# The USA After You've Been King For A Day? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2010, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607 "2010-03-24T12:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/21 "2010-03-25T14:25:30Z")
Well, **davekhps** clearly gave the best answser. But if not that, then, I’d say: - Abolish the Electoral College. From now on, whoever gets the most votes becomes President. - Require those who graze or mine public lands to pay fair market price. - Fully fund clean coal and nuclear fusion research. - Set all agricultural subsidies on a course for complete repeal within five years. - Repeal the Second Amendment. Close the gun-show loophole to the Brady Act. - Fully fund NASA, authorize a new orbiter and begin planning for an international manned Mars mission. - Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. Extend Federal recognition to gay marriage for all purposes, including taxes and benefits, for citizens of those states which adopt it. - Impose a billionaire surtax. Impose a fast food and sugary drinks tax. Legalize and then tax marijuana. Permit online gambling but tax it. Crank up cigarette taxes even more. - Require the Federal government, absent war or recession, to go to a “pay as you go” budgetary system. Any increase in funding for one program must be covered by cuts in another. Abolish earmarks. - Require that public defenders be paid the same as prosecutors, consistent with merit and seniority. Also, defense teams in capital cases are to be funded on parity with prosecutions. - Create a Federal lottery. Winners would have their pick of playing golf or basketball with the President, dining at the White House, flying in a Navy jet off an aircraft carrier, visiting Area 51, riding along with the Marshals Service nabbing fugitives, observing work in the FBI crime lab, etc. - Revise all environmental-protection laws so that they’ll become a little bit tougher each year for the next decade. There’s still 'way too much pollution. - Ban torture and extraordinary rendition. - Abolish the filibuster and senatorial holds in the U.S. Senate. Absent extraordinary circumstances, all nominees must be brought up for a yes/no vote on the Senate floor within 90 days, or will be deemed confirmed. - Henceforth, the President may also designate one piece of legislation a month, less than five pages in length, that must be brought to a yes/no vote in both houses of Congress that month, or will be deemed passed. - Add the state governors to the presidential line of succession after the Cabinet, from the largest state to the smallest according to the most recent Census. - Amend the Constitution to permit naturalized citizens to run for and serve as President 20 years after naturalization. - Rescind the recent Supreme Court campaign finance decision. - If it were within my power, require all states to adopt merit selection of judges rather than by elections. - Demand the resignations of Joe Biden (impulsive loudmouth), Mitch McConnell (obstructionist tightass), Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas (time to create a liberal-centrist majority on the Supreme Court). - Award a posthumous Medal of Honor to William B. Cushing, USN: [William B. Cushing - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Cushing) - Name a _Virginia_-class submarine the USS _Monitor_, in honor of the Civil War ironclad. I’m sure more will occur to me before my 24 hours of absolute power ends. And although I’d be very happy to live in USA 2.0, I’d definitely prefer to keep my current parents. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/22 "2010-03-25T15:04:04Z")
Dissolve the IRS and implement the consumption-based FairTax. Pull the military out of all foreign operations and establish themselves along the southern US border with orders to shoot anyone trying to cross illegally. No further aid to Israel until a viable Palestinian state exists. Once that is in place, no further aid to any Arab country until they recognize Israel within the 1967 borders. Dissolve the PATRIOT Act - it will be largely unneeded if we change our Mid-East policies. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/23 "2010-03-25T15:04:55Z")
I’d get rid of states. There is no area of legislation or regulation I can think of for which states are the natural level of action. There are decisions that should be made at the level of an urban area, county, or piece of one or the other. And any problem or need beyond that level that stays within a state’s boundaries does so mostly by luck. So I’d create a board to construct metro area governing units, where metro areas exist, and have it create rules by which metro areas’ geographical areas of authority can expand as needed when the area grows. Metro areas, counties, and cities and towns within metro areas would have taxing and legislating authority. States would cease to exist. We only had 'em because Great Britain established 13 colonies of various sizes over here, rather than creating and expanding one big colony. They’re an artifact of history that should really be in its dustbin. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/24 "2010-03-25T15:12:07Z")
The question is: If I decree that Dick Cheney has to spend the rest of his life dressing and talking like The Penguin, will it stick after I’m no longer King? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/25 "2010-03-25T15:18:35Z")
