Fantasy Presidency League
By R.J. Godlewski
© March 30, 2009, All Rights Reserved
(Right Truth Exclusive)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The purpose of my writing is to stir debate and, whenever possible, to fire a full broadside against liberal politics. The purpose of this article, however, is to add a bit of creative humor and foresight to the role of the Presidency and to offer what “could be”. In this context, the ideas and “policies” outlined here are strictly mine as are the selection of certain actual people to fill my “cabinet posts”. The people selected to fill these offices do not know me and we are not associated in any manner. I simply believe that they would be great for the cabinet positions that a “President R.J. Godlewski” Administration would need. R.J.
My fellow Americans,
I speak to you tonight, as your newly elected President, as our nation rests upon the edge of forever. We have experienced some terribly troubling times during the past several years, but we are by no means down for the count. It is because that I believe in you – the individual – that I ask for your help tonight in turning this great nation of ours around and propelling it towards a more prosperous future for all. We are a nation of people, not institutions, whose individual achievements carry this great country upon its shoulders. It is therefore the individual, not the state that should reap the dividends resulting from this “loan” of talent.
My role, as your new captain, is to ensure that we do not end up upon the shoals. That Lady Liberty does not become a penniless widow mocked by passersby. Our flag, which still “flies” proudly upon the surface of the moon for eternity, must not be lowered here upon the mother planet. We went in search of other planetary bodies for “all mankind” and our actions and responsibilities must therefore benefit all humankind. Otherwise, we simply become slaves of the state.
My policies are not to elevate everyone to prosperity. There can be no guarantee that every child born today will become my successor. However, we must ensure that every child conceived within America has the chance to become a future President of the United States. No one should be ever be denied their dreams simply because of their present state in the economy or their position within society. Your success in life can never be preordained by those who have never walked within your shoes. The height of your success should be proportionate solely to the level of your effort.
My first action, as President, therefore is to ensure that our economy remains for the people. I am a capitalist, which means that I have had my fair share of failure within life. Failures where I was required to lift myself up by the bootstraps and pick up the pieces for another attempt at a brighter future. With each setback, the road ahead became a little more demanding and a lot more instructive. Regardless, I had to pay for my errors in judgment.
When I was laid off from my work with General Electric, for instance, while my first wife was dying from cancer, I had no one to blame but myself. Sure, I could have made the argument that with a terminally ill spouse I could not have been expected to focus upon my job but that would merely divert from personal responsibility. When I took that position, I focused more upon material possessions than practical ones and when we needed medical coverage the most; I was quite ill prepared to pay for it out of my own pocket. I had to accept the consequences for my own actions. I could not have expected others to bail me out even when my income went from $800 per week take-home to $63 on limited unemployment insurance.
The role of the state therefore is not to pave the road ahead, but to make certain that no dangers lay along the path. Each step of forward progress is your responsibility. Each fall backward is likewise your responsibility. We in the government can remain vigilant for trespassers and thieves, but we cannot be expected to hold your hand even during the most trying of times. In fact, it is better that we not be too near lest we step upon you during your occasional fall.
To open your options, I have decided to push for immediate closure of the Internal Revenue Service and replace our tax code with a simplified Fair Tax based upon consumption of end products. Those who spend more will pay more. Those who produce products will not be taxed on the raw goods necessary to create their wares. No one individual should pay taxes on income. No one business should be taxed on the development of a product. There can be no discrimination against anyone.
Secondly, to increase the flow of credit and to overhaul an antiquated system, I will force Congress to abandon draconian consumer credit laws and practices, Nothing should remain on your credit report for more than three years. Nothing. If you are laid off or suffer through a personal crisis and are unable to pay your obligations, this situation should not suffer you through seven years of a blemished credit report. To jumpstart our economy, I will use executive privilege to erase all blemishes upon honest, hardworking Americans for past due obligations which exceed two years.
Because I feel that the free market economy is America’s greatest asset, I have chosen former governor Mitt Romney as my Commence Secretary. His instructions are twofold: unleash American business and hold those who abuse the system accountable for their actions. If kind-hearted Americans want to contribute towards a bailout, they can freely do so within the offices of the nearest federal penitentiary.
A sound American economy cannot prosper while our nation is under attack and as the first president ever officially schooled in fighting terrorism as a career, I therefore challenge – nay, demand – that Congress make a declaration of resolve to combat our enemies. We cannot fight Islamic radicalism, for example, by suggesting that they are merely peaceable peoples gone astray. We cannot bring the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Pyongyang regime in North Korea into the league of civilized nations unless we prove to them that the alternative is sheer suicide. Nations must desire to be our allies for they fear becoming our enemies.
I have chosen as my Secretary of Defense, a person many may have not heard of but I have followed his teachings for years and his work has inspired me to lead my efforts against radical Islam – retired Army Colonel Ralph Peters. As his thoughts parallel my expectations, I have no qualms about handing him the reins of our national security. My administration will, therefore, expect no less than 25% of its annual budget be devoted to matters of national defense – the primary function of any national Legislature.
As for my Attorney General, I can find no better person to segue into than Judge Andrew Napolitano. I am confident that he will uphold the U.S. Constitution as written and not abuse its potential. As far as your new President is concerned, the Bill of Rights was written so simply that a child could understand and we need to restore this “childlike” reverence to the freedoms imparted by this time-honored document. We judge not by who people are but what actions they undertake.
