Post #1

In today's World, it is extremely easy to criticize people in leadership positions. I often find myself doing so to leaders in my research, specifically those in the political realm. With very liberal views, often that criticism goes towards conservative leaders, such as former President George Bush, or current House Speaker John Boehner. Often, however, I can also see myself falling out of line with important liberal thinkers such as Nancy Pelosi, or Keith Olbermann. This is why I think a good friend of mine really got me thinking in a new way when she asked the question "What would you do if you were President right now?". The context of the question was not rhetorical, but instead very constructive. So, I did the logically sane thing - I found the nearest hard surface, hit my head against it a few times, threw water on my face, retracted my thoughts back to a immature third grader, and came up with the following answer in two major steps.

The first thing I would do as President would enforce more Governmental transparency. Of course, there is no easy way to do this. It would require much innovation and creative thinking. But, I do come from the Show Me State, and that has always hit home. By showing the public what truly is happening in government, I think less people would be scared away from the idea of government in the first place. This could not only cause voters to become more knowledgeable of situations, but also perhaps inspire many to take on a bigger role in working together with government to provide favorable solutions. People have often demanded to see where all their money as taxpayers is going, or to find ways to reduce corruption and increase government to voter interaction. Now there are many ways to go about doing this. The first would be to encourage government to use tools such as the internet and non-partisan polling organizations to truly gather more information on what voters want. By educating legislators on these results more regularly, and encouraging the development of tools to simplify resoruces available to voters (such as websites for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and sites showing our actual budget, which are often criticized for being too complicated and not user-friendly), transparency could be increased. This would help the general public have a more positive and friendly view of government.

Second, amending our Legislative system to allow more progression would be on my agenda. Simply put, gridlock is favored in our current legislative system. Tools like the filibuster in the Senate create battles in Washington that cause no one the be victorious - especially the American people. Early this year, the Senate voted to remove its rule that allowed Senators to "privately hold" legislation without the knowledge of the rest of the body as to whom was doing so. This is just one move I think would be needed to create an environment where progress is held above all - progress that provides working together, instead of acting in spite.

In my mind, creating an environment in which voters are allowed greater participation and leeway in the system, and creating a system more apt to see progression, everyone is going to benefit. Now while there would be many concentrated efforts against these two reforms, at the end of the day, it would be my major agenda. Before any amount of legislation would pass, it requires creating a system that allows it to exist. A system that allows discourse. And that would be my major goal as President of the United States.