photog’s Republic – Part 2

So here I am playing Plato in drawing up my Republic.  I have no philosopher kings.  All I have is the experience of where our country went wrong.

The first order of business is analyzing this calamity.

The current theories about why everything fell apart can be broken up into a few schools of thought.  The most extreme diagnosis is that the Enlightenment is the source of our problem.  The idea is that changing the focus of human thought from God to the individual is the root of all the problems we are experiencing.  Now I don’t want to go through all of this theory but basically, it’s saying that eliminating God from the human world eventually leads to pathological selfishness that destroys human society.

Maybe that’s true but I’m not about to bring us back to the 1300’s where most of us would be serfs working in an agricultural field for whichever landlord ruled the county.  Instead let’s look at the basic problems that have erupted over the last century or so.

The first thing that has to go is identity politics.  In Goodenoughia we’re all Goodenoughians and any hyphenated Goodenoughians would just be too many letters to manage so we’re banning that.  If you have any grudges against anyone because of race color or creed keep them to yourself because the government doesn’t want to know about them.  And in fact, if you say you object to how your people are treated in Goodenoughia you will be given a hearty handshake and a one-way bus ticket to Leftwingistan.

And if you find your personal pronouns or your desire to dress in drag are disrespected you will be sent (by bus) where these idiosyncrasies are embraced and celebrated.  So, a win/win!  In general, the government will spend its time and energy encouraging things that enhance the stability and social cohesion of the population.  Policies will be established that tend to strengthen the middle class.  From the top, industries that provide employment will be discouraged from sending jobs overseas by tariffs and incentives.  From the bottom there will be direct incentives for young people to get married and have children.  Married couples will be given tax breaks and school vouchers to encourage family building.  And there will be a complete abandonment of any government programs that advantage women over men in school admissions or employment.  Women will no longer be considered a protected class.

And in fact, there won’t be any protected classes.  Everybody will have to find their own friends without the government doing it for them.  And right there most of our problems would be solved.  I guess we could add a section to the Constitution to outlaw the idea of special privilege but it’s really already there.  All we might have to do is add a death penalty to any government officials who try to sneak any in.

But for the next installment we’ll talk about what changes have to be made to the government to keep us from being persecuted by our own government again.

Updates:

Nostradumbass

So…It seems Leftwingistan has a “religion” (a creed if you will) based on leftwingism. If Goodenoughia does not allow me to air my grudges against certain creeds, my prodigies will be uninformed of the perversion of language and art that takes place in Leftwingistan. Moreover, they may be lulled into allowing illegal Leftwingistanian migrant “newcomers” to overrun our borders. God save Goodenoughia.

Chemist

Good start. I like it.

Chemist

In reply to Nostradumass.
I’m pretty sure that photog will get around to education. Not to steal his thunder, but I expect that schools will be required to teach the true history of Goodenoughia – that it is a good place and a place worth defending and preserving.
One of the problems with the US today is that we have taught the last generations that the US is an evil place: Born in colonization and built on slavery and that “Original sin” can never be washed away.

Nostradumbass

In reply to Chemist.
The Problem with the US today is that it really is an evil place.

TomD

A/the major killer of employment in the US is the maze of laws too numerous to count and too complicated to fathom, all of which have one main result: make it too expensive and difficult to employee Americans.

The ADA, family leave act, the 10’s of thousands of laws mandating this and that.

I listen to talk radio as I travel around and hear a common ad from an HR outfit. One of the ads goes “One of my employees never shows up when he’s supposed to. What do I do?” Employment law has become so insanely non intuitive that the most obvious situation on earth requires the input of a lawyer.

SEVERELY limit the legislative capability of government. All laws have a 5-year sunset term after which, unless the proponents of the law can demonstrate the financial and results oriented metrics demonstrate the efficacy of the law to a neutral panel, it’s gone. And 5 years later, do it again.

Term Limits!!!!!!!

Severe penalties ruthlessly applied for corrupt politicians. The corruption police not subject to the politicians and themselves strictly term limited.

photog:

Tom, the good thing about starting over means you can keep what works and jettison the rest.  All you need is a wise editor.  Luckily we can be those arbiters.  And the best way to keep things lean is to limit the budget they have to work with.  No income tax should definitely help.  That’s on tomorrow’s post.

Glenn W

Hyphenated Goodenoughians are what the Founders called Faction and they considered it to be a major threat to the Republic.It appears they tried to suppress faction in the early days of the Republic but that faded away as they died off.

James Madison acknowledged that parties were inevitable. He did advocate ways to combat the formation of parties which surprised me a bit (probably because I’ve spent too much time around Libertarians):

1. By establishing a political equality among all.

2. By withholding unnecessary opportunities from a few, to increase the inequality of property, by an immoderate, and especially unmerited, accumulation of riches.

3.By the silent operation of laws, which, without violating the rights of property, reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise extreme indigence towards a state of comfort.

4.By abstaining from measures which operate differently on different interests, and particularly such as favor one interest at the expense of another….

If this is not the language of reason, it is that of republicanism.

photog

Glenn, I’ve of late changed my mind about campaign money.  I think the campaigns should be funded by the government and levelled so that it’s as equal as possible.  How that will work I don’t know but the current system is an abomination and adds to the corruption of our government.