A good man's ideas for reforming our government

My lifelong friend Mick Curran is a very different sort of political animal.

He's maybe one-third Bernie Sanders and one-third Paul Ryan. The other third I haven't been able to figure out yet.

To be fair he is a more honorable man than either of the stars mentioned above, and I have no doubt he would have been happier had he never turned his interests to politics.

Mick's primary philosophy is that he is against big government, big business and big labor.

I'm not going to say another word about that.

I am going to comment on a list of specifics he posted as a comment on a Facebook post of mine last night.

First, though, the last major party candidate Mick voted for was Ronald Reagan in 1984. Since then he has voted mostly for third-party wack jobs, although I have to admit he says he voted for me in one of those elections.

Thanks.

Anyway, last night I asked him how you take a nation of 320 million people and govern it as if it were Smallville.

Here's what he said with my comments:

"Less centralized power and more administrative responsibilities for states and localities."

Sounds good, but with different states being so different in what they do for their citizens, it's difficult to justify kids getting a better education because they live in one state than in another.


That doesn't mean a more decentralized government wouldn't be good. Some European countries divide their land into administrative districts. They're governed in the same way as states, but they don't have autonomy in the way our states do. The same things are legal in one district as in another.

Of course it will never happen. I've been saying for years states are obsolete, but they aren't going away unless we get a lot smarter.

"More transparency. More accountability."

Sure. Great idea. How?

"First, make every law written and up for votes in Congress in plain English. Eliminate Christmas Tree bills. Every rider has to be germane to the bill."

The second part of this one is the more important. No more poison pills. No more sneaking through things people don't want in bills they do want. This has been primarily a way for Republicans to chip away at abortion rights, but Democrats have done it too.

It should stop.

"Term limits. Two times for each office."

This was the crown jewel of Newt Gingrich's Contract on America in 1994, and he got a lot of people believing in it. Of course Newt's only real interest in term limits was for Democrats. He had his fellow contractors never seriously tried yo pass term limits.

There are two problems with term limits. First and foremost is that you're telling the voters they can't be trusted to vote bad people out of office. Second, you destroy institutional memory and give even more power to lobbyists and bureaucrats.

There are other ways to attack this ...

Prohibition of any legislator EVER working as a lobbyist.

Bingo. And let's extend it to elected and appointed members of the executive branch and judges as well.

No practicing lawyer is allowed to serve in Congress. They have to give up their license to practice IF they wish to be seated (That way, knowing they will have to take the bar exam again will dissuade many from even trying to be elected).

This one's just silly.  It's straight out of Shakespeare, from "Henry VI."

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

The most misconstrued line out of Shakespeare, who is referring to executing crooked lawyers. This is actually a very typical modern American throw the baby out with the bathwater solution. Who do we want to write out laws? The idiots who wrote "Red Dawn" or "Gilligan's Island."

I'd damn sure rather elect an intelligent, honest lawyer to office than Sarah Palin or Donald Trump.

 Every prohibition or limitation to average citizens applies to members of Congress, the Executive branch, and the courts. No more special health insurance. No more special considerations or bonuses. No more pensions. Whatever laws are passed, every member of Congress must be subject to -- so whatever laws they pass, they have to live under them.

Sure, why not, although I would much rather see it attacked from the other side. Try this: Your financial disclosure papers when you enter office get compared to the ones when you leave. If you went in being worth $4 million and are now worth $27 million (like Mitch McConnell), you go to jail.

Wholesale elimination of many departments and agencies.

Sure. Why not? But who decides? This is really just a platitude. We can't even close down the Rural Electrification Association, even if we have been rurally electrified for decades.

No more Federal Reserve. Enough with "who's hiding the salami" tricks.

This is pretty much the Holy Grail for conspiracy theorists, and it would probably be the most difficult thing of all to change. The men behind the curtain aren't going to let Toto pull the curtain away.

No more borrowing from the children and grandchildren. If we can't afford it now, we do without it. Simple economics that every household must learn and observe.

Cutting spending would be great, but there are times when governments need to use deficit spending to prime the pump. In addition, the analogy with families' budgets conservatives love to make would be true except that families can't print their own money.

No more free ride for the banking industry or the oil companies or the insurance companies or the pharmaceuticals. If they won't alter their corrupt practices, they get nationalized and we invent special civil service jobs to replace the leaders of these industries.

Oh, dear Lord. This is where Mick surprises -- no, shocks -- everyone by suggesting that if massive conglomerates won't behave themselves, the government should nationalize them. I'm sure there are people who would love so see that happen, and I personally wouldn't be all that disappointed.

But I would doubt that anyone in Congress would support something that drastic.

Mick isn't wrong, just unrealistic.

Universal healthcare.

Yay! Although I've got no idea how he'll get conservatives to go for that, I'll never know.

That's a start.

I've often teased my friend about his utopian views and asked him what sky the color is in MickWorld.

I have to say one thing, though.

It would be a very nice place to live.