"What Would You Do If The Political Situation Was Left Up To You?" or...

[Seil]

"What Would You Do If The Political Situation Was Left Up To You?" or "Seil's Been Drinking!" woulda been the full title, had it fit. Since Jagos is doin' the newspaper thing, an' people are talking 'bout politics, I thought it prudent to ask a question.

What would you do if politics were left up to you? (Get it? "Left?" Hahaha-I don't get it either.) 'M not saying that there's not going to be a political body that doesn't try to get things done, authority that doesn't enforce the law or a citizenship that doesn't live by the laws, but you're in control of what goes down. You're like the Super Presi... fuck it, let's go Canadian - you're the Super Prime Minister, or Super Prime for short 'cause it sounds like a giant robot Prime Minister and that's awesome.

The idea is that there's still a country, but they're beholden to your whims, and you can get anything pushed through and people will apply it. Do you stand for health care? BAMF! There's health care - but how're you gonna work it? Do you sit for a full seperation of church and state? BAMF! Church and state are now divorcees. Do you **** for gay rights? You saucy minx. So what's it gonna be? What's your ideal?

[size=totally huge]SEIL'S STUFF (Until the sober amendment kics in)[/size]
- Everyone is equal. You're black/hispanic/asian/indian? Welcome to Canada! You're gay? Adopt! Get married! Have fun.
- Authority figures such as police and other law-keeping agencies must be subject to random inspection. You know - for corruption and junk. But I'll have someone write up something clean and neat so that it's done quitely and proffessio... profession.... properly.
- Immigration law will not be as... demanding as previous, and will be done according to a person to person basis. Like "Doctor with an outstandingly blank criminal record? Welcome into the country!" "Repeat offender looking for asylum? Try America!"
- You are legally required to make at least one person smile per day.
- Fuck economics. I'm not imposing a communist rule, but we're gonna get rid of the lower tax bracket. You people having trouble making payments on your house? Don't worry, you'll be taken care of. People having trouble eating? We'll take care of you. Yo guys addicted to cocaine? We're here to help.
- Bullying is outlawed. Now I know this is impossible due to human nature - but it will be met with harsher punishments in school, and kids will be encouraged to report it because of a cool spokesperson. Like... Robocop or Poochie or someone.

[Fenris]

First thing I would do is make "[size=totally huge]" a reality.

[Fifthfiend]

Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

Begin deficit stimulus spending, focusing on infrastructure repairs, new construction, transit, education, and energy research. Lower the age at which Social Security begins paying out benefits to encourage older employees to move out of the work force.

Prosecution of the numerous bad actors in the financial sector, fully reinstate the regulation of banks repealed by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and Graham-Leach-Bliley.

Force the retirement of the most conservative judges on the Supreme Court (assuming that in this fantasy world I have the political mojo to make this happen as well). Replace them with justices who will roll back the myriad abrogations of individual rights and freedoms and expansion of the rights of corporations conducted by the court over the last few decades. Appoint like-minded federal judges.

Legalize and decriminalize most if not all drugs, one of the most common excuses for the above abrogations of individual rights and freedoms.

Do... something about the two ten-year-long wars going on. FUCK I don't even know what at this point. Send everyone in Guantanamo Bay home, unless they were A. actually demonstrably guilty of something, B. not tortured.

Break up the high concentrations of media ownership that resulted from the Telecom Act of 1996.

IDK, lots and lots of things, it is probably sufficiently obvious by now that I spend A LOT of time imagining what I would do if I could make the government pass any legislation I wanted.

[Aerozord]

First thing is, as supreme ruler I'd tweak your title suggestion abit

Originally Posted by Seil

you're the Super Optimus Prime Minister, or Super Optimus Prime for short

anyways, lets see, are we assuming all other things are the same? Cause if so some of my choices will be to reign in members of upper class that dont share my views.

But two radical things I'd definitely toss out there
all government positions above mayoral are volunteer, congress, president, ect dont get any salary what so ever. That will give us a few billion to work with.

I'd then use those billions to create a free national wi-fi network. While not as good as commercial ones it will lower the barrier for lower class to gain the network access we all take for granted. Since we are quickly getting to the point lacking ability to continually access other people and information will put you at a massive disadvantage.

