So, other people play fantasy football; I’ll play fantasy election.
Truth be told, I have no actual candidate that I can support fully. In the end I will be a one issue voter. Criticize it all you like, but I will vote for the most pro-life candidate I can get, which means I will probably have to vote for whatever sad sack the republican primary hands to us. I cannot vote for Obama on this record (http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/07/obamaabortionrecord/) unless the only other option turned out to be someone like the CEO of Planned Parenthood.
So, let me start my list, and I will possibly add to it over time:
1. Willing to use the presidential influence to press for pro-life ideals.
2. Recognize America’s place as a leading superpower and lead through example first and power second to promote justice in the earth. To think America can fix every world problem is at worst arrogant and at best delusional, but to pretend we do not have the power of influence, wealth, and force; to reject that power as it has been given; to ignore suffering and injustice is not right even if it makes us unpopular to use it. We will find that popular opinion changes by the minute, and those who would shape it against us are often as not powerful elites who simply wish to promote their own ends.
(3) That being said, example is the first way to lead. We could make tremendous headway in world leadership if we would begin nuclear disarmament with the stockpiles we have the most control over first–our own. We would do well to perfect what missile defense technology we have as we rid ourself of nuclear weapons.Such technology could be used as an incentive to encourage allies to follow suit. Having disarmed our own nuclear stockpiles will give us the moral high ground when dealing with enemies like Iran. Furthermore, we could focus our nuclear research on waste disposal and the development of nuclear power sources which could run on fuel converted from weapons grade plutonium.
(4) Education: seriously reduce or eliminate Fed Ed department while simultaneously working with state governors on current projects to develop common grade level standards across the nation. Work to decrease glut of administrative costs in education and actually get more pay to teachers and used some of the funds saved from slashing bureaucracy to give teachers what they need more than a pay raise–classroom/grading assistants, tutors for students, and smaller class sizes. Work to save money through encouraging home education both with school system online programs and tax breaks for home schoolers.
(5) Stop the crap with energy politics! This administration has wasted more money on failed alternative energy companies. The republicans aren’t much better. Let’s admit to the fact that plant-based fuels do little more than provide political talking points, drive up food costs, and cause engine damage. (The negatives of such fuels are a high price to pay for cheap applaud lines.) We should recognize the incredibly close tie between energy costs, food production, and food prices. These are all commodities people–they impact each other on wall street, but more importantly they impact each other on main street.
(6) Thus our policies in regard to farm subsidies and food regulations need serious work. (I need to do more research and thinking on this.) Look into what type of policies would free up and encourage more small local farms and more sustainable practices without creating more government hand-outs. Farmers should never be paid not to farm.
(7) A billionaire tax. Since it is billionaires who are all gung-ho to pay more taxes, lets focus on reducing their tax shelters first. The dirty little secret they don’t want you to know is that millionaires are often people who cannot recover if their business fails, whose business could very well fail if they got sick, whose ability to hire workers is threatened by hikes, who may live next door to you, and who most billionaires would rather have as employees than competitors. Another secret is that those sad secretaries who pay more than their billionaire bosses in taxes may already be millionaires if they have invested wisely, because they are likely making over a quarter million a year.
If we addressed the issues above, we would likely find our economic problems disappearing and with them our healthcare issues.
Well, enough fantasy politics for now.
Puddleglum Contra Mundum 
Love this! I might do a fantasy platform later.
Regarding energy politics, what are your thoughts on how we might reduce our dependence on fossil fuels? I agree that looking into food-based fuels has some serious problems and drawbacks, but we also need to lessen our dependence on this non-renewable resource.
As someone who is consistently pro-life (criminals, abortion, war, environment, animals), it’s very hard for me around voting season, since I find both parties extremely lacking on different issues. Still, I lean left, so I’ll probably be voting for Obama come November. We’ll see.
OK, take two–I started a reply and lost it somehow.
I think our current alternative energy programs are more about PC trendiness than actual results, so honesty about what is actually possible would be a good place to start our energy discussion. Plant based fuels hurt food prices and car engines–except for one, and that is the one we are doing the least with. Why are we spending so much on ethanol and nothing on bio-diesel? One is sexy the other is not (and one has the backing of huge indeustrial farms). Bio diesel creates a commodity out of garbage–that’s pretty amazing. It seems that we should be able to do a lot more with it than we currently do (considering the number of french fries we eat).
As for regular gas engines, the push for ethanol has arguably set us back. My dad has a minivan from the late 90’s that gets nearly 30 mpg highway. I had a smaller 2003 mini-van that was lucky to get 20 mpg. What happened? Oh, mine was a flex fuel vehicle. According to the dept of energy, flex fuels vehicles get lower gas mileage, run on E-85 about 30% less mpg.
Work on and a shift to safe nuclear power recycled from old warheads will help our overall energy picture as well. Cheap eletric might free up some of our natural gas resources and that is another potential clean burning fuel for trucks and such at least (even if we don’t want it in our cars because of the smell).
Overall, our cleverness gets us into trouble because we lack patience and wisdom. We would do well to tone down all the energy rhetoric, do things like creating one standard for fuel refineries nationwide and lower taxes on fuel to help reduce some of the pressure that leads us to high gas prices and dumb decisions, and then really look for tenable answers.
I can respect your “consistently pro-life” position. I read part of Pope JOhn Paul’s Gospel of Life book. However, I can’t give moral equivalence to executing a murderer and infanticide. I know you are not pro-choice, but I find the broader liberal trend absolutely perverse when one would argue that we can’t execute a murderer on the fear that he might kill again, but we can kill a baby on the fear that it might be downs syndrome.
I take seriously the biblical concept that the government is given the sword to exercise as God’s ministers of justice. Mercy, real mercy, is not possible when there is no justice. And justice sadly someimes requires a death.
I also take seriously that the empire is set into place by God. We Americans are fooling ourselves if we think we are not the empire. We are just as clueless if we understand our place as Empire but don’t see the handwriting on the wall. Give it two generations or less and China will be the new Rome. (The heretical idea that we Americans are God’s special people has nothing to do with this point–no empire has ever been that, but every empire has been God ordained and usually gone on to reap great punishment for taking their God-given power as sign of God’s special favor.)
That said, being the empire does not give a nation carte blanche to do whatever it pleases. It should work for justice and stability. Nor should it be something we look to for provision or in worship. The church speaks to the empire like Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar. Worshipping God only. Living purely. Speaking truth respectfully even to the most pagan king without fear for our lives–but that is for another blog or several.