If I Were President... by Star Man

[Star Man]

If I Were President

If I were President, I would create a Universal Mental Health Care Program to supplement the Universal Health Care Program (Single Payer) that would be a central piece of my platform.

If I were President, I would withdraw all troops and contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq. I would close many of the almost 1,000 bases we operate around the globe, and I would use some of the money saved to fund an expansion of training psychotherapists and social workers. I would set a target of licensing 5,000,000 new therapists nationwide within 5-10 years. I would create a national licensing system. All of these new therapists would be trained in trauma treatment. The training would focus on a model for psychopathology based on van der Kolk's proposal for a diagnosis of Developmental Trauma Disorder. (As a nation, we suffer from massive Developmental Trauma Disorder.) No one would be forced to participate in therapy. However, a reward system for participating would be emplaced.

If I were President, I would spend the same amount of funds we now spend on TV commercials for the Army and Navy on commercials promoting the National Mental Health Care Program. For example: "Be all you REALLY can be." I would have commercials with actors and actresses like the ones who presently shill for eHarmony saying, "Our marriage was broken. There was violence. Our children were afraid. There were drugs. Then we went to Universal Mental Health, and our lives changed. We went individually and as a family. We learned how to manage our emotions. We learned compassion for each other. We learned how to be vulnerable and intimate. Our children's lives changed dramatically for the better. We are all much happier now. Thank you National Mental Health. You freed us from the tyranny of the past. You gave us our lives."

I would promote another commercial in which a single woman with her two children beside her says, "I wish Bob could have participated in the National Mental Health Program. He was too afraid, unfortunately. Eventually we divorced. Bob is really unhappy. He lives by himself and deals with his anger by drinking, which is very sad. I have found a new best friend [an obviously well adjusted male enters the picture], someone who can support my children and me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Just so you know, it doesn't have to turn out this way, but at the same time, your happiness and your children's adjustment and happiness is more important than anything. National Mental Health . . . it's the mentally healthy way."

If I were President, I would promote the teaching of birth control and sexuality in high schools. I would promote teaching evolution. I would promote classes teaching principles for creating a healthy marriage and of child development. I would promote programs teaching healthy, non-violent communication techniques.

If I were President, I would use the power of the presidency to deal with the Christian Right and the Tea Party BEFORE they could attack. I would say in all my campaign speeches, "You will hear attacks from the Conservatives in the coming months of this campaign. You will hear conservative commentators telling you that I am a socialist and this program is a communist program. Do not be brain-washed. Do not allow them to lie to you."

If I were President, I would unilaterally destroy all but five nuclear weapons and would invite all other nuclear nations to join in the disarmament. I would also assert that the Second Amendment says, "A well-regulated militia being necessary ..." and I would require than in order for anyone to possess a firearm, they must be a member of a "well-regulated militia," and I would be absolutely clear that "well-regulated" means "well-regulated."

If I were President, I would create a 21st Century version of the WPA. I would put people to work cleaning up the environment.

If I were President, I would not take one single penny of money from any corporation for my campaign. I would repeal Glass-Steagall. I would repeal NAFTA and GATT. My platform would make people more important than corporations, and it would make happiness more important that profits.

If I were President, I would dismantle the domestic surveillance programs and all but one of the national security agencies. Spying on citizens would be a crime. I would undo the Executive's assertion that it has the right to kill U.S. or other citizens without trial. I would restore habeas corpus.

If I were President, I would institute a program of zero population growth.

These proposals constitute most of the platform of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Party of which I am the candidate for president.

Personally, if I were President, I would have a sweat lodge in the Rose Garden where I would lead weekly ceremonies. State Dinners would be largely supplanted by sweat lodge ceremonies. Before I negotiated with any foreign leader, we would sweat together. I would make no secret that I am an atheist who supports an earth-based, Taoist-inspired spirituality.

Star Man

[Star Man]

If I were President, ...
Star Man

I think the people who have attempted to contend with me or who have criticized me have a right to know exactly who I am and what I stand for and believe in. So do the many Waccobbeans who have supported me and given me gratitude.

Star Man

[podfish]

If I Were President... I would create a Universal Mental Health Care Program ... I would .... fund an expansion of training psychotherapists and social workers.

(As a nation, we suffer from massive Developmental Trauma Disorder.) No one would be forced to participate in therapy. However, a reward system for participating would be emplaced.

.. I would have commercials.. saying, "Our marriage was broken. There was violence. Our children were afraid. There were drugs. Then we went to Universal Mental Health, and our lives changed.... . Thank you National Mental Health. You freed us from the tyranny of the past. You gave us our lives."


