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If you were to become president...

I

Inky

Active Member
beckysoup61 said:
You know, I am quite curious why everyone is wanting to abolish the Department of Education. Perhaps I am missing something, could someone fill me in?
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You know, I've heard this before too...I'm all for public education. First, young, educated people are a national resource. It's not like we just want kids to go to school to make their parents happy; we need them to be able to work. Second, if everyone got just as much education as their parents could afford, it would make society even more stratified by wealth, and it would be much harder for a kid with poor parents to make it anywhere. We have enough problems with this already with county-based school taxes.

Guess I should respond to the OP...if I were President one thing I would find most important is separating wealth from political power. If you have piles of money, use it to get a nice house and a good car or whatever, not to try and control the political process. This would mean severely limiting the amount of money people and companies can donate to campaigns. Another thing I would do is bar private companies from harvesting wood on public property. That's national forest, not their lumber yard. :) Typically that happens when the lumber company paid a lot of money to somebody's political campaign, so if they can't pay off the politicians we won't have as much of a problem with this anyway.
 
Mathematician

Mathematician

Reason, and reason again
Joe Stocks said:
Hi GeneCosta,



I thought we already tried that with the Articles of Confederation and that didn't work, no?
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The Articles of Confederation had too weak of a central government, yes. What I'm saying is take all powers granted to the Congress of the Constitution and give all of them to the People. For the sake of timeliness, the Congress retains the right to write bills, but everything must be voted on by the people before it can become law [or, a national initiative can just pass the Congress after X confirmed people have signed onto it].

Under the AoC the federal government was unable to force states to give up tax. Under the system for the People the People can force anything they want, just like representatives right now can.
 
lombas

lombas

Society of Brethren
Dream Angel said:
No, I have been there too! hey Im blonde and english - what can you expect! :p
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:p

I knew spain has one and a section of France but not belgium!
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A section of France? Which one? I thought the closest France came to a monarchy were several pretenders - Bourbon, Bonaparte, ...?

Or do you mean Monaco, where the rich own one-chamber apartments and never live there because they want to be able to say they "have a house in Monaco" but don't have the zillion dollars it takes to actually buy something big enough to live in?

:D
 
Nanda

Nanda

Polyanna
My first act as President would be to make North Jersey and South Jersey two separate states.
 
Aqualung

Aqualung

Tasty
beckysoup61 said:
And getting rid of it will improve it!?? (Sorry just curious)
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I want to do it because private companies in competition with one another almost always do better than government run monopolies or almost-monopolies funded by force/coercion rather than voluntary means.
 
Aqualung

Aqualung

Tasty
Inky said:
First, young, educated people are a national resource.
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Yeah, that's one reason I'm not sure if I should abolish it. After all, this nation runs on education, so it would seem reasonable to have it be mandatory. But if it's mandatory, the government should have to provide a means (through public education).
 
Aqualung

Aqualung

Tasty
Nanda said:
My first act as President would be to make North Jersey and South Jersey two separate states.
Click to expand...

I might split Northern California (the real north part, not the san fransisco part which is actually pretty far south) and souther Oregon into one state so they wouldn't keep being run by the liberals in Portland/Eugene and San Fran/LA/etc.
 
lombas

lombas

Society of Brethren
It would also be nice to move your seat to Richmond and proclaim the Confederate States of America.
 
Joe_Stocks

Joe_Stocks

Back from the Dead
Hi Becky,

You know, I am quite curious why everyone is wanting to abolish the Department of Education. Perhaps I am missing something, could someone fill me in?
Click to expand...

Well, first off, from a reading of the Constitution I don't see any place where it says that the Federal government should provide education.

Second, now that is has usurped this right from the states and local communities our educational system has only been worse, so there is a performance argument.

Third, the private sector would do a much better job at educating our children than our government. The obvious point being; parents want their children to be educated. So, there would be a huge market for education. If there is more choice and competition and not a government monopoly, then the education of our children would greatly improve.
 
Joe_Stocks

Joe_Stocks

Back from the Dead
Hi Gene,

The Articles of Confederation had too weak of a central government, yes. What I'm saying is take all powers granted to the Congress of the Constitution and give all of them to the People. For the sake of timeliness, the Congress retains the right to write bills, but everything must be voted on by the people before it can become law [or, a national initiative can just pass the Congress after X confirmed people have signed onto it].
Click to expand...

I think a more doable solution would be to return a lot of the power back to the states. The answer is more federalism, not basically abolishing our Congress (and federalism was great idea of our Founders).
 
B

Blindinglight

Disciple of Chaos
-I would make education free to the public, and have it a good education at that, as
well as making all teachers government employees.

-I would run the Religious Right out of the nation.

-I would have education include the arts, such as theatre, music, paintings/sculptures, etc.

-People would not graduate from high school unless the were well educated, and could prove it. Just "sliding by" would be a thing of the past, and those who are truly having problems would have the extra help they need to succeed.

-The "war on drugs" would end and the money being wasted in it would go towards funding a free education. Also, drugs would become legal, and taxed. This would allow money to allow a government funded health insurance, thus allowing health care to be available to all without cost being an issue.

-Gays would be allowed to wed.

-While all crimes would be punished accordingly, "hate crimes" especially would recieve media attention to make it known that bigotry is not going to be tolerated.

-Encourage free trade among other nations, but move America to an isolationist nation as far as politics are concerned.

-Have more librarys, free internet access points, and other forms of electronic education widly and easily available to everyone.

-Establish very, VERY harsh penalties for corrupt and abusive cops. And have frequent check ups on all police officers through out the nation to ensure they are fairly enforcing the laws.

-Allow gays and transexuals to openly serve in the military.

