If you saw my “5 things the next POTUS can do” infographic and wondered what else the next POTUS can do, you’ve come to the right place. POTUS has quite a bit of executive authority that s/he can exercise personally or via agency appointees. Some of the great and not-so-great executive orders of yore include the Emancipation Proclamation, Truman’s desegregation of the armed forces, Eisenhower’s use of the National Guard to enforce integration of public schools, FDR’s Japanese internment and creation of the Export-Import Bank and Obama’s carbon pollution cap and minimum wage hike for federal employees and contractors (nice one, Obama)!

The next POTUS could, if he or she were inclined, bypass Congress to accomplish all of the following, and all members of Congress could do is throw a temper tantrum which they will anyway. At the rate things are falling apart for the GOP, it will likely lose its Senate majority and maybe even its House majority come 2017. This frees POTUS to nominate progressives to judicial and executive agency posts. Not all of them will be confirmed, but the onus will be on Senate obstructionists to justify their opposition.

As you read through this list, ask yourself which of these actions Hillary Clinton would undertake. Beyond nominating pro-choices judges, all bets are off. That’s not to say Bernie will do everything on my wish list but, with the right Cabinet and a strong people-powered wind in his sail (i.e. the “political revolution” he keeps going on about), he could do a lot. And with Scalia out of the picture, even the Supreme Court won’t be able to undo many of these executive actions.

So next time you hear a primary voter lamenting that s/he would vote for Bernie if only he could realistically hope to achieve anything, start rattling off this list:

Wealth equality

1. Close six corporate tax loopholes that cost the U.S. $100 billion a year
2. Direct the IRS to prioritize audits of corporations and taxpayers in the top .1%
3. Vigorously enforce consumer financial protection and anti-discrimination laws
4. Increase minimum wage for federal employees and contractors
5. Expand family leave benefits for federal employees
6. Require that federal contractors provide health, pension, vacation and family leave benefits
7. Provide on-site/nearby daycare for children of federal employees
8. Get out of or renegotiate bad trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA that offshore jobs and weaken labor and environmental protections
9. Withdraw from Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) before Congress votes on it
10. Nominate a pro-worker National Labor Relations Board (this is the body that adjudicates union-management disputes)
11. Nominate a USPS Board of Governors who support “postal banking” – the provision of basic banking services, thereby eliminating the market for predatory payday lenders and check cashing outlets

Energy and environment

12. Ban fracking on federal public lands
13. Stop promoting offshore shale concession for US companies
14. Solar power and reduce electricity and water usage in all federal buildings
15. Electrify and solar power federal fleet
16. Ban offshore oil drilling in all US coastal waters
17. Declare a national emergency (climate change) and reinstate ban on exports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas
18. Increase Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars and light trucks
19. Increase fuel economy standards for heavy trucks
20. Remove dams that impede salmon runs
21. Direct EPA to ban chemicals and pesticides that harm human health and wildlife, especially pollinators, with fast-track alacrity
22. Order federal agencies to procure organic food for cafeterias
23. Designate new wilderness areas and national parks
24. Reject all extractive industry projects on public lands, including pipelines, fracking, drilling, and mining
25. Engage in clean technology transfer partnerships with developing nations, including and especially China and India – if they sink, we sink with them
26. Bring solar power to coal country by nominating clean energy advocates to board of Tennessee Valley Authority
27. Direct the Justice Department to investigate Exxon’s climate disinformation campaign
28. Direct the Department of Interior and EPA to adopt a public trust framework to protect public land and water from private use
29. Participate in good faith in all future rounds of global climate talks

Civil Rights

30. Issue formal apology to American Indian and African-American victims of genocide and slavery and their descendants
31. Place tribal homelands into trust for benefit of tribal nations
32. Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate all allegations of police abuse
33. Pardon federal prisoners serving time for drug offenses or political dissidence (and give a really great, uplifting speech about why you’re doing this)
34. Nominate federal judges who oppose death penalty and uphold civil liberties
35. Purge the Department of Justice and the White House Office of General Counsel of torture apologists (another opportunity for a killer speech)
36. Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA’s use of torture at Guantanamo and secret interrogation centers
37. Close Guantanamo and abolish the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detentions without charge
38. Try suspects in civil courts, not military tribunals
39. Stop arresting and prosecuting people for drug possession
40. Nominate civil rights champions to head key federal agencies such as the Department of Justice, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FEMA, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Housing Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Juvenile Justice, etc.

