Mystery Topic Challenge: If I Were President
Posted by: Scott in Mystery Topic Challenge
Recently I came across a blogger group called the Mystery Topic Challenge. How it works is that once a month a member of the group puts out a topic of their choosing. All the members of the group write a blog post on the topic and post it one week after the topic was announced. They then read each other’s blog posts and vote for the best one. The winner of the challenge gets to decide the following month’s challenge topic.
This month’s topic is:
If you were President/Prime Minister for a day, with the power to do absolutely anything (Supreme Court? What Supreme Court?), what would you do and why?
Wow! I get to be President for a day with absolute power?!? Bwahahahahahahaha! I shall crush my enemies like ants! I shall be loved by the people as a benevolent ruler… or else! I shall invade Luxembourg (they know why)! I shall reign supreme!!!
OK, now that I’ve gotten that little power trip fantasy out of my head, let me consider what I’d really do.
One of the greatest things about America is that it is a democracy. It is supposed to have a government that is representative of its people. Our Constitution was created with a careful system of checks and balances so that one person or group cannot have unchecked power (or at least that’s the goal… someone tell Bush). As President with absolute power for a day, there are a lot of things I would like to do and enact. Unfortunately by doing so I would turn my back on the very principles I believe in and turn our country into a dictatorship, even if just for a day.
For example, it is very tempting for me to enact a national healthcare system to cover all Americans regardless of income level. I strongly believe that we need such a system. However as much as healthcare reform is in need here, I shouldn’t be the one to decide it in and of myself. The people of America should be allowed to have a say by voting for the candidates who will represent their views on this issue.
That’s not to say I would remain impotent with this power granted me. What I would do would be to enact some changes that I think would help protect the democracy. Let me explain:
I, like many Americans, feel that our current administration has thumbed its nose at the Constitution. We’ve lost some of our civil liberties such as the requirement of a judicial warrant to spy on Americans. It’s a slippery slope once one civil liberty falls, and I’m afraid that five to ten years from now we’ll be looking back and wondering what happened to our freedoms. As President, I would restore all of the civil liberties granted to us by the Constitution. I would then put in place protections so that going forward these rights could not be so easily taken away or suspended. I would also strengthen the jurisdiction of our Constitution so that any one branch could not sidestep it whenever it suits them (e.g. Bush’s constant and inappropriate use of "Executive Privilege").
Next I would remove all corporate ownership of the media in America. Our founding fathers fully envisioned the press as almost a fourth branch of government, aka "the fourth estate." The press was supposed to be a means by which the people of America were to be able to participate in the public discourse. By having a free and independent press, our citizenry was to be informed and knowledgeable of their government’s activities. Nowadays the news organizations are "business units" of major corporations and feel more of a responsibility to increase ratings and make profits than report the truth. I would remove that corporate ownership and set up protections so that the press would remain independent. The founding fathers of our nation thought so much of the press in regards to being part of our country and its government that it is the only industry specifically mentioned in the Constitution.
I would next examine election reform. Currently in America in order to run for public office, you need a fairly large bankroll. If you don’t bring that to the table yourself, then you must rely on donations, especially corporate and special interest contributions, to obtain the money you’ll need to run a successful candidacy. As we all know, that leads to politicians who represent the interest of large campaign donors rather than their constituents. In order to minimize the need for a large amounts of money to run for office, I would prohibit candidates from advertising on television, radio, or print. Why? Well instead of extremely expensive 30-second TV spots that are based on quick and often fear-based impressions (such as the mushroom cloud in Bush’s campaign ads and the Willy Horton ads of the 1988 election), candidates would have to rely on debates, speeches, and campaigning. This would hopefully free them from the debt to large campaign donors and allow more people to enter the races for public office.
This next item is going to be perceived by some as an attack on religion, but in fact I mean it as quite the opposite: I would reinforce the separation of church and state. Laws in America could not be made according to any one religious principle or ideal, but instead must be for the public good. By protecting the separation of church and state, we protect freedom of religion. That is something that should be precious to not only minority religions in the U.S., but Christians as well.
As President for a day, I would immediately restore America to compliance with the Geneva Convention. Torture of any sort would not be practiced by Americans or on the behalf of Americans. We would treat our enemies the way we would expect them to treat our citizens as prisoners of war. I don’t see how we can win the "war on terror" if we become the very monster we’re fighting.
I might also put into place some environmental protections, particularly of public lands, but I would be careful as to not enforce my singular will on the American people. Again, I have to tread lightly with this much power or I become a dictator.
Although my actions here may not be the broad changes I hope for when I go to the voting booth, I think they are the best bet in restoring the ideals of our founding fathers. They were very smart men, much smarter than me, and the system they came up with was brilliant. Unfortunately they could not predict things that technology has brought us (like the 30-second television campaign ad) and how those things might be abused to manipulate the system. That’s why if I were President for a day, my number one goal would be to restore the Constitution to its former place as a beacon of democracy for all the world.
That’s what I would do. Now what would you do?
