So they've appointed you dictator for one year

Denerick

The American Republic is in peril. A constitutional convention is held and they decide to elect a dictator with supreme power for one year, who will basically create a new legal framework for the second republic. This dictator will have supreme power to raise taxes, spending, go to war, will have the ability to do exactly what they want to do.

Now assuming you don't go all Joe Stalin and kill 20 million people, lets say you become a benevolent dictator. You have this supreme power to rule unchallenged for a year, what would you reform?

I'd raise a ton of new taxes and create a desert prison for right wing talk radio hosts. Rush Limbaugh would have a whole wing to himself. You?

RMD

I'd alter the right to free speech so hate groups no longer have the right to abuse it. It's sickening that racial supremacists and other bigoted groups are allowed openly speak that bile in public.

mikemac1

Legalize certain drugs
War on drugs a complete failure

Better regulation of the meat-packing industry.
Those powerful corporations like Con-agra have a list of abuses that need to be tackled

Also when my term of dictator is over I want to have finished off pork barrel politics, never to return.
Some ridiculously expensive yet pointless projects get approved just because they have a powerful backer.

Jogathon

I'd completely simplify the tax system, allowing all workers to easily calculate their own tax instead of paying advisors to do it for them. I'd cut out the tax breaks for the rich, and raise the tax base accordingly.
I'd ensure that all people in the state paid health insurance, or were covered by health insurance so that no one would die from lack of decent care.
I'd outlaw guns. I'd introduce a three strikes and life policy for all convictions. It worked in New York so why can't it work everywhere.
I'd establish a watchdog for banking, and give them power to investigate at any time, any company.
I'd introduce a minimal welfare state - where anyone on long term dole/food stamps must work after one year either gainfully employed off their own bat, or else employed by the local authority to do whatever work needs to be done.
I'd raise the teacher/child ratio in schools, and absenteeism would not be allowed, due to hitting parents with fines. Education is the key to improving a society. I'd also introduce state supported college grants, so that everyone who was capable of going to college got to college, not just the elite.
I'm sure I'll think of more.....

Wow, I think I'm a socialist! And yet I'm really almost totally the opposite!

Amerika

Dictate that the US Constitution is not a living document. No longer allow supreme court judges (either federal or state) be made lifetime appointees. Institute a Constitutional Department – part of the Judicial Branch, overseeing the appointment of Supreme Court judges on all levels, and the authority to overturn any judges rulings that violate the Constitution or laws voted on and instituted by the people on the state level - that don’t violate the Constitution. Make it an impeachable offense for a president to ignore the laws of the land though executive orders.

Brian?

1. Nationalise healthcare properly. Not this wishy washy Obamacare.

2. Reduce defence spending.

3. Nationalise the energy, education and transport systems.

4. Raise capital gains tax, inherentance and income tax. Eliminate sales tax.

5. No more state laws. Federal laws only.

6.Term limits for all elected officals from school boards to senators. Eventually phasing out centralised federal government in favour of localised cooperatives.


Basically as quick a transition to pure socialism as possible. .

mikemac1

You'll be assassinated if you attempt No 5 :eek:

And you would deserve it too

matthew8

Legalise all drugs. Reform immigration (not sure on the specifics but the general jist is to make illegal immigrants into legal immigrants. No deportation, and by and large allow English speakers become citizens). Legalise prostitution, gambling etc. Legalise civil partnerships for homosexuals but don't force the church to recognise gay marriage. Cut military spending.

Icepick

no, they didn't

Denerick

matthew8 wrote: »

Legalise all drugs. Reform immigration (not sure on the specifics but the general jist is to make illegal immigrants into legal immigrants. No deportation, and by and large allow English speakers become citizens). Legalise prostitution, gambling etc. Legalise civil partnerships for homosexuals but don't force the church to recognise gay marriage. Cut military spending.

Pinko.

Manach

As my own personal rule would devolve in a regime that would Caligula to shame, I'd hand over power to Amerika, just before an executive order, sanctioning a new season of Firefly.

Brian?

mikemac1 wrote: »

You'll be assassinated if you attempt No 5 :eek:

And you would deserve it too

I wouldn't survive a single one.

decimatio

RMD wrote: »

I'd alter the right to free speech so hate groups no longer have the right to abuse it. It's sickening that racial supremacists and other bigoted groups are allowed openly speak that bile in public.

Totalitarianism.

