I'll vote for anyone who can promise me they will do these ten things:
- Restoration of Habeus corpus;
- Repeal of NSPD-51, a directive signed by the current President that empowers the Executive to legally seize all powers of government;
- Cessation or severe curtailment of the use of Signing Statements;
- Cessation of all extralegal activities of the Executive Branch with regard to FISA;
- Cessation of all extralegal or otherwise inhuman methods of treatment of captured "enemy combatants";
- Assertion that the Vice-Presidency is in the Executive Branch;
- Restore freedom of opinion to scientists within the government;
- Cessation of all stonewalling tactics employed by the current administration with regard to Congressional oversight;
- Refusal to grant pardons in which they have a vested interest;
- A solemn vow that they will not seek a second term.
(Update, 11:10am, 1/17)
BD made me realize that I need to expound and explain just a little bit more. So, taking his comment as a launching point...
I agree that Bush's load-in took longer than a load-out would take... they always do. However, before we get back to business as usual in the Government, I want an Executive whose primary and singular goal is restoring that branch to its rightful place in the triad of government. I purposefully didn't ask for a visionary, a strong agenda. All I really want is a repair-person.
Maybe what I'm spec-ing out is not a four-year job. Even better! I would love to see all these things happen by, say, mid-2011. Then, with their stated goals met, the president lays low for the rest of the term, rebuilding international goodwill, reintroducing the concept of civility to Official Washington... just being a Good Egg.
We will have had sixteen years (no, I don't hold Clinton blameless in this) of truth-stretching, winking and nudging and open, petty hostility between the people you and I and all our friends and everyone else have elected. All of the front runners (Democratic and Republican) have been harping on change, but I think that's disingenuous. I think all of them want change only to the point where it doesn't interfere with business as usual.
The over-arching theme to all of my points is simple: Be decent to one another. I want a candidate who will - by example, not by rhetoric - bring back a spirit of civility. And no, this is not a "can't we all just get along" moment. I have strongly held opinions about some issues. I wouldn't want to compromise just for the sake of compromise. But I am insisting that we stop throwing slurs on the floor of the Senate, or calling names (I mean, really... we can do better than that - or are we all still six years old?), or insisting that conservatism or liberalism really is a mental disease. Knock that shit off, all of you. This country deserves better.
2 comments:
Good list. Fingers crossed. However, its not enough. Rather, it doesn't go far enough. While it would sufficiently fix the Executive branch (which I concur is badly broken), it does not fix American democracy and government as a whole.
To every one of your stipulations, I was... like... "right ON!" Then I got to #10. To perform the tasks you mandate would not take long. To sort out the larger problems would take two terms. These broader problems include but are not limited to the national systems by which we elect our government leaders, imposing term limits for congressional representatives, imposing access limits on lobbyists, severly limiting or prohibiting the proposal of legislation drafted by any NGO, mandating a national efficiency standard across the board for all industry and government with incremental progression to insure energy independence w/in thirty years, and on and on and on...
Sorry to ramble, but it is a good list, I just think you set the bar a little low, but its a pretty bar. Good light.
What I want from this blogger: More content. Seriously.
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