I’d introduce some form of runoff voting (instant or not, I don’t care) for elections for Federal office. This would remove one of the main barriers to the natural birth and death of political parties: conservatives who didn’t care for the GOP would be free to vote for candidates of the right that belonged to other parties besides the Republicans without effectively empowering the Democrats, and vice versa. Like Elendil’s Heir, I’d get rid of the Electoral College. Of course, having abolished states, I’d pretty much have to do that. The Senate, too, would go the way of the dodo, and we’d have a unicameral legislature like pretty much everyone else in the civilized world. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/26 "2010-03-25T15:26:10Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’d get rid of states. … Excellent. Metro areas as you suggested but also bio-regions, N/S California, E/W of the Sierras, E/W of the Continental Divide, tidal areas, etc. Folks who share a watershed have natural common interests that have nothing to do with state or, for that matter, county boundaries. Instant runoff voting for sure and recourse to national referendums. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/27 "2010-03-25T15:36:54Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > The question is: If I decree that Dick Cheney has to spend the rest of his life dressing and talking like The Penguin, will it stick after I’m no longer King? Right. I do see a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Amnesty in exchange for full confessions of misdeeds … politicians, CEOs, etc., with full restitution of ill-gotten gains. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/28 "2010-03-25T15:40:09Z")
I can’t compare to **Elendil’s Heir** but I’d love to see what happens when all FBI files from earlier than, say, 1980, were made public and widely disseminted. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/29 "2010-03-25T16:19:44Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > Sweet. > > But let me continue. It should be clear that if you choose to change nothing, you’ll be much more likely to be born with AIDS into poverty than become the CEO at Goldman Sachs (cite?). Like the odds? :rolleyes: Can you name a country where the odds of being born in poverty is much _less_ than becoming the head of one of its biggest banks? Barring accidents, etc, I’ll live to about 80 years old. If the average tenure of a CEO at GS is 6 years, there will be a whopping 15 CEO’s of Goldman Sachs in my 80 year span. Which leaves me to wonder… just what country in this world has fewer than 15 people in poverty? The Vatican? I’m waiting… > [@](#): > > If you choose to change nothing, you are much more likely to be born into a country that subsidizes arms manufacturers by waging war and arming the world for profit than one whose flag is welcomed in every port of call. True. He could also be born in China, or Israel, or Germany, or France, or Britian, or The Netherlands (worlds’ [6th largest armory!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_exporters)) or… wait. What was your point again? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/30 "2010-03-25T16:56:56Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I can’t compare to **Elendil’s Heir** but I’d love to see what happens when all FBI files from earlier than, say, 1980, were made public and widely disseminted. Oh, and i’d make **Elendil’s Heir** Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, too. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/31 "2010-03-25T17:11:01Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > :rolleyes: > > Can you name a country where the odds of being born in poverty is much _less_ than becoming the head of one of its biggest banks? Barring accidents, etc, I’ll live to about 80 years old. If the average tenure of a CEO at GS is 6 years, there will be a whopping 15 CEO’s of Goldman Sachs in my 80 year span. Which leaves me to wonder… just what country in this world has fewer than 15 people in poverty? The Vatican? > > I’m waiting… [This may help](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke). My point (if it really needs to be clarified :rolleyes:)is that the way things are constituted now, you will much more likely be born into poverty than privilege. > [@](#): > > True. He could also be born in China, or Israel, or Germany, or France, or Britian, or The Netherlands (worlds’ [6th largest armory!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_exporters)) or… wait. What was your point again? Well, the OP clearly assumes that you will be reborn here. But let’s assume you could born anywhere. As poor citizen in a developing country, would you rather find yourself in a world with a great power which holds preemptive war as a legitimate means to furthering its hegemony or one in which the great power recognizes its responsibility to encourage self-determination and economic development which benefits the many rather than the few? