If I Was President

Well this is my presidential bid, and though I talk a lot about Iraq and Iran and other political things, most of that will be resolved by the time I get into office.

Today I'm going to give a little preview of some of the things that will be important to me, if I was president. Now, being that my run is 19 years away, most of these ideas are relatively unrefined, and some of them may seem more or less feasible as time moves on. Some may even become implemented before hand.

First, my list of priorities and why.

1.) Education. You cannot have a strong country without an intelligent work force. I do not agree with just passing someone through school to the point that people to this day are graduating high school with little ability to read. The American education system is a complete joke. I dropped out of High School and got my GED, and in the 5 years that I have been out of school I have learned more than my education from Junior High upward. (And in my last year of High School, I was in English III Honors, History Honors, and Gifted classes, all of which were complete jokes.) We have got to get an education system that is on par with European schools.

2.) Technology and Science development. It is extremely important that we get back on top of this list. I am a 100% patriot to America (the ideals), and there was a time when we were number one at everything, I want us to be number 1 again. With improvements in education, we will begin producing more intellectuals to help us in this field.

3.) Military. Though I may seem like a militant person, and this makes me seem even more so, I do not like war. I do not like the thought of little girls and boys going through the things that happen in war. It bothers me to think of our soldiers so far from home near the holidays, and it breaks my heart for the families who are spending their first Christmas knowing their loved ones are not coming back at all. But I believe a strong military is important, and I believe that a country needs a strong military to have a strong backbone in the international view. Time and time again we fight a war while playing catch up. We did it in WWII, and built a massive force. Then we let them all go and Korea popped up, and we had to start it all over again. We saw it happen in Iraq this time around, Clinton had shrunk our military and now they are really feeling the strain of it.

4.) Taxes. I think our tax system is far too complicated. This is an extreme point of view, but I believe in doing away with income taxes, and moving to everything on a sales tax basis. Yes, I know the cost of things would increase. But you would never have to file taxes again. There would never be the case of that person who never files income taxes and gets away with it for 10 years. It would also solve the problem of illegal immigrants never paying taxes, they would pay taxes every time they bought anything from a cup of coffee to a new car. With this I would also want to include a provision for people who make less than a certain amount to be exempt from these taxes, as in anyone in the poverty range. This could be accomplished by either keeping you receipts and mailing them in every quarter for a refund, or by some other means. I know that this is a very touchy subject and it has only recently been brought up to me, but initially I like it. It is one that will take a lot of work to make right, but if it did it would save money, time, and the government wouldn't be sitting on your money for a whole year while you couldn't do anything with it. Accountants would not be too happy with this one, as well as the rich people who set up tax shelters to avoid paying taxes.

But honestly, I don't want the rich people to vote me in, I don't want Chevron, or Time Warner to vote me in. I want the real people to vote me in. From under the poverty line to the upper middle class. If I anger that fraction of the country, I'm sorry, you have enough money to deal with some upsetting stuff, take a vacation and cool off. If it angers a millionaire, but makes a single working mom happy, I consider it a victory.

Other priorities would be:

*Speeding up the process in congress.
*Making people understand that the right to a speedy trial, as guaranteed, does not mean letting people stall you in court for 10 years because they have more expensive lawyers.
*I believe that a president should write his own speeches.

I would set up a team to find as many inefficiencies as they could in the government in six months time, and spend the next 3 and 1/2 (to 7 and 1/2) years fixing them. We have an incredibly inefficient government that wastes money by the truckload.

Another priority would be to talk and listen to the people. Not just the lawmakers, not the media, not the polls, but the people themselves. As the leader of a country you have to stay in touch with the people who gave you that power. That's why some lawmakers have Chevron on speed dial, and other special interest groups.

I know that people say "Well, this is what all politicians say! It's great until you get into office, then it all disappears!"

I agree, and that's why I am starting so early. Without using the normal politicians way of $1000 dollar dinners and fundraisers. I'll give you 19 years to get to know me and my intentions, using the internet, op-eds, and anything else I can find that will reach the common Joe and Jane Doe, Main Street America.

Another very important belief of mine is that a President should lead closer to the middle. At this point we spend 4-8 years going one direction, only to spend the next 4-8 years trying to go in a completely different direction and undo everything the previous Administration did. We need a leader who will lead the country, not just his side of it. 4 steps one way and 4 steps back just leads you to the beginning, with no real progress. A leader who knows how to compromise, and give the people what they want.

I know this means I just lost a ton of votes. The extremists of any side, whether it be religion, or partisanship, will not vote for me. My thought on that is if you have 20% hardcore conservatives and 20% hardcore 'liberals' that leaves 60% of the people who may side with one or the other, but are still close enough to the middle to see the good something like this would do for the country. As before how I have stated my hatred for labeling, I am not going to only worry about the Christian vote, or the White vote, or the Black vote. I appeal to the American voter. I believe that there are enough out there, whether you be any race creed or religion, who will see the good in this. This country should be lead by someone who represents the people who live there, not the upper 10%, but the majority.

Maybe it's just a pipe dream, or maybe it will work. I look forward to hearing all the feedback in the world to this, because as the countrymen I want to lead, you help shape my platform, not a company, not a lobby group, but the people who win the bread of this country and form its backbone.

I care about you all, because you all are, as was once said, "My Fellow Americans"