyone with the same level of respect, and that people generally do better when they work together. Which is why I think the Trump Administration and the current crop of Republicans enabling him (note that I'm not saying all!) are such pieces of shit. I didn’t used to be so crude but at some point you have to make clear what’s not acceptable in the kind of society I believe in.
I'm also a huge fan of the arts, the liberal arts, and so a big believer in freedom of expression.
So I can be a bit of a political idealist. At the same time I've read a lot of history and think I understand that the world is a rough place and that people in power often have to make shitty choices between bad and worse.
TBH I think one of the biggest positive changes, both in this country and in the world, could be in the field of mental health. Consider how revolutionary modern medicine has been in terms of the physical health of the individual and all the positive good and realization of human potential that has come from that.
Mental health is (at least in Western science) still a very young field and only beginning to be socially accepted. Also consider just how much damage a troubled individual - especially someone in a position of power - can do. Even just a shitty manager can really fuck up other people's lives.
We also have to acknowledge that no one can have good mental health when they have constant economic insecurity, or lack a way to meaningfully contribute to their community/to society.
I believe that if we keep fucking over our planet, it's gonna be real shitty for the human race. Pollution plays a big role in mental health as well (nature is actually critical for good mental health, plus pollution causes myriad physical and mental health issues in the population).
So I tend to be a pretty strong critic of capitalism as it is today, and how it just makes things like polluting the environment "externalities". I see markets as a financial tool and not inherently good or bad (and definitely not magical!), and, I think regulated capitalism can have it's role, but, the system we see today sucks. The national and global wealth disparity as it exists today is unjust, unethical, and, even if it's legal, criminal. It's shameful that the richest country in the world is so poor (poor civic infrastructure, poor citizens, poor quality of life, etc).
That said , while there are so many positive reforms we can make, I don't know what's out there to replace capitalism as a whole. We've yet to see some other sort of economic system really be tried (I don't count the USSR and most 'socialist' countries; tbh most of those governments were fucked up or, undermined by the US). So who knows what a better system is.
I do like the United States; what I like about it is that criticizing it is part of our civic duty.
Lastly I believe people really don't like to be uncomfortable, or change, or question themselves, which is why we see so much resistance to acknwoledging things like the patriarchy or white supremacy; no one likes to think that maybe their own friends, family, or themselves, have behaved in ways which have been harmful to other people. No one likes to question the unspoken assumptions of their world. Which goes back to my point about mental health.
And I think this discomfort with change has been a big part of the terrible response to the pandemic; people would rather stay comfortable with what they know and die, or play a role in the deaths of others, than deal with the discomfort of change.
This in part comes from my own perspective from having done a lot of therapy and dealing with mental health issues.