If I were President, I would use the power of the presidency to deal with the Christian Right and the Tea Party BEFORE they could attack. I respect the sincerity of your beliefs. The issue I've taken in the past, and the reason I wouldn't support you for president despite my agreement with much of your agenda, is this overconfidence in UMH/NMH's ability to fix us all. I don't think UMH/NHM even understands us all. Here I have some kinship with some of the posters I occasionally argue with - I may not worry much about a NWO but I would worry about institutionalizing a definition of "normal". And the definition of normal is key to UMH's practices. I guess that's the kind of freedom I care about, rather than one more tied to economics.

I find interesting the way you use the Christian Right and the Tea Party as foils, here, because I feel they have a world view that's akin to the one expressed here. Rick Santorum describes quite clearly where people have gone wrong, feels he understands what leads to their erroneous thinking, and explains what he'd do to improve the world we all live in - in very similar terms to this post. Actually, he really -is- running for president. Damn. That's scary, sorry I brought it up....

[Barry]

I encourage other members to also start a new thread in the National Politics category with what you would do if you were president. :waccosun:

[Sciguy]

If I Were President

If I were President, I would create a Universal Mental Health Care Program to supplement the Universal Health Care Program (Single Payer) that would be a central piece of my platform.
Star Man
I've got a problem with these kinds of ideas. It's simple - they seem to assume that everything stays the same except for a change in one little corner of the situation. In this case, it's in installing a benevolent dictator - excuse me - POTUS (we've come to believe it's the same thing and in the real world it is). What would happen if the entire constellation of facts that define what it means to be a President were to change. Wouldn't that be more significant? After all, it's the slow but irreversible accretion of more and more power by that office which is the major problem right now. Just leaving all that power in the office but being wiser for a term or two - that's not what is needed. We need structural changes.

None of our favorite things are actually in the power of the Pres but let's continue the fantasy that it is. My biggest one would be to get rid of Congress and the representative form of government. I would substitute direct legislation through the internet. Maybe as an intermediate change, leave the Congress in place and get the public used to exerting power by instituting universal federal referenda by internet voting. So no substantive law could go into effect until it was supported by 60% of the population. Without any other change, this would probably stop wars, institute the Single Payer mentioned earlier and eliminate bank bailouts. And it's actually doable on some level! We already saw what happened by a referendum in Ohio this year.

Then to cause a further descent of the power into the hands of the public, let's form public commissions that are formed like juries, or like that citizen redistricting commission that was used in California but for all kinds of things. Does anyone here know that all levels of the California oligarchy, definitely including the Sonoma County Supes (including Ernie Carpenter) and all the other county's supes and cities, have all gotten rid of uncontrollable and unbiased five-public-member appeals commissions to replace them with biased, politically and financially motivated and easily controlled hearing officers? Try appealing some stupid permit denial today. You'll get a hearing officer with draconian powers who is guaranteed to come up with the decision the officials want. Okay, that's a digression. But what if we were to adopt the general prescription that the public needs to speak through evanescent, easily formed and dismantled commissions in a blinking universe of public opinions that twinkles like starlight. Now that would be a change already but here's the kicker. Let's abandon the universal principle of every government since time began and not let the government pay or control the police. Let's move the civilian control of the police to - guess who - civilians. Let's have special taxes that are only targeted for paying police, and have those taxes paid to policemen by citizens' commissions. Let's have them change often enough that they can't easily be corrupted. They can still rely on "experts" if they want more continuity but we don't have to put up with a corrupt class of self important elites controlling state forces.

I know - you can't imagine anything like this. It's too scary. That's the response I got the last time I suggested direct democracy by internet voting. Well, I can't give you courage, only the wizard of Oz can do that.

So what would be the next step in this fantasy devolution of power from an overly militarized government? Yes, you guessed it. Put the army under civilian control too. I won't even waste time trying to expand the idea here.

I was pleased to learn from Andre Grubachich on KPFA that the elimination of the corrupt notion of representation is not only a constant plank of the Anarchists but ranks as the anarchist signature. Hey, last week I couldn't even spell annearekissed and now I is one.

So these are some changes that would create the first democracy in the world ever. Or closer to it. And would deprive the POTUS of his Imperial Power and hopefully, the people of the US would fall in love with democracy and you couldn't wrench it back from them with all the militaries of the world who would surely all shrink in horror from such a notion. All the other countries of the world would probably impose terrible sanctions on the US if we ever tried anything like that.

