I’m a seventy-year-old natural born U.S. citizen. So, in theory, I could be President of the United States.*
Better yet, this year, I could become our country’s dictator!
I found this out because Donald Trump and many people in the Republican Party, not to mention at least one or two Supreme Court Justices, have either said directly or indicated by their actions that they are open to making someone dictator for life. They want Donald Trump to be dictator, but why not me?
After all, I’m much better qualified. I know things. Donald Trump doesn’t know things. He’s demonstrated his ignorance over and over. He apparently doesn’t know what a virus is, how it works, or what to do if the country is faced with a viral pandemic. He thinks we should use fossil fuel. He thinks women want to have sex with him.
His brain is addled.
Worse than that, he’s demonstrated a commitment to not learning anything. Any number of people have attested that he doesn’t listen and he doesn’t learn. You can put a PDB in front of him and a Diet Coke, and he’ll drink the Diet Coke. He apparently watches Fox Fake News, but not to learn anything. He just wants to see if they agree with him. He’s been this way for years, by all reports. He thinks (unrealistically) that he already knows everything. He thinks he’s superior to everyone else on the planet (except, maybe, just maybe, Vladimir Putin). We know this because he believes (erroneously) “I, alone, can fix it.”
That’s why he thinks he should be dictator. He has delusions of adequacy.
Which, of course, counts him out as a functioning dictator. It takes more than evil to be an adequate dictator. You have to have just enough support to keep everyone else down. Once he’s thoroughly divided the country, he won’t have that kind of support. He just doesn’t seem up to a task that requires a modicum of intelligence.
But it’s deeper than that. It isn’t just that I know things and he doesn’t. It’s a question of what the dictator cares about.
I have the good of the country at heart. And the good of this country depends on everyone doing well, not just a thin crust at the top of the economic ladder. Republicans (erroneously) believe that if they can get Ex back in office, they can further exploit the American people. The problem they have is that Donald Trump doesn’t care about anyone other than himself. Including them.
So, he would make a truly terrible dictator. Not so much because he’d do terrible things. Yeah, he’d do terrible things. But because he doesn’t care about the country. And he wouldn’t do the things the country needs.
I do, however, care about the country.
Since I care about the country, I want a publicly-funded healthcare system that provides essential healthcare for all Americans. I call this Healthcare for All. It is fair on the front end and fair on the back end. Premiums are based on family income, so everyone pays into it fairly. And everyone gets access to essential medical care and pharmaceuticals, without additional charge.
Since I care about the country, I’ve proposed raising minimum incomes using Equality Payments. This pays every working-age person a small amount each week that comes from taxes on major companies. Since Equality Payments go to literally everyone**, there’s no discrimination based on race, gender, or heritage. This is a form of universal basic income.
Equality Payments help fix the automation problem. That’s the problem where automation is slowly replacing all workers with devices that produce wealth for the wealthy. The automation problem is increasing, especially with deployment of artificial intelligence. Within this century, we may see literally every human worker replace by automation.
Unless we fix the automation problem, every worker in the world will starve to death. Is that what you want? Well, that’s what Republicans want. And if you don’t want that, make me dictator and not Donald Trump.
Since I care about the country, I want to end human-created climate change, or at least manage it to a soft landing. I developed a progressive response to global warming. This would halt the billions of dollars of subsidies to fossil fuel companies every year and move those subsidies to renewable energy.
Not only is this important for saving us from global scorching, it’s vital to national security. You cannot fund a modern war without money from fossil fuel. There would not be a war in Ukraine right now if we had converted to renewable energy over the last twenty years, because Russia can only afford a war there by selling oil and gas to other countries. There would not be any threat of war in the Middle East if those countries didn’t sell massive quantities of oil.
And, since I care about the country, I’ve steadily supported aid for Ukraine, because I know enough about the world to know that the U.S. has a responsibility to stand up to Russia. It goes beyond defending Europe against a determined and ruthless foe.
The U.S. has what I call “American exceptionalism”. What that means is that we have exceptional wealth and exceptional power, so we have an exceptional responsibility to get it right. We lead the world. Therefore, we are responsible for promoting freedom, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and an improving standard of living around the world.
How does that square with making me dictator for life?
It doesn’t. I’m sorry to inform you, but I’m joking. You shouldn’t make me dictator. For a couple good reasons:
- Making someone dictator would be bad for the country, no matter how good their policies. It would be the end of democracy, and the end of democracy would be the end of America. And,
- It would be bad for me. I have a nice, comfortable life. I don’t want to be saddled with the responsibility of taking care of you all.
So, let’s just stick with democracy. Don’t make me dictator. Don’t make Donald Trump dictator. Don’t make anyone dictator.
But, if you are going to pick a dictator, just think about how much better it would be if you picked me. And then think of how much better, yet, it is to have a democracy.
Happy Memorial Day and thank you to everyone who has worked to keep us safe and secure!
* On the basis I’m a natural born citizen, and have lived in the U.S. for at least fourteen years, and I’m at least 35 years of age. Not because I’m certifiably old.
** Everyone working age.