I wish I knew. You are a really bright guy what do you suggest? What we have now isn't working. They seem not to care what the people want and think they are above us for some reason. This much I know more and more of us are getting fed up with business as usual. These are difficult times and the solution will require responsible policy that doesn't overburden the next five generations with ridiculous debt.
We need someone with a billion to spend to find a way to motivate all those who don't presently vote to do so, and to vote for anyone but the Democrats and republicans -- for starters.
We need a constitutional amendment that says you can only be in government as many years as you've been in the private sector, where things intimately tied into government don't count (like law, or lobbying) -- so if you want to run for senator, you have to have spent six years not offset by any other elected service, in something that actually contributes to the GNP.
We need a constitutional amendment that says that in any decision involving individual or minority rights, that view which upholds or increases the greatest liberty for the individual or minority is to prevail.
We need a constitutional amendment stating that only individuals have rights (thus barring corporations, churches, unions, etc. from dumping money into politics).
We need a constitutional amendment that says the budget has to be balanced save in times of declared war or congressionally declared (by a three-fifths vote) national emergency, with a sunset time period on the national emergencies (apply that to presidentially-declared ones, too).
We need a constitutional amendment declaring that ignorance of the law is a strong defense, except in cases where common morals dictate that the act in question was wrong.
We need a constitutional amendment limiting the tax code to as many words as the longest single holy book used by anyone in the country (at the time of the amendment).
We need a constitutional amendment limiting the total amount of GNP which the federal government can take in taxes.
We need a constitutional amendment making the House of Representatives a proportional representation body, by state, so that people can be represented by folks they actually think reflect their views. While we're at it, we should either put term limits on Senators or change back to the old method of letting state legislatures pick them, to make it a deliberative body again.
We need a policy of law that says it's your own damned fault when you do something stupid and get hurt, or if you venture onto someone else's property and get hurt -- call it the Personal Responsibility Act.
But the only party upholding such things is the Libertarian, and they waste time arguing over which of these to do first, and so look rather irrelevant to voters.
It is time to offer tax incentives to American companies to bring mfg jobs back here. Over restrictive government regulation and tax policies have a lot to do with us losing them. Our economy isn't based on anything real now just numbers on paper traded among rich people. I did not vote for Ross Perot but he was prophetic in the effect that Nafta and the loss of mfg jobs being the biggest problem we would have to face. If I knew then what I know now perhaps I would have voted differently.
The only bad thing about NAFTA is that it didn't offer incentives to trade within that membership, or penalties for going outside. On that topic, I'd make a tax structure reflective of the desire to share prosperity with our friends and allies first, with virtually no taxes on companies with all their jobs in the U.S., minimal taxes on those with jobs in North America, moderate taxes on those with jobs throughout the western hemisphere, heavier taxes on those with jobs also in Europe, and crushing taxes on those which have jobs anywhere else (well, maybe an exception for Australia
). The taxes would depend on the proportion of total jobs a company has in the various regions, the rate for the portion of all jobs outside the U.S. being set by the "farthest out" zone a company has jobs in.
Fomenting prosperity n Mexico by having free trade is only sensible; we should be good to our neighbors, and prosperity there would help with our illegal [STRIKE]invader[/STRIKE] immigrant problem. The same is true of Canada; we share too much to not be close partners. Extending economic partnership to our own hemisphere is to me just a sensible conclusion from the old Monroe Doctrine; extending it also to Europe (NATO?) just seems good sense.
But on all that -- it comes back to getting people in office to do it, and that takes bucks. What we need is a real libertarian sugar-daddy who believes in freedom enough to dedicate a large amount of his fortune (and life, and sacred honor) to the cause of heaving back the tide of encroaching government.
