For those responsible citizens eligible to vote in the US who are deluged with opinions from the right and the left, the Democrats and the Republicans, and the TV and radio radicals and the reactionaries about the polarizing issues challenging this country today, here is a middle-of-the-road opinion about the top ten controversies that need your undivided attention.
1. Swing Vote Judge for the Supreme Court. The two political parties should have equal representation on the Supreme Court approved by Congress, but the Swing Vote Judge should be chosen by the people via a plebiscite. The people have their favorite judges whom they watch on TV all the time. Registered voters should be allowed to choose the Swing Vote Judge from among these competent judicial personalities whose integrity is unquestioned.
Thus, a simple ballot every four years in November listing the candidates from popular TV courts would do away with the humiliating drama that goes on in Washington every time a Supreme Court Judge is nominated by the President.
2. Abortion. “Live and let live” is the moderate Independent position, except when a pregnant woman wants to abort for any reason. The overpopulation of the world demands this right be granted all women. However, pregnant women must inform their doctors at least 48 hours before the abortion. No public funds will be spent to promote this policy world-wide. Let each country solve its own problem of overpopulation. This political solution would be a win-win for the Conservatives and Liberals.
3. Gay Marriage. This is a family issue: how best to create a self-sustaining, economically sound family. A new definition of marriage should be adopted immediately. No marriage should be granted in America until a woman becomes pregnant. Then she gets to name the father and marry him if he agrees. The new parents will be responsible for raising the child.
Communal living will be tolerated for any mix of legal adults. Any couple, regardless of gender, race, religion, or political affiliation who lives together as a domestic partnership without interruption for a period of five years, or as required by common law, will be entitled to the additional fringe benefits that accrue today in the workplace to a “married” employee.
4. The Federal Deficit. The simple solution proposed may not be the most palatable, but it’s merit is unquestionable. The present tax code with all its amendments will be tossed out, and everyone will be taxed 50% of the total amount of their gross income. No deductions, no exclusions, no exemptions, and no favoritism! (Tithing will never reduce the huge deficit!)
This proposal is certain to reduce consumer spending and our foreign trade deficit caused by cheap imports from China and expensive imports from OPEC. Such tax simplification has three major advantages: the debt will be reduced, an equality of responsibility will be established for funding all the social programs that both political parties are eager to grant us, and the high cost and aggravation of filing tax returns will be eliminated
5. Redistricting California. Seeing that the voters of California cannot decide how to address this thorny problem, I submit the following proposal which has been lying around waiting for the right moment to suggest it.
Ask everyone, who profoundly dislikes the direction that the most populous state is taking America, to write a letter to explain why Hollywood, McDonald’s, and Disneyland in Southern California and the leaders of the high tech companies and the unions of Northern California should be constrained by a legislature responsive to the needs of American citizens. The authors of the nine most logical letters will comprise a committee to review the present Gerrymandered situation and its inability to unseat inactive incumbents.
The committee’s recommendation for redistricting California will automatically be adopted without being subject to any judicial review. The voters in California recently rejected judges as incompetent for this job.
6. The Iraq Quagmire. After our own revolution, we sent the British and the Germans packing, and the Founding Fathers wrote our constitution without any foreign assistance. The manifest destiny of the Iraqi people ought to be up to them. It is obvious that Saddam knew how to settle tribal disputes and deal with internal conflict, and we don’t.
In an effort to stop the bleeding of American soldiers and the Federal Budget, it would appear prudent to return our valiant troops to American soil for duty along our frontiers. We could even copy what the smart Israelis are doing and have our soldiers build a wall to keep out Muslim terrorists. (And other unwanted religious fanatics. We have enough here already!)
7. Universal Health Care. As we have found out over the past 50 years, we can’t fix the world. We certainly can’t cure every ailment that flesh is heir to either. Any health care system will be inefficient and expensive. Unfortunately, it will ration medical services in some unfair way.
I’m sorry but people are going to die in hospitals, in traffic accidents, and in nursing homes. Some folks will perish in floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards. Remember, there are two days you don’t need a doctor: the day you are going to die, and the day you aren’t going to die.
Why are the devout Christians in America so concerned about delaying a person’s entry into Heaven anyway? Some wise guy was quoted as saying, “Let the dead bury their dead.” If we extrapolate his advice, let the sick attend the sick until the opposition to ObamaCare comes up with a better solution that doesn’t cost each of us an arm or a leg!
8. Over-crowded prisons. There used to be an acceptable and inexpensive solution to housing criminals, prison ships. We don’t need to construct more prisons in America. We just need to take the moth-balled WWII warships and turn them into prison ships. Then, sail each ship out into the Pacific until it runs out of fuel, recover the crew, and let the prisoners row back. Those who survive can become trustees in charge of running the next voyage. This solution would eliminate the drug problem in our prisons, the recidivism of ex-convicts, and the high cost to the public of appeals for those condemned criminals on death row.
9. Separation of Church and State. You can take Moses out of Egypt, but you can’t take the Ten Commandments out of our legal system. If gays can get married, why not the church and state? Is there anything in the Bible, the Torah, or the Koran that prohibits such a union? This might have been a serious problem in the Middle Ages when there were powerful religious sects burning infidel barbarians at the stake or beheading them. The influence of religion over secular government is minimum in the US today compared to the influence of the well-financed lobbyists. The latest economic disaster proved that.
10. Illegal immigration. What we don’t need here is more legislation. We need more jobs. But in the absence of enough jobs for everyone who lives here and comes here to get rich, we should encourage, as every other country does, our unemployed to go elsewhere to look for work, preferably outside our borders. Our failed policies to discourage the unemployed in America from emigrating, which are euphemistically called unemployment compensation, food stamps, and Medicaid, have increased the Federal deficit immeasurably.
Our efforts to keep the infirm alive, the addicts supplied with clean needles, and the hungry fed via charitable soup kitchens are economically counterproductive. We need young people who want to work cheap, otherwise the rich and the employed can’t have the lifestyle they are accustomed to. Like it or not, immigration made America prosperous. Why are we so interested in eliminating the resource that made this country the greatest consumer nation in the history of mankind?
For more in-depth analysis of each proposal, please contact your local Tea Party organizer. I’m sure they will be able and eager to set you straight about how to proceed