[intendepods]

1. You want to IMPROVE your country, no serious graft folks, your aim is to make your country, better, not better your own lot, though you can make sweeping changes which will effect "your class" of people, i.e. if your rich, changes which improve the lot for the rich, etc etc. What fun would being absolute ruler be then?

[SOgLak]

I'd just keep pushing until they rose up and killed me.

(I'm assuming by supreme political power that I could affect state laws as well as federal. Otherwise it's not very supreme in the US.)

-----------------------

Reinstate Habeas Corpus.

Axe DOMA. Boot "Marriage" from the government completely. Civil Unions for all, if you want them.

Government work programs to replace welfare.

Single payer healthcare.

Move to sales tax to replace income tax. "Needs" like education, food, housing (up to a point) would be tax free. Higher sales tax on luxury items. This just to free up time and hassle on the part of citizens.

Legalize most drugs. (Tax em.)

Clear out the prisons of non-violent offenders, up the sentences for violent crimes. (Including willful endangerment and negligent type crimes as "violent". Simply put, prisons for those that pose a physical threat to others in society. Economic penalties for any other crime. Work/education programs for those who can't pay. Work/eductation programs for those in prison as well.)

Immigration reform. No more racial/ethnic quotas at the very least. No more multi-billion dollar walls. Work-to-citizenship programs. Investing in Mexico's infrastructure.

Education reform. Public schools only for the basics, reading, writing, arithmetic, US government... this would of course change secondary education to fill in the gaps. Students progress in classes based on test scores, not age. You go until you pass, whether it's 3 years or 10. Vouchers for secondary education. Higher paying, incentive based salaries for teachers. Lower job security.

Lower the voting age. Get kids interested and active in the political process at a young age. Perhaps just a simple US government quiz to take to register to vote. (I mean really simple.) But even that might be redundant with the next item.

Change voting to write in only. (No more party lines on ballots... you either know who you're voting for or shouldn't be voting. This could be handled by an electronic OCR system that prompts the user to confirm the choice, or re-enter if the system didn't recognize properly.)

Term limits for Senators and Congressmen.

Drop sanctions on Cuba.

I'm sure there's lots of other things... but that's all for now.

[uchetrip]

Term limits for Senators and Congressmen Why? Shouldn't that be the voters' decision?

[mymnarorump]

You don't need a perfect world for term limits.

[Foriaelalse]

Where are you from Blake?

[fil_nurser]

Oh I understand. Even in a perfect world, I think I would still want term limits.

[Misebeita]

Pull out of Iraq

Create a single-payer-type universal healthcare system.

Split the Dept. of Homeland Security into a Department of Law Enforcement and a Department of Intelligence. Move FEMA to the Dept. of the Interior.

Create an Energy/Environment "Manhattan Project" to achieve energy independence, a reduction of carbon emissions by 90%, and develop technologies to mitigate and reverse global warming.

Enact laws protecting the rights of workers to unionize. Overturn all the state "right-to-work" laws and force corporations to give unions a say in corporate governance.

Slap tariffs on countries refusing to comply with the principles of Fair Trade.

Reform the Tax Code. Enact a steeply progressive income tax coupled with a carbon tax of CO2 emissions by businesses and a very steep inheritance tax.

Enact the public financing of elections

Abolish the electoral college

Require runoff elections if no candidate gets a majority of votes.

Ban conglomerate corporations from owning media companies. (so GE, for example, would be forced to spin of NBC into an independent business).

strict laws protecting the diversity of ownership of radio and newspaper businesses (so Clear Channel, for example, gets broken up).

Set up a rotation system for primary elections and caucuses with a primary season going from May to August.

Have voting take place from 6 AM to 10PM during the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the first full weekend in November.

Give massive fines to employers caught hiring illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants that turn in their employers have their status legalized to that of resident alien.

The death penalty is abolished except for Treason and comes against humanity.

Double teacher pay. Abolish NCLB. Increase education funding so no classroom has more then 18 students. Create a system of charter schools for people that are gifted or have learning disabilities. Create national standards for homeschooling.

Everyone who graduates from high school or has competed their GED get 2 years of free college education. People who graduate from high school with at least a B- grade average gets 4 free years of free college education. Eliminate Affirmative Action.

Legalize and tax marijuana. Decriminalize the use of hard drugs, but keep the sale of hard drugs a felony.

Have it so that it takes a 60% majority to appoint a SCOTUS justice and limit the justices to serving a single, 10-year term.

Allow national referendums.

[freevideom]

Zero unemployment

Living Wage

Wealth Tax (abolish all others)

End homelessness

Single payer healthcare

End war in Iraq

Improve foreign policy

Bring back manufacturing jobs

35 hour work week

Better drug war with more resources devoted to helping those at risk and rehab

Much more control over industries like energy

[JulietOreira]

Originally posted by Vesayen
Where are you from Blake? Outer space apparently

Originally posted by Blake I'd pretty much just put the Green Party in charge. They share many of my ideals, but know politics.

[@Aerodyno@]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Zero unemployment

Living Wage

Wealth Tax (abolish all others)

End homelessness

Single payer healthcare

End war in Iraq

Improve foreign policy

Bring back manufacturing jobs

35 hour work week

Better drug war with more resources devoted to helping those at risk and rehab

Much more control over industries like energy France

My first thing would probably be disbanding some of the intelligence agencies, and attempt to curb and reverse the supreme court back to its intended position. Also disband the bueacracy, atleast to pre civil war levels.

[Smabeabumjess]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
France It amazes me how people can look at extreme poverty in their country and be proud of that.

[Pa33anger]

Originally posted by Odin
Ban conglomerate corporations from owning media companies. (so GE, for example, would be forced to spin of NBC into an independent business). I like this one, it would not even neccesarily break the constitution, after all, we have the sherman anti trust act... and we could amend the constitution, need be.

[Logaleta]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
Every country has extreme poverty. Are you serious?

[Glipseagrilia]

Are you serious? You've got wool over your eyes if you think france has no poverty.

[Lolita Palmer]

What's absurd is paying congressmen anything more than minimum wage, for that matter.

[Vagtlaldo]

Originally posted by Kidicious
They all have homes, enough to eat, and everything else they need, like every civilized society with a developed economy. Before anybody beats me to it:

[icerrelmCam]

[Knillagrarp]

Originally posted by Darius871


Hmmm...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=homeless+france

Talk to any European who visits this country. The type of homelessness that exists in Europe is not like what we have here. Homeless there might mean "without a permanent home." It doesn't mean scores of men and women in Hovervilles in every city of the nation.

[gnusnich]

Originally posted by Darius871
=/=

[spapsinee]

Korn, are you deliberately trying to make me cry?

"I would execute/jail all the bogeymen and then everything would be better."