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Wow, just, wow. When I came up with the topic I expected people to either go the “fun” route and abuse the power for a day to get all sorts of freebies and nice stuff, or go with a “change the world” sort of approach. Never did I think anyone would actually see ultimate power as a danger to democracy in the way you did. You made ME think twice on a topic I came up with!
Very very well done. That was a joy to read, I mean that.
Re: protecting the constitution, Bush isn’t the only one. The Supreme Court has been disregarding it for years…
Re: the press, excellent point. I never thought of it that way, but you are absolutely right.
Election reform is needed. We are not a true democracy until the outdated Electoral College is removed from the voting system. It no longer takes three weeks for election results to get to D.C. by horse and buggy. In fact, the word democracy doesn’t even appear when describing our system of government. The USofA is a Federal Constitutional Republic. Here’s what that means to me. We develop a national (or federal) government to uphold a set of guidelines we’ll call The Constitution. We, the people, send representatives to be our voice in this government. Did I get that right?
Yes, we democratically decide which officials to send to government except one — The President and their chosen running mate. In this case, we send a representative to be our voice and our vote. Not the true definition of Democracy in my dictionary. It’s simple. Just like every other voice in our government, the President should be a popular vote as well. THEN our esteemed leader can then preach democracy with far less irony.
Oh, and then I’d start a national health plan for our citizens. You know, like every other ‘civilized’ society in the Western world has. Yes, we’d all have to pay for it, but better my tax dollars go to help my fellow Americans than support a war that — if we were a true democracy — would have had an exit plan as soon as support started to waver.
Mr P: Abuse the power you say? *Cough* Who’d do a thing like that?!
This is excellent. Much better than my feeble attempt. I think I should have gone for the freebies.
You are the reason that I went for the funny with a few points thrown in. Beautifully done.
Got to disagree about the national health service. We have one and I wish we didn’t. It’s a huge gaping black hole sucking up money and dishing up a poor excuse for healthcare. If anything I actually wish we had a system more like the one you have in the States, and have advocated for health insurance and private healthcare for a long time.
Mr President’s last blog post..Absolute Power
Pretty good, but I strongly disagree about the Electoral College. If we go to a purely popular vote route, presidential candidates would spend all their time and efforts in the most populous states, and ignore the others. Citizens in Idaho, Arkansas, and North Dakotan pay taxes too you know. Perhaps tweak it awarding the candidate who wins each Congressional district in a state the one Electoral vote for that district, with the two Electoral votes for the 2 Senators going to the overall statewide winner, but doing away with it altogether would not be a wise move.
Look at how New York City or Chicago dominate state politics in New York and Illinois, and how the rest of the state often gets short shrift.
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I agree. There is a reason for the Electoral College, and that is to make sure candidates don’t ignore the smaller states. Get rid of it and suddenly a candidate only has to campaign in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and a few more large urban areas. It wouldn’t make sense for them to waste their time and dollars going to rural communities.
You know I like you, I really like you. After reading your MTC I thought - hey, someone I could both bash systems and create new ones with. Great job!
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If I were president for a day, I’d call Dick into the oval office, tell a funny joke to put him at ease…
…then clock him a good one.
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Good post - I agree with some of it, disagree with other parts of it.
Thanks Scott for some insight. I agree with the news as I used to work with some absolute (hmmm) free thinkers (?) that firmly believed that the news on FOX was THE TRUTH and all else was propaganda…
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Very ambitious for one day, but all good plans, especially restoring the Constitution, an incredible document that is too often ignored.
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Lets do one thing first of all: abolish the death penalty. Just end it. No debate, no “what if..”, no “But…”, just end it. As long as this country still has this barbaric, sick system allowing to order the killing of a human being (whoever it is) there will be NO progress. Just end it..
This is a very good post Scott enjoyed reading it. I’m glad I singed up for this challenge there’s a lot of great posts
TooBIG’s last blog post..If I Was President
This was extremely thought provoking, and even well-written, hence making it interesting for someone who doesn’t even give two licks about politics. Well done, this topic is getting harder and harder to vote on as I read more posts!
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Way way way loftier than my goals. I’m curious about Luxembourg…
great post
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What a great post; and I concurr wholeheartedly with your points. Any chance of you getting into the 2008 race?
Okay, I now see that side of the Electoral College now. Thank you for the lesson. However, we are still not a democracy. I guess my biggest beef here is that America continually preaches democracy to the point of trying to shove it on other societies yet we are a republic. It’s even in the Pledge of Allegiance: “And to the Republic for which it stands”. Call me nick-picky. Still, election reform is needed.
I will stand firm on my belief that an American national health care program is needed. I’ve talked to several people in the UK and one in Canada (yes, I know that’s no where near a majority, but I’m not a polling company) and while they know that their systems have flaws, they are very grateful to have them and wouldn’t want to be in America’s health system (joke coming) if their lives depended on it. Private healthcare and health insurance would be wonderful IF you could keep the greed out of it. Humans unfortunately have that flaw so it’s no wonder that flaw spreads into larger systems. Some people see a pie sliced into pieces and just take the entire thing.
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