Memnoch

1) Completely reform campaign finance to make it much more difficult for a few rich people to decide who gets to run the country.

2) Use diplomatic power to create a true UN military force with a broad mandate to tackle all atrocities anywhere in the world. Broaden greatly the powers of the ICC.

3) Create an independent body to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by Bush blair et all with full public disclosure.

4) Withdraw support for Israel at the UNSC forcing them to respect the spirit of previously agreed UN boundaries with mutually agreed land swaps with the Palestinians.

5) Increases taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Negotiate with world leaders to standardise these tax rates around the globe and work to isolate tax havens, hitting them with sanctions.

6) Use the extra revenue to fund healthcare and education.

7) Create a global bill of workers rights to stop exploitation of people. Corporations and individuals within those corporations will be fully responsible and liable for their entire supply chain. I.E. It is apple's responsibility to ensure that all their products are produced ethically. A global body with powers to investigate and prosecute abuses in the area will be created.

That'll do for starters.

Amerika

Manach wrote: »

As my own personal rule would devolve in a regime that would Caligula to shame, I'd hand over power to Amerika, just before an executive order, sanctioning a new season of Firefly.

All hail emperor Manach.

Reekwind

decimatio wrote: »

Totalitarianism.

I'd outlaw people who use words that they don't know the meaning of

Other than that, not much. You can't legislate away the USA's deeprooted social problems (unless you do go all Uncle Joe) and you'd do well to survive for a year once you started challenging the status quo

Carcharodon

So, I can't kill 20 million people, hmmm, how about I round up 20 million ignorant people and send them to live in Mexico for a year an maybe that will change their disgusting attitude towards those people.

I would do a total reform on healthcare, destroy the money hungry profit making insurance companies and make it accessible to all.

Deport all lobbyists to some remote island.

Invest heavily in education, mainly the sciences and make every child learn about evolution and all that jazz.

Channels like Fox News MSNBC, will no longer be able to use the word 'news' in their title, it will have to be replaced with opinion.
Any false news will result in fines or something.

Religion.... hmmm

Oh, Educate people on Israel and lose the love affair with them.

All reality tv should come with a warning to your health.

Put caps on how much CEOs make or else tax the life out of them

Thats day 1

decimatio

Reekwind wrote: »

I'd outlaw people who use words that they don't know the meaning of

So you don't understand the concept of free speech.

Reekwind

Something that is only relevant if you believe that any infringement on 'free speech' automatically translates as 'totalitarianism'. But that brings us back to you not knowing the meaning of the latter term

decimatio

Reekwind wrote: »

Something that is only relevant if you believe that any infringement on 'free speech' automatically translates as 'totalitarianism'.

And where exactly did I say that ?

But that brings us back to you not knowing the meaning of the latter term

It seems to bring us back to you claiming I said something which I did not.

Jogathon

I'd put Tom Clancy in charge - Jack Ryan always did the right thing in the books. And he was even president for a little while, after he killed all the bad guys. And Ritter was always an arse - we need to get rid of him. "All the Presidents Men" my hole - he was only out for himself.

Gandhi

Make Capital Gains taxes progressive (though still separate from ordinary income). Say the first $2,000 of Cap Gains you make in a year is tax free, then next $8,000 is taxed at 20%, and so on up to a max of 50%. This way the bajillionaires would be on the same tax rate as everyone else, while encouraging the Joe Sixpacks to get their feet wet on investing. Presumably the bajillionaires will find other loopholes, but we can plug them as we find them.

On the other end of the spectrum, I would limit what percentage of their total budget the fed, or any state or local government could pump into employee pensions. This would limit the ability of public sector unions and the politicians who owe them favors to negotiate insane pyramid schemes in the knowledge that they will just draft in the taxpayer as the unwitting "bottom layer" as soon as the pyramid turns assways.