-I would change the national anthem. I would have it as Louis Armstrongs "What a Wonderful World." A man who had less rights than a dog still had a positive outlook on the world, and called it a wonderful one. I feel that would be a great national anthem, and probably more people know the lyrics to that song than they do Star Spangled Banner. And I feel a song about peace is much better than a song based on war, or drinking in earlier forms, for representing this nation.

-I would make sure the seperation of church and state becomes an iron clad law that is followed. 10 Commandments would not be seen on a courthouse, schools will not have lead prayer, ID and Creationism will stay out of a science room, Evolution will stay out of religious studies, the "so help me god" will no longer be said during a swearing in ritual (as it is unconstitutional anyways), and any laws that are of obvious religious bias will not be made to pass.
 
Yes Man

Yes Man

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Blindinglight said:
-I would make education free to the public, and have it a good education at that, as
well as making all teachers government employees.

-I would run the Religious Right out of the nation.

-I would have education include the arts, such as theatre, music, paintings/sculptures, etc.

-People would not graduate from high school unless the were well educated, and could prove it. Just "sliding by" would be a thing of the past, and those who are truly having problems would have the extra help they need to succeed.

-The "war on drugs" would end and the money being wasted in it would go towards funding a free education. Also, drugs would become legal, and taxed. This would allow money to allow a government funded health insurance, thus allowing health care to be available to all without cost being an issue.

-Gays would be allowed to wed.

-While all crimes would be punished accordingly, "hate crimes" especially would recieve media attention to make it known that bigotry is not going to be tolerated.

-Encourage free trade among other nations, but move America to an isolationist nation as far as politics are concerned.

-Have more librarys, free internet access points, and other forms of electronic education widly and easily available to everyone.

-Establish very, VERY harsh penalties for corrupt and abusive cops. And have frequent check ups on all police officers through out the nation to ensure they are fairly enforcing the laws.

-Allow gays and transexuals to openly serve in the military.

-I would change the national anthem. I would have it as Louis Armstrongs "What a Wonderful World." A man who had less rights than a dog still had a positive outlook on the world, and called it a wonderful one. I feel that would be a great national anthem, and probably more people know the lyrics to that song than they do Star Spangled Banner. And I feel a song about peace is much better than a song based on war, or drinking in earlier forms, for representing this nation.

-I would make sure the seperation of church and state becomes an iron clad law that is followed. 10 Commandments would not be seen on a courthouse, schools will not have lead prayer, ID and Creationism will stay out of a science room, Evolution will stay out of religious studies, the "so help me god" will no longer be said during a swearing in ritual (as it is unconstitutional anyways), and any laws that are of obvious religious bias will not be made to pass.
Click to expand...

Here here. Although I would prefer an alter-globalization or democratic globalization policy as I am very suspicious of corporations.
 
Joe_Stocks

Joe_Stocks

Back from the Dead
Hi Blinding Light,

-I would make education free to the public, and have it a good education at that, as
well as making all teachers government employees.
Click to expand...

So, you would have socialized education and it wouldn't really be free, right? The American taxpayer would foot the bill. And we can see how great that would be from the world's best educational system we currently enjoy? Oh wait, that is not happening.

-I would run the Religious Right out of the nation.
Click to expand...

I take you are joking, right? If you are you can ignore the rest of this comment. Because that makes it look like you would be a dictator if you were president (by removing people from the country you didn't like, sounds kind of petty).
 
B

Blindinglight

Disciple of Chaos
I take you are joking, right? If you are you can ignore the rest of this comment. Because that makes it look like you would be a dictator if you were president (by removing people from the country you didn't like, sounds kind of petty).
Click to expand...
No, I am not joking. I would force the Religious Right, as any other political religious group, out of the government. The Religious Right would cease to be a force in the government. If it's supporters don't like it, they are free to leave.

So, you would have socialized education and it wouldn't really be free, right? The American taxpayer would foot the bill. And we can see how great that would be from the world's best educational system we currently enjoy? Oh wait, that is not happening.
Click to expand...
While it is true, that nothing is free, I was aiming more at no tuition or book fees. A single mom working two jobs wouldn't have to drain her bank account each year just to send her children to school each year. She signs them up, and pays nothing.
 
Doc

Doc

Space Chief
For what I want to do, I would probably need to be a dictator. But here are a few ideas.

-Decriminalize drugs

-Allow for same sex and polyamorous marriage

-Allow for gays/transexuals/etc. in the military

-Get rid of 'Faith-based Initiatives'

-Lift all embargoes with nations

-Add a stipulation to the presidency of America that requires executive leaders to answer directly to the public on a weekly basis. Like a day long hotline where you can ask the president any question about his leadership all televised of course.

-Congress and the president have a salary reduction and make only minimum wage. (Maybe they will be more apt to raise it then)

-Abolishment of the Electoral College. Popular vote only for the presidency.

-Separation of Church and State is absolute.
 
Joe_Stocks

Joe_Stocks

Back from the Dead
Hi Blindinglight,

No, I am not joking. I would force the Religious Right, as any other political religious group, out of the government. The Religious Right would cease to be a force in the government. If it's supporters don't like it, they are free to leave.
Click to expand...

So, if someone (be they a Congressmen, Senator, or President) were elected and they were religious and have views that were consistent of the right wing (this making them that menacing "Religious Right) you would stop them from serving in our government? Even if they were elected by a fair election?

While it is true, that nothing is free, I was aiming more at no tuition or book fees. A single mom working two jobs wouldn't have to drain her bank account each year just to send her children to school each year. She signs them up, and pays nothing.
Click to expand...

She wouldn't? Wouldn't her taxes pay for socialized education too? But certainly the rest of us would be paying for her schooling, right?

I am curious, could people open private schools if you were president, or would that be outlawed?
 
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