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It’s Time to Install Revolving Door in the Oval Office

If we make politicians do what they do best—campaign—we’ll all sleep better.

 

I think I’ve figured a way to save our country from ruin: We should elect a new president every year.

The stock market always goes up before a presidential election, right? That means all recessions will be limited to a half-dozen months and the good times will roll every summer and fall. And you’ll never again hear the word “deficit.” Has Congress ever raised taxes or cut services in an election year?

And all those out-of-work Americans? Well, they might not have jobs, but they’ll at least have something to do. They can spend their empty days campaigning for the latest empty-headed candidate. After all, what makes a campaign go? Greasy politicians and greasy pizza … so at least they’ll get some empty calories to go along with all those hollow promises.

Maybe someone will figure out a way to put little bunks in the voting booths so all those poll workers would have a place to sleep. Heck, half of America is sleeping in a garage or a cardboard box as it is, so why not make those booths serve double duty.

And somebody will get work installing the Oval Office’s new revolving doors.

Congress—that unmovable mass of goo that works as well as Maynard G. Krebs (if you’re under 60, Google it)—doesn’t do anything anyway and this new rotating-regime scheme will probably keep them from passing the few pork-ridden bits of legislation they do manage to belch up.

This way, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul ... even that Bachmann person might get a chance to stand at a podium with that eagle logo on it and make some cowboy quote about how they planned a secret mission to send a drone missile up the rear end of a terrorist during his birthday party in the mountains of Pakistan.

And talking about the global ramifications, our enemies wouldn't know who it is they should be burning in effigy. Our friends—make that “friend” because I’m pretty sure it’s down to England at this point—would only have to suffer through a trigger-happy-smoke-'em-out foreign policy for a few months.

Best of all, China wouldn’t know who to bill.

In simpler times, we elected one guy for a decade, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was good enough for the country. But that's when fireside chats were the information superhighway … with a school-zone speed limit.

These days, everyone is hyper and moving at hyperspace speed. The latest news is minutes late. Yesterday's news is already in the history books—well, online versions, anyway—which download neatly onto your laptop, digital reader or iPad.

(“iPad,” by the way, was always my answer when asked, “How do you handle your expense account?”)

Look, presidential campaigns are already endless—the Republicans started the latest one sometime between the time Obama lowered his right hand and the first strains of “Hail to the Chief” kicked in. So why not speed up the electoral process and give a whole conga line of bozos a 12-month shot at running the show? Just think: We could’ve had Obama, two Bushes and a guy who had a fondness for cigars and plump women ... all come and gone in less than five years.

The presidency would be like the weather in the Midwest: If you don’t like it, wait a few minutes and it’ll change.

And the ramifications go way beyond the obvious political benefits.

No baby will go unloved, what with all the candidates slobbering all over them.  

It could mean the end of those god-awful showbiz buzz shows—Hollywood actors will be too busy at liberal fund-rasiers to find time to show up on TMZ—and that alone would become a front-runner for presidential accomplishment of the 21st century.

Michael Moore couldn't shoot an unflattering documentary and get it through production in time to embarrass a sitting president. Rush Limbaugh wouldn't have time for the intensive i-dotting, t-crossing fact-checking that he requires on all of his stories.

Best of all, with this kind of turnover, someday your kid will grow up to be president.

About this column: John Weyler has lived in Orange County for almost 50 years. His weekly regional columns offer his unique, and often irreverent, take on life in the O.C.


Laura

10:28 am on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Very funny! Hey, where have you been? I'm missed your columns.

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John R Wilschke

10:48 am on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What an asinine piece! What we need are politicians who pay less attention to lobbyists who fund their campaigns and more to solving the real problems that government can and should legitimately address to help everyone. Making empty promises that avoid necessary and difficult compromises is a foolish way to run anything much less a government.

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Patty

9:00 am on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Really, John R? What an asinine comment. What we need are readers who pay less attention to empty promises, and more to the sarcasm behind the words. Sheesh! Making assumptions that avoid necessary and difficult thinking is a foolish way to read an "Idle" article.

SethK

11:44 am on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

You're close to the right idea. The President should be nothing more than an executive, an administrator. Congress should appoint him/her, annually, from within their own ranks, with the restriction of a single term. This would remove the entire political focus in American politics from the White House and put it squarely back on the Congress where it belongs. It would also save billions of dollars in campaign waste. In the meantime, the 17th Amendment should be repealed which would give the states renewed importance in our Federal system and help to balance the mobocracy aspects of democracy with a little more constraint from the upper house. Finally, placing single-term limitation on all Federal offices would focus all office holders on their jobs and on doing the right thing rather than on getting re-elected. Oh, and isn't it about time we restricted all Federal positions, elected, appointed, or hired, to single-national U.S. citizens? The number of duel nationals currently in high positions within our government should cause any serious person to question whether this country is truly being run for the benefit of Americans.

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rnixon

4:50 pm on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Think JR Wilschke should be the one person banned from running for the oval office. He has a sarcasm deficiency...

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John Weyler

7:28 am on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

thanks, laura ... and i'll have to agree with mixon ... i won't be writing every week anymore, laura, but i'll be an occasional contributor. in fact, i'm writing twice this week ... check out my little essay on friday.

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Bo Bo

8:53 am on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Love your work. It speaks volumes to the truth!!

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Kerry

1:48 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

What are the chances of electing a president who is working for the average citizen in out two party system? Yearly elections are a type of term limits with a circus thrown in.

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Julie McGirr

2:24 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I love this piece! Thanks for my chuckle of the day. You're very clever and witty, and I agree with mixon as well!

Can't wait to read Friday's contribution.

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JoeWeinstein

8:11 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I guess this article is supposed to be just funny, but in fact one basic idea in this article is totally correct and over time would address a lot of the inherent tendency to produce conditions so bad that they lead to Occupy movements. Namely, we simply should not have a long-term president - of for that matter a long-term powerful decision-maker of any kind. If we continue to have but a single all-powerful executive, at least restrict her term - and that of legislators too - to something like one week. Of course that will preclude the expense and fuss of elections - which anyhow are expensive yet irrelevant popularity contests based on pandering to the semi-ignorant. Rather, select short-term decision-makers randomly from among the many citizens unwilling to support parasitic professional politicians but quite willing to give a limited amount of unpaid or minimum-pay time to public service - like jury duty today. This setup would not only give us real and deliberative democracy, but would also - by far more widely distributing decision power and diluting power of any given decision-maker - drastically reduce the built-in incentive of our present political system (an elected politician oligarchy) toward corruption.

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