Be like Nutella

love to know what these so called secret groups like the Bilderbergers actually do so I'd like force them to tell me but then I wouldn't tell anyone else and start my own much cooler secret society.

ban guns just to see how little difference it made to ****in anything at all seeing as there's about 100-200 million firearms out there in America anyway and illegal groups are gona get their hands on them anyway so it matters not.

legalize drugs out of pure frustration coz the so called war on drugs makes no dam difference to anything at all but I'm sick of the king pins making all the money - might as well maintain the same problem except have corporations make the money and pay the taxes and employ the people.. of course nobody can predict what would happen and it could easily result in an addiction pandemic of meth and coke and heroin right through every level of society... fuk it prob worth the risk.

make it so going to war required so much feckin debate and congressional approval that assholes like Cheney and Wolfy couldn't pull a fast one again.

stop using phrases that included 'The War on..' : )

stop the CIA's mutation into a paramilitary force and remove all drones from their control and make targeted killing illegal except under the most unbelievably rigorously defined scenarios which would require a whole chain of people to sign off on in a completely transparent manner.

allow journalists to sift through literally all the classified stuff bar say the last 12 years and face up to all the evil things American administrations have done to so many people for so long (as have other governments such as Russia).

go after the war lords in Africa in a big way with international support and just remove them or kill them if necessary with authority of the ICC... but be very wary of how this system could get corrupted.

empower Muslim people in the middle east and north Africa to form strong groups who are against violent Jihad officially and publicly but who have absolute freedom to express opinions be it against the west or anyone else to bully these hate inspiring manipulative tiny minority supported groups like AQ out of existence... funding etc

unilaterally reduce number of nukes by 20% (which would pose utterly no risk to anything) and demand full support of all nations to reduce number of nukes essentially Russia with commitment to further reduce at a designated point in the future.

pass a law to make all donors to politics over a certain amount be required to put their name on a public list but I wouldn't ban large donations. I would simply make it easy for people to see who donated to whom and to demand to know why... so if you donate say 100k to Obama or Romney then you are required to show how their policies would benefit you personally and have to face up to public scrutiny of those facts as would the candidate you donated to, in public on TV etc so no rich fukers could hijack the system without everyone knowing who they are and what they're trying to achieve. This way candidates would suffer IF they accepted money from those clearly out to benefit themselves by losing support and suffering scandals and fallout etc

Tax book would be burned all in one go and tax would start again in a pure simple method that was focused on stopping large corporations from gaming the tax collection system.

supreme court lads would get 12 years in the job.

I would carry out a public examination of the case for man made global warming and put it out on national TV every week for a year and then have a national opinion vote on the whole thing to see where the majority opinion lies after simplifying and dealing with the evidence or lack of.

start a full bipartisan public congressional investigation into Cheney and the lads who pushed for Iraq in 2003 and at least there should be some sort of judgement made as to whether they acted honorably or dishonorably and such a judgement applied to their record for all to see forever.

hit every member of congress with a financial audit which looked at trades and all their finances over the last 10 years to see whether they used their position to gain financially and then publish those results and at least attempt to prosecute those in breach of basic principles even if the charges don't hold up just to show the public who's a crook and a crony and who's not.

I'd carry out a national study of the nuclear industry and show publicly how much it costs to build a power plant and how long it takes and what are the negative impacts historically and how much nuclear energy actually matters in the greater scheme of things and make it mandatory to have a statewide vote for every new plant proposed to be built.

publicize all connections to dictatorships in the last 30 years, what America did/did not do, back scratching, cash payments, troop training, assassinations everything... and allow whatever fallout happens to just happen in an attempt to face the music and attempt to start a new era of US/World relations - which would no doubt begin with a massive global backlash.

inspire private industry to take on the next level in space invention and exploration and near earth development by matching dollar for dollar investment made with a mandate that investment has to be focused on creating jobs, increasing skills science/math levels etc up to a limit of course.

find and make public hate groups such as neo nazi and hate inspiring jihadist groups and let the country see who these people are and what they represent and simply let public opinion continue to marginalize their base.

shoot for a global re-recognition of the Geneva conventions and modernize it to include new weapons such as Drones etc to make sure countries don't all jump in on this new drone assassination stuff that the US is setting a nice precedent for.

I would force Israel to join the NPT, admit to its weapons, reduce their stock pile and act accordingly.

make a legal connection between tax on gas both in corp profits and again at the pump to large clean energy ideas but keep the reasoning in terms of ltd expensive oil which pollutes the air and environment rather than base the reasoning on global warming principles.

demand outsourcing by US firms to involve legally a process where their factories to which they outsource whether owned by them or not MUST SUBSCRIBE to minimum levels of conditions agreed in congress.