Granted they'd still need to afford the device, but a single payment for a device is alot more manageable if you dont have a 70+ monthly bill slapped on it

[Seil]

I totally made this thread to argue laws that you want, too, so people argue about stuff, and other people be like "That's a good point, I never thought about it that way before." and other other people be like "AWFJIOEJFIOEWJ YOU GUYS ARE NAZI'S MAN!"

On second thought, don't be like that. That's not listed in the forum rules. :<

EDIT

Originally Posted by I purposefully made the Nightcrawler noise because he's awesome

Do you stand for health care? BAMF! There's health care - but how're you gonna work it?

[Krylo]

Well I think I'd star...

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

Begin deficit stimulus spending, focusing on infrastructure repairs, new construction, transit, education, and energy research. Lower the age at which Social Security begins paying out benefits to encourage older employees to move out of the work force.

Prosecution of the numerous bad actors in the financial sector, fully reinstate the regulation of banks repealed by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and Graham-Leach-Bliley.

Force the retirement of the most conservative judges on the Supreme Court (assuming that in this fantasy world I have the political mojo to make this happen as well). Replace them with justices who will roll back the myriad abrogations of individual rights and freedoms and expansion of the rights of corporations conducted by the court over the last few decades. Appoint like-minded federal judges.

Legalize and decriminalize most if not all drugs, one of the most common excuses for the above abrogations of individual rights and freedoms.

Do... something about the two ten-year-long wars going on. FUCK I don't even know what at this point. Send everyone in Guantanamo Bay home, unless they were A. actually demonstrably guilty of something, B. not tortured.

Break up the high concentrations of media ownership that resulted from the Telecom Act of 1996.

IDK, lots and lots of things, it is probably sufficiently obvious by now that I spend A LOT of time imagining what I would do if I could make the government pass any legislation I wanted.

Welp, guess I don't have to type anything, after all.

[Seil]

You know, as much as I want to get into politics for - what I believe are the right reasons - it becomes very clear to me with every political stint I see that I don't know the first thing about political procedure.

...Is the procedure part of political procedure part of the problem?

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

this wont help too much unless you do alot more to tax law. The upper class actually pay lower taxes percentage wise then middle and perhaps even lower class because they know how to manipulate their income. "charity" work, bonuses, stock, company perks, good old fashion money laundering. Most of the money these people make isn't from a paycheck

[edit]

Originally Posted by Seil

You know, as much as I want to get into politics for - what I believe are the right reasons - it becomes very clear to me with every political stint I see that I don't know the first thing about political procedure.

...Is the procedure part of political procedure part of the problem?

kinda, even if everyone is truely working for the greater good you have disagreements that risk deadlocks. As a result you get concessions, compromises, backroom deals. Over time you get, well, what we have now

[Loyal]

Rehaul the legal system to discourage frivolous lawsuits and corporate bullying (i.e. repeatedly taking someone to court until they can no longer afford the fees). I don't know the intricacies of the current legal system well enough to immediately determine how I'd do that, but that's pretty high up on the list.

[Amake]

"There is no race activism. There is no women's rights activism. There is no gay rights activism. There is no political correctness movement, or any disability awarenesses. There is no struggle of the rich against the poor; there is no class struggle. There is only a struggle against class. A struggle for humanity.

"For every single human being to be treated as a human being.

"Let me tell you how it's going to be. I'm going to treat you all like adults. I'm going to assume that all of you have the ability of complex, critical thought, and I'm not going to let you persuade me otherwise. I'm going to make life hard for you. I'm going to hold you responsible for the power that you wield. I'm going to make you treat people you don't like as equals. I'm going to take you out of your comfort zone. I'm going to make you learn things you don't want to believe in. And I'm not going to let you get away with behavior that is unworthy of humans.

"But most of all I'm going to treat you as individuals. I do not believe there are any stupid, easily manipulated masses. I think each and every one of you is a fully realized, fully living person, just as capable of independent thought as myself.

"Now, I'm kind of dumb. Honestly, I do pretty badly at IQ tests. But I'm not so ignorant I think I know the best way to run the world. We're going to figure all that out together. My job is just to make sure you possess the faculties to make the most out of your possibilities. Most important of those faculties are compassion, conscience, consciousness, respect and trust.

"We're stuck here with each other. We're going to have to learn to live with each other. We start now."

A televised speech along those lines would be my first impulse. Then I'd hire some clever people to help me figure out the rest. Probably starting with you guys.