First amongst these rights are those guarantying freedom of religion and of speech. No federal or state agency shall keep the American people from freely exercising both their thoughts and their religious beliefs. We must accept, however, with great care and recognition that the underlying faith of this great nation of ours has been Christian.
Second amongst our rights is the right of the people – individuals from all lifestyles and from all locations within our territorial possessions – to own and bear firearms. No government can restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, their family and friends, and their properties. No government can restrict the right of the individual to decide which type of firearm and for what purpose they deem necessary. Towards this end, I will force Congress to repeal the antiquated barrier against purchasing post-1986 machine guns. I trust your neighbors more with modern firearms than I do terrorists seeking to subvert our laws and my administration will defend all legitimate gun owners to the fullest extent possible. When a crisis emerges, it will be your friends and neighbors who response the earliest, not the city, state, or federal government.
This leads me to my personal preference for weapon of choice – a sound education. Most of you, by now, know that I hail from no Ivy-league university. In fact, I did not even begin my collegiate career in earnest until I reached forty-five years of age. Education is not about sitting within a classroom for learning cannot be constrained by institutions. Our educational system therefore needs to be overhauled and updated to reflect this nurturing process. We need a system that gives both parents and teachers options, yes, but our children are ultimately at stake. The Teachers’ Unions have corrupted the current system while it is the students who need representation. I will give them this representation.
I have chosen former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be my new Education Secretary for I believe that he represents the best balance between integrity and commitment, between action and voice for the job. His job will be to inspire, not indoctrinate. To lift up, not tear down. To nudge, not bulldoze. As my alma mater suggests, the best weapon is indeed an educated mind. I would add to this that an educated mind needs also to control a healthy body.
My choice for Health and Human Services Secretary therefore is Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Our nation requires someone from the real world, with fiscal responsibility that can shore up the best healthcare on the planet. The worst thing that we can do is to expect patients to commute to their physician of choice via Washington, D.C. The best thing that we can do is to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and hold those responsible for such legal actions accountable for the cost of their attempts to defame the innocent. It is one thing to sue an orthodontist for the removal of a leg. It is quite another matter to sue an innocent doctor because they could not raise the dead.
I myself have been on the wrong side of such ridiculous legal actions within my life – being sued for protecting others’ lives – and I will not rest until the legal system in America is restored to the very people that it was intended to serve. I want to be the President of the People, by the People, and, most especially, for the People.
Much work remains ahead of us and the future is uncertain. Fortunately, our nation possesses a grand and glorious past from which to draw solutions. We came into existence by challenging the most powerful nation on the planet with nothing more powerful than our muskets and ideas. We fought a brutal and bloody Civil War to make human equality the law of the land and ever since we have exported this uniquely American thought. Sometimes we have succeeded. Sometimes we have failed. Always, we have tried.
You see before you today, a grateful man who appreciates this great national heritage. I served proudly within the United States Navy when I found that I could not afford college upon graduating from high school. My family consisted of an autoworker and a housewife with five children. I could not expect them to pay for my education.
We lived in a renovated summer cottage where we could literally sit on the commode, brush our teeth over the sink, and check the bath water simultaneously. My father, with seven people to feed, never made more than $9 per hour in his life. He had worked since he was sixteen, dropping out of high school to aid his own parents, falling into the draft during World War Two, and never finding stable employment until I was born. During school, my parents bought me one pair of clothes for the fall semester and one pair of clothes during the spring period. In the summers, my brother and I earned enough from paper routes and mowing lawns to purchase our own motorcycles, snowmobiles, and rowboats, among other luxuries. What we lacked, we imagined. What we needed, we invented.
My own life represents America. In kindergarten, my best friends consisted of a Chinese companion who was already placed into college at the tender age of five and one who was born without arms. These friends taught me that not everyone looked like the one staring back from the mirror. In first grade, our elderly teacher used to beat us from habit with slippers and shoes stockpiled in the classroom for the purpose and during second grade our young classmate was brutally raped and murdered by her uncle. When I entered third grade, I knew that life was far more than fairy tales and dreams.
As your President, I know that I do not possess all of the answers that our nation needs to have addressed. I have not made any promises for I expect my actions to speak more fluently than my thoughts could ever admit. America is not about the one who sits within the Oval office, but of the one who placed him into their care and the one who did not desire for him to occupy that position in the first place. America is about the wealthy banker on Wall Street and the poor homeless living underneath bridges. America is about the terminally ill octogenarian and the eternally expectant unborn. Americans do not come in any particular shape, color, or thought process.
What has made America great is that people travel here from everywhere else for a common purpose – to make a better life for their families. We need to keep that influx growing, but through legal avenues. We must clamp down sternly upon our borders to make our front door more accessible for the flowing of new hope into our land. We cannot abandon the courteous for the inconsiderate no matter how well intentioned their spirit may be. Nobody climbing through your side window should have access to your daughter’s bedroom. No one seeking the combination to your safe has your best interests at heart. I simply desire to safeguard the house on Pennsylvania Avenue with the same care as you do with yours on Main Street, America, for you undoubtedly hold title to both.
As your President, I have been entrusted with a greater power than any mortal man can aspire to. I will not forget that. I cannot forget that. My job, as I see it, is to more efficiently handle the responsibilities that you have provided me. It is not to subject you to greater evils or labors. I am here to protect you from outside attack, both here at home and when traveling abroad. I am quite certain that you and your neighbors can handle nearly everything else.
Good night and God Bless!
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