Immigration

41. Stop ICE raids on women and children
42. Terminate federal contracts with for-profit detention centers
43. Enforce the Flores ruling prohibiting family detention
44. Expand Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans programs granting work permits for undocumented people who have been in US for more than 5 years
45. Provide Affordable Care Act benefits to immigrants in “deferred action” status
46. Prohibit deportations based on racial profiling
47. Demilitarize the southern border
48. Require border patrol agents to wear body cameras and receive proper training on use of force
49. Increase admissions of Syrian, Afghani, Pakistani, Yemeni and Iraqi refugees. We broke it, we bought it
50. Extend political asylum to Latin American unaccompanied minors and victims of criminal gang activity
51. Respect sanctuary cities and places

Foreign Policy

52. Ground the drones that are killing untold numbers of civilians and providing a recruiting platform for ISIS
53. Crack down on mind-bogglingly prolific Pentagon waste
54. Renounce US exceptionalism and don’t be a jerk who antagonizes everyone
55. Listen to whatever Phyllis Bennis at the Institute for Policy Studies says to do in the Middle East (I’m serious—she’s incredibly knowledgeable and quite brilliant, and no one in power has ever given her the time of day)

Health and Safety

56. Adopt precautionary principle across all federal agencies that regulate and (dis)approve of new products and technologies
57. Nominate an agriculture secretary not beholden to Big Ag, bio-tech or petro-chemical industries
58. Revise federal school breakfast and lunch guidelines to reflect sound child nutrition standards
59. Replace junk food procurement with fresh farm-to-cafeteria products for public schools
60. Nominate an FDA head with no ties to Big Pharma, Big Ag or bio-tech
61. Withdraw from trade deals that result in increased prescription drug costs
62. Restore Medicare’s ability to negotiate for lower drug prices (duh)!
63. Aggressively prosecute pharmaceutical companies for Medicare fraud, off-label drug promotion and anti-trust violations
64. Appoint a commission to study the impacts of regular pornography consumption on young men and women
65. Nominate pro-choice federal judges
66. Nominate directors of National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control committed to addressing health disparities related to race, class and sexual orientation
67. Ensure LGBTQ people have access to Affordable Health Act coverage

Education

68. Nominate an education secretary who is responsive to teachers and students, not private companies and wealthy individuals and foundations with their own agendas around standardized testing, classroom technology, STEM focus, Core Curriculum, suspension and expulsion policies, and how to close the achievement gap
69. Direct the Department of Education to take a long, hard look at the (f)utility of the billions spent on classroom technologies and the provision of laptops and tablets to students. Required reading: Geek Heresy and The Flickering Mind

Revitalizing democracy

70. Nominate Supreme Court justices who will overturn Citizens United and uphold campaign finance laws
71. Bar corporate lobbyists from White House
72. Close the revolving door by declining to nominate corporate executives to leadership positions in the FCC, FDA, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Consumer Protection Bureau, OSHA, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, SEC, Treasury, Federal Reserve, Homeland Security, Defense Dept, etc.
73. Stop mass surveillance by NSA, CIA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security
74. Nominate civil liberties champions to head NSA, Homeland Security and FCC
75. Require federal government contractors to disclose campaign spending
76. Strengthen and vigorously enforce Federal Elections Commission and Federal Communications Commission transparency rules for political spending
77. Hold monthly, unscripted town halls with attendees chosen by lottery (Cabinet secretaries do same)

In addition to all the things POTUS could do, there a lot of things progressives want POTUS to refrain from doing, things like getting embroiled in military fiascos, overthrowing democratically elected heads of state, and playing high stakes games of chicken with nuclear superpowers. Nor do want our new POTUS to (as a certain power couple named Bill and Hillary did), negotiate terrible trade deals, invite Congress to gut welfare and initiate ultra-punitive crime bills that created today’s mass incarceration crisis. A bad POTUS—with a bad spouse at his/her side– can do a lot of damage.

That’s my POTUS wish list. What’s yours? Please use the comments section (see comment link underneath blog headline) to list all the thing I forgot – bonus points if you can explain how and why Congress can be bypassed.