I would blow open the whole marketing of organic food AND low-fat food.

stop charging people to study and become doctors and nurses for a ltd period no matter what subsidies it cost.

ban High Frequency Trading.

ban trades of certain derivatives.

remove all censorship of movies/music/theater/books/magazines on any level at all so that nothing could be banned for any reason BUT maintain the age limits and warnings etc... even though there would be a massive backlash and many strange anomalies in the beginning.

greatly modernize sex ed, drugs ed in high schools.

Reindeer

Amerika wrote: »

Dictate that the US Constitution is not a living document. No longer allow supreme court judges (either federal or state) be made lifetime appointees. Institute a Constitutional Department – part of the Judicial Branch, overseeing the appointment of Supreme Court judges on all levels, and the authority to overturn any judges rulings that violate the Constitution or laws voted on and instituted by the people on the state level - that don’t violate the Constitution. Make it an impeachable offense for a president to ignore the laws of the land though executive orders.

You want to ensure The US Constitution is not a living document by changing it to reflect what you think it should be right here and now...

You then want to dismantle the system of checks and balances, and allow judges to create policy nearly as legislators...

How does a judicial branch oversee judicial branches? Oversight comes from without, not from within.

So far, Chavez has most of you beat:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Parenti/GoodThings_Venezuela.html

MC Homicidal Maniac

If I was a dictator of the US? The first thing I would do is legalize every drug, then I would completely ban the rights to freedom of speech and the press, I'd completely open all the borders, put "In Allah We Trust" on all the currency, legalize same-sex marriage and inter-species marriage, completely ban guns (except for the army who are under my complete control as I had all the generals executed) and fill all cabinet positions with members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

On my last day I'd nuke Russia and China.

MC Homicidal Maniac

Jogathon wrote: »

I'd introduce a minimal welfare state - where anyone on long term dole/food stamps must work after one year either gainfully employed off their own bat, or else employed by the local authority to do whatever work needs to be done.

George Bush did this and it essentially resulted in a form of modern day slavery.

Brian?

Reindeer wrote: »

So far, Chavez has most of you beat:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Parenti/GoodThings_Venezuela.html

Chavez is not a dictator. He might not even be president next year.

nyarlothothep

1.Create a slave base, it won't be much of a transition the way things are anyway.

+

2. Clothe and feed slaves, give them accommodation, treat them well enough to be productive, a happy worker is a productive worker.

= solution to the employment problem.

3. Make slaves build a starship enterprise. Declare bank debts null and void. Channel all that money into scientist's hands so they can come up with a warp drive, phasers, transporters and replicators, in case of hostile aliens/asteroids.

4. Complete construction the starship enterprise.

+
5. Explore space

= solution to the resource and overpopulation problems.

6. Justify all of this by creating an alien threat which doesn't exist or a massive global disaster which is imminent and which justifies the channelling of all resources into building my federation.

7. Conquer the galaxy, leading to a new golden age of humanity.

nagilum2

Reinstate Glass-Steagall to forbid depository institutions from proprietary trading or speculative positions, and prohibit investment banks from taking deposits or government-backed insurance of any form or any kind of public assistance. Legally require every financial institution to mark both assets and liabilities to market every night, and impose strict penalties on any institution that makes any combination of loans that exceeds the total marked-to-market value of the institution's assets less liabilities, plus the institution's own liquid capital. Require that any subsidiaries or other off balance sheet concerns be included in this market to market difference. Define penalties that include both corporate "death penalty" (loss of license to operate) and individual liability, including prison, for corporate officers complicit in any violation of these laws.

Require all financial trades to maintain time window of no less than one second during which any match of bid price or ask price must be accepted as a valid trade.

Heavily prosecute insider trading. Outlaw insider trading by members of congress and other currently exempted government officials.

Slash the defense budget and the domestic discretionary budget by 20% each in the first year, and make known an additional 20% cut for the following year. Order a thorough review of all government contracts and compel agencies to choose which 80% of ones to keep in year one, then again in year two.

Initiate buy outs of large portions of the federal work force, and do not hire behind them immediately. Closely reevaluate the performance of these organizations and authorize only those replacement hires deemed absolutely essential for the organization to achieve its mission.

Eliminate government subsidies to all energy companies - both traditional (oil) and green. Take that total that was the subsidy, cut it in half, and obligate the funds to national laboratories with a directive to focus on energy technology. Announce that US military forces will not intervene to guarantee safe passage of commercial vessels through the straights of hormuz and elsewhere without monetary compensation from the owners of these vessels to the US government. Statutorily devote any such payments to the national labs to focus on energy technology.