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/32 "2010-03-25T17:13:21Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …and we’d have a unicameral legislature like pretty much everyone else in the civilized world. Um… the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, France, Russia, Japan, India, Australia and most other parliamentary democracies have bicameral legislatures. **BMalion** , thanks for the appointment! You’re too kind. But it’s Chief Justice of the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/33 "2010-03-25T17:59:44Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Um… the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, France, Russia, Japan, India, Australia and most other parliamentary democracies have bicameral legislatures. > > **BMalion** , thanks for the appointment! You’re too kind. > > But it’s Chief Justice of the United States. I second Elindil’s Heir for nomination! Lets clean out Washington and keep it clean with term limits. Lose the electoral college, up the billionaire tax and end fillibusters and lobbyists pork. If there is a way to pass a bill without a lot of extras? I would like to see the best and the brightest become President and not picked the way they are now. Advertizing should be free for candidates with the networks paying for it. Not the one with the most money wins. Also all Senate hearings to be openly played on CNN. I know it is a huge undertaking but wouldn’t it be nice to see this…😃 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/34 "2010-03-25T18:09:44Z")
and i would Change the job title to **Chief Justice of the Suprme Court** ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/35 "2010-03-25T18:28:47Z")
I’d have the Supreme Court declare that all professional police forces are unconstitutional standing armies. Only elected officers such as county sheriffs could have permanent police powers; they would deputize armed citizens as needed to enforce the law. Federal agents would have _investigative_ power, but not the authority to make arrests. And if a law was so unpopular that the citizenry simply refused to enforce it, then maybe the authoritarians who enacted the law would have to rethink it. And yes, I **would** take my chances as a random citizen of that country. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/36 "2010-03-25T20:16:11Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > - Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. Extend Federal recognition to gay marriage for all purposes, including taxes and benefits, for citizens of those states which adopt it. I’m amazed (and sorely disappointed) it took 20 posts for someone to say this. Immediately put on the books a law to permit gay marriage (and all taxes, healthcare, and benefits) across the country, and put a law out eliminating the ability to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, in jobs, housing, etc. Any hospital worker who didn’t allow a gay spouse visitation in the hospital room? Chucked. I can’t believe anyone wouldn’t want to give the same personal rights and freedoms available to every American before they did anything else. It’s like saying “I’d tax sugary drinks…Civil Rights? I mean, if I had _time_”. Another good one is to eliminate tax exempt status of all religious institutions. Dissolve the Patriot Act. Three strikes and you lose your license for life, for driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Piker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@Piker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/37 "2010-03-26T08:14:23Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Um… the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, France, Russia, Japan, India, Australia and most other parliamentary democracies have bicameral legislatures..[/SIZE] Great Britain, Canada, and other Westminster democracies may have upper houses, but the government is a product of the lower house, making it _de facto_ unicameral. Merging the executive and legislature into one body, the right way to run a democracy. (not sarcasm) ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/38 "2010-03-26T08:57:46Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > […]the USG will immediately put into effect ANY legislation you deem wise[…] > > Recreate our country and how it relates to the world in your image[…] > > You die and are born again randomly into the general population. What population? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/39 "2010-03-26T10:47:33Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I’m amazed (and sorely disappointed) it took 20 posts for someone to say this. > […] > I can’t believe anyone wouldn’t want to give the same personal rights and freedoms available to every American before they did anything else. It’s like saying “I’d tax sugary drinks…Civil Rights? I mean, if I had _time_”. Hey! _I_ said I’d ban gay marriage _and_ wipe out the institution of traditional marriage at the same time as the first thing I’d do. Doesn’t that count for anything? Seriously, though, if I were Emperor of Earth, legalizing gay marriage would be the first thing I’d do, even before the executions. Well…actually, if I were Emperor of _Earth_, the first thing I’d do would be to nuke Osama—well, nuke the entire region he could be hiding in. Well, order my commissars to make the remnants of nuclear-armed military forces in the region nuke said entire region. _Then_ gay marriage, _then_ the public executions. See? Increased civil rights, _and_ horrifying reprisal slaughter. Who said bipartisanship is dead? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607/40 "2010-03-26T11:35:43Z")
> [@Piker](#): > > … Merging the executive and legislature into one body, the right way to run a democracy. (not sarcasm) I agree. And the loyal opposition’s grilling of the PM often makes for some great entertainment. OTOH, it didn’t keep GB out or Iraq. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-usa-after-youve-been-king-for-a-day/533607.md?page=3)