Here's another radical idea. I've been reading a book The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout which I would recommend to anyone who wants to understand people more than the two or three closest ones. She estimates that one person out of twenty-five is a sociopath, without a conscience and without empathy for anyone else. These people can't understand why we ordinaries are so concerned with what happens to other people. Sound familiar? Does it remind you of elites who just don't give a damn if millions lose their jobs and homes and die from treatable disease and live under bridges? Does it remind you of politicians who can drop bombs on cities where real people live and gloat at the "Shock and Awe" they create? Yes, these people gravitate into positions of power. Politics and Corporate officers. So here's my proposition, and it is allied with Star Man's emphasis on Universal Mental Health. Let's have the best tests we can come up with to ban sociopaths from exercising power. There is already a Psychological Association test and list of attributes. Before anyone is allowed to take any official position, let's make sure they fit into the norm of having a conscience and a concern with someone other than themself. That would also eliminate war overnight. And if we did it, who knows what other "civilized" nations might follow?

Well those are some structural ideas for change.

And then I woke up....

[Star Man]

I respect the sincerity of your beliefs. The issue I've taken in the past, and the reason I wouldn't support you for president despite my agreement with much of your agenda, is this overconfidence in UMH/NMH's ability to fix us all. I don't think UMH/NHM even understands us all. Here I have some kinship with some of the posters I occasionally argue with - I may not worry much about a NWO but I would worry about institutionalizing a definition of "normal". And the definition of normal is key to UMH's practices. I guess that's the kind of freedom I care about, rather than one more tied to economics.

I find interesting the way you use the Christian Right and the Tea Party as foils, here, because I feel they have a world view that's akin to the one expressed here. Rick Santorum describes quite clearly where people have gone wrong, feels he understands what leads to their erroneous thinking, and explains what he'd do to improve the world we all live in - in very similar terms to this post. Actually, he really -is- running for president. Damn. That's scary, sorry I brought it up....

Thanks for the respect. I also appreciate that you agree with much of my agenda. I hear you saying that you would not vote for me, even though you do agree with my platform. Let me address the issue of universal mental health, what my vision is. In my platform I talked about Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD). Many individual citizens could be diagnosed with this disorder, because it is caused by neglect, witnessing abuse, or being a victim of abuse during childhood. Being raised by a single parent is a risk factor. As a nation, we suffer from this disorder as well. America qualifies for a diagnosis of DTD. Some of the symptoms for individuals and nations include emotional reactivity, inability to name or identify emotions, defensiveness (Reich called it "armoring"), fragmentation of the self concept, lacking self-awareness, blaming others and denial generally, conflict in relationships, and acting out through disordered behavior such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, etc.

A mental health plan like I propose is based on empirically supported approaches that do embrace a notion of a healthy person. In Bowen's terms, a healthy person would be differentiated, that is would be able to separate thoughts from emotion and to have formed an autonomous identity free of fusion with the family's projection process.

Many of the skills of a psychologically healthy person could be taught in schools. The goal of public education is to create intellectually competent citizens. Developmental psychology tells us that citizens should also be emotionally competent, and the skills to recognize, tolerate, and regulate emotion should be part of every citizen's education. The mental health plan would bring these skills into the education system. Another piece of the plan is a provision for therapy if a citizen wants it. Therapy is designed to resolve the traumas from which DTD develops. The objective is to help citizens free themselves from the traumas of their pasts that are driving their current challenges. The goal is to help citizens differentiate and realize their true selves, whatever that may be. The LLPHP (Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Party) believes our proposal for Universal Mental Health Program derives from the very purpose for our nation's existence. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" entails mental health just as it entails physical health. We don't force obese people to lose weight, and as a nation we would not force people to participate in therapy. At the same time, in our schools we attempt to educate citizens about healthful eating and exercising, and by the same token we should be educating them about emotions and their regulation, relationships, identity, family dynamics.

A recent post on this list described the different ways that liberal minds and conservative minds operate. Liberals highly value individuality, so highly that it ends up destroying liberal causes and organizations because the group's cohesiveness is less important to liberals than their expressions of individuality. I am hearing this dynamic in your fear -- which I think is a common theme in discussions on this list -- that a definition of a "normal" personality would be imposed upon you by the program I propose. I hope I have demonstrated that is not the case. Every citizen who participates will find their own true self, not some cookie cutter self, and that will be just as varied a citizenry as it is now. It will however function better, individually and collectively. It will be able to recognize and accurately judge the ridiculous (bigoted, defended, attacking, misogynist, often false) comments of conservatives.

Star Man