Sometimes, the classic old video games are best. Do you remember Dr. Mario dispensing his red and blue pills, ever more feverishly as the game progressed? If you took all the pills in just the right sequence you would gain some temporary relief of your symptoms – until the malady returned on the next level of the game. And there was always another level to the game.
It was all about treating the symptoms – never about addressing the root cause of the disease. This comes to mind now because I’m facing back surgery after years of physical therapy, pills, ointments, chiropractic sessions, and injections. Treating the painful symptoms, however, did nothing to move me to a healthier state.
This old game also comes to mind as we witness the beginnings of the Trump Transition. A mandate has been declared. Enthusiasm and optimism pervade the atmosphere. Great and good changes are on the horizon. And – naïve expectations run rampant.
The Trump medical team is on its way, promising relief from all that pains the body politic. I wish them good fortune and look forward to success in securing the border, reducing crime, streamlining the bureaucracy, lowering the cost of living, calming overseas tensions, etc., etc. Hopefully, they will prescribe the right meds to alleviate these symptoms.
My less naïve expectation, nevertheless, is that the doctor will treat our transient complaints, but not the underlying disease. Getting to the roots of our condition will require surgery. In the organism that is our federal government, one cannot reduce staffing, sunset programs, revise core policies or close agencies without repealing the legislation that mandated them in the first place. Everything goes back to Congress where the parties reign, claiming infallibility and immunity from change.
So, if I were Dr. Trump, looking to Make America Healthy Again, politically, these are some of the pills I would be dispensing:
Overturn Citizens United and restore rational campaign finance restrictions.
Mandate open primaries and ranked choice voting for all federal offices.
Pass strict lifetime term limits for service in the Legislative Branch.
Outlaw partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts.
Ban unrelated “riders” on all Federal legislative proposals.
Define and enshrine the right to privacy for all Citizens.
Make Congress remain in session until a comprehensive annual budget is signed.
Restrict the majority party’s prerogatives to manipulate the legislative agenda,
allocate committee assignments, and modify legislative procedures.
To restore discourse and civility, seat the members in both chambers of Congress
alphabetically, instead of by party.
And this next gift alone would be the greatest remedy – the remedy that will allow the American Citizenry to fight off the contagion of party and to heal themselves.
Implement a National Referendum System such that the Citizenry has a direct role in determining the national policies that most affect their lives.
Make the Citizenry the fourth and highest branch of government to which all three others are bound. All measures short of this will yield temporary remission only, and allow the eventual return of a debilitating cancer – a relapse America may not survive.
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