As my readers know, I am currently unemployed working freelance. I have a number of applications out right now for both academic and non-academic jobs. It occurs to me though that the job of President will be available pretty soon, so I thought I might run for President of the United States.

I am thinking of running a type of campaign that has never been run before. I will tell voters ahead of time the policies that I hope to follow. If they like those policies, then they should vote for me. If not, then they don’t vote for me. I would go without any kind of political advisor, although I would have plenty of policy advisors around. And if I don’t have a position on a topic, then I will say so. I am prepared to listen to the arguments from both sides. I plan to run as a raging moderate.

I will admit up front that I have no political experience. I considered starting out slow by running for president of Moldova and then move my way up, but I decided against it. Besides, I was a political science major in undergraduate, so I should be well prepared. Since I am an OT scholar, I would probably choose a NT scholar or possibly an archaeologist as my Vice Presidential candidate to balance the ticket.

I would need to get a lot of signatures to be able to be on the ballot, so I wanted to do a straw poll here to see how many people would sign such a petition. If you would support Kevin for President, please leave a comment. Please don’t send any contributions at this time. I will hit you up for money later.

Addendum: Someone asked what my policies would be, so I thought I should add this.  Below are a few of my positions.

Domestic policy:

  • Solve the Social Security problem by reducing benefits to the wealthy (phased).   I would return Social Security to being a safety net instead of a retirement plan.
  • Crack down on exploitation of workers while simultaneously increasing worker freedom from unions (for those who don’t want to join).
  • Make the Department of Education more of a resouce than a controlling factor in education.
  • Crack down on the flow of illegal immigrants to the US while expanding opportunities for citizenship for those who apply for citizenship.
  • Work to control the production of greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.
  • Equalize access to policy makers so that the poor and middle class have as much acces as the wealthy and the big corporations.

Foreign policy:

  • First day in office: Executive order banning all torture.  This not only includes torture by the US goverment but also the handing over of prisoners to other countries that practice torture.
  • Actually come up with a plan for Iraq, such as the three state solution, leading to a redeployment of troups so that they fight the actual war on terror instead of the Iraqi insurgents.  Work for more international involvement in Iraq.
  • Return to more of a George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton style policy of deploying US troups either to defend immediate American interests or to help in conflicts where international intenvention is needed.  I would move away from the preemptive strike policy of George W. Bush, which enforces a type of American imperialism.
  • Work to strengthen the UN by having the US pay their dues while also working for some reform.
  • Work to repair damaged relations with former allies in Western Europe while continuing to support new allies such as countries in the former Soviet bloc.
Permalink