Congratulations on your re-election, Mr. President. I’m glad you got a second term, because there are still a few items that need to be finished up from your first one. And now that you don’t have to worry about being re-elected, I hope you’ll have the time, the freedom, and the will to fix some of our worst problems:
- Transparency. We cannot afford to elect a government that can be blackmailed by anonymous power brokers with big bank accounts. We the People need to know who is writing the actual text of our laws, and who is profiting from them.
- The Constitution. I know you’re busy, but can we have our Constitutional rights back, please? Particularly the First and Fourth Amendments? Bin Ladin is dead, yet as long as our nation remains so terrorized that we won’t take our families on board airplanes without government agents fondling our kids, the terrorists are winning. I’d like to live in a FREE country again.
- Wall Street. It shouldn’t be legal to cheat people out of house and home. Nuff said?
- The deficit, aka tomorrow’s taxes. Yes, that needs to come down, but can we start with wasteful “defense” spending? It’s one thing to speak softly and carry a big stick, but that stick gets kind of hard to carry when it reaches sequoia proportions.
Ok, just a few more.
- Guantanamo Bay, our own shameful concentration camp. Why is that still here? The notorious internment camps of World War II only lasted for 4 years. Why are we still perpetrating this offense against human rights and justice?
- Equal rights for LGBTs and women. I know you’re already on board with this one, but there’s still far too much discrimination that’s been legal for far too long. Could you help speed that process up a bit?
- The so-called “war” on drugs. Can we end this corrupt, extravagant, and racist scam? We can’t afford it. It’s ineffective, it’s fueling the drug cartels and making them wealthy and well-armed, and it’s being used as a pretext to imprison and disenfranchise minorities, not to mention inflating unemployment once they get out. Drug abuse is a public health problem, not a military problem.
That’s my short list, Mr. President. You may find a few more suggestions in the comments below.
Far and away more important than any of the issues you’ve raised: get serious about mitigating anthropogenic climate change. It’s the future of civilization at stake here.
Also: turn around the 30-year trend of increasing economic inequality in the US.
What not to do: attack Iran, even if it is on the verge of producing nuclear weapons. Yes, that would be a bad thing; but not nearly as bad as another – and far larger – Middle East war.
Corollary: tell Netanyahu that if Israel attacks Iran they’re on their own, diplomatically, economically and militarily.
Quite frankly, we should tell Netanyahu that regardless of what Israel does regarding Iran.
Good point.
Can we stop turning surveillance drones into suicide bombers, please? I hate fighting terrorism with terrorism.
Regarding the deficit:
Right now we can borrow money at a negative real interest rate for periods of up to 20 years. We can borrow a dollar now and pay back under 98 cents in current dollars in 20 years, under 92 cents in current dollars in 10 years. That means, more or less, that a failure to increase the deficit is a bet that the economy will implode and we’ll all be scavenging for food in 20 years.
Economic conditions right now are such that the government can borrow money for less than free. It should therefore do so.
There is only one way any of the items listed in your post or in the comments will happen:
http://www.samefacts.com/2012/11/barack-obama/occupy-the-white-house/