What I’d do if I were president

At some point in elementary school, almost everyone was assigned an essay to write about what they would do if they were the president of the United States (or some position of authority).

I’m sure there would have been a lot of free ice cream flowing to the masses, along with no more school (at least homework) for children, the elimination of vegetables from the dinner plate, hot rods or pickup trucks in every driveway, and so on. In hindsight, I think those essays were more for the entertainment value to the teachers than actual grades for the kids.

And then there is the game of what do you want to be when you grow up. I never wanted to be president. I wanted to be a forest ranger. But inevitably there would be a few kids who wanted to grow up to be the POTUS. Their reasons usually had to do with the aforementioned list.

With US and world politics so incredibly messed up today, I thought it might be fun to revisit the question of what would I do if I were president. I should warn you that my politics, although I fancy myself a conservative, tend to be centrist. Ultra conservatives would consider me leftist and liberals would consider me a right-wing nut. I get that a lot. So, without further ado, if I were president, I would:

Create term limits for all senators and congressmen. I firmly believe that we need to eliminate the career politician. If the president is term-limited, so should the legislative branch of government. By limiting terms, we limit power and corruptibility. It makes politicians more accountable to the voters. They can’t just build huge war chests over decades and crush any opposition they get at the polls.

Push to overturn Roe v. Wade. Abortion is at the very core of my political beliefs. I believe it to be murder. I also believe that the Supreme Court’s Roe decision was based on false and inflammatory information. There is no Constitutional right to an abortion. Just the opposite, we are guaranteed the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Abortion denies that to the unborn.

Enact stronger environmental regulations. I know this is often viewed as an anti-business and anti-property rights position, but it is necessary to protect our land, natural resources, and our quality of life. By quality of life I mean the ability to drink clean water, breathe clean air, and live in an environment that supports life.

Although we have adopted the concept of land ownership, none of us really owns the land. We are merely its stewards. What we do to the land, regardless of ownership, impacts not only those around us but future generations as well. If we ruin the environment, there may be no more future generations. This also includes reducing the use of pesticides, which are killing off bees and other pollinators and poisoning the crops we eat.

Along those lines, I would push for further development of renewable resources and the reduction of reliance on fossil fuels. While I do not foresee eliminating our need for oil and gas, we can certainly reduce our dependence on them. The scarcer the oil becomes, the more damage we do to the environment to harvest it. We need oil for many things, including the production of plastics, something we are increasingly reliant upon. Eliminating plastic from the waste stream is something else that needs to be a high priority.

Reduce and eliminate welfare programs. Yes, this sounds inhumane and harsh, but I believe it to be necessary. In all fairness, I have at times in my life used many of the government’s handout programs. But I never stayed there. We have too many people living off of welfare and that dependence on the government is unhealthy in many ways. What was intended to be temporary aid to help people through a rough spot has become a way of life.

Balance the budget and begin debt reduction. This country has not had a balanced budget since 2001. As of this week our national debt has crossed the $30 TRILLION mark. That is an unfathomable amount and is unforgivable of our elected officials (another reason to limit their terms). The blame for this falls on both political parties.

Limit the use of executive orders by the president. This power has been abused by most of the 46 men who have held the office. It’s often used to push political agendas and circumvent Congress. Its use should be limited to mostly emergency powers.

Although I could go on with any number of things I’d do, there is one more of great importance to me. That is to end the spying on the American people by both its government and businesses. Tech giants such as Google and Facebook collect, store, and use way too much personal information about the people who use their services. They pretty much control our access to information and target us with advertisements and other things they want us to see while hiding other information and products we might be interested in or need. This is dangerous to democracy. They manipulate us in ways we do not see and cannot imagine.

I suppose it’s a good thing I’m not a politician. If I were president, I would either fix things up or really mess them up, but either way I would disrupt the status quo. I suppose at the very least this little essay would entertain my teachers, or at least you the reader.

(Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.)