What Is Our Message?

 

I think we can all agree that Conservatives and Republicans are opposed to pretty much anything Obama has done, wants to do and will ever do in his presidency. I know I'm opposed to his ideas, I know many of you are and we know that (usually) the GOP is too. In fact, I think if you asked anyone in America whether Republicans support Obama’s policies, 100% of them (or very near to it) would respond with a resounding “NO”. Everyone knows what we’re against, but we’re long overdue for a unified agreement as to what we’re FOR, what we want to DO for America. We need to develop and publish our goals AND our specific plans for achieving those goals so that we can present a united front. If we don’t start showing voters that we have real, concrete, viable ideas that will actually make life better for ALL Americans, we will keep losing elections and we will fall deeper and deeper into the pit that progressives from both sides of the aisle have been digging us into for more than a century. If that happens, the not too distant future will play host to the point of no return. It's not just about you and me. What we do today and tomorrow will lay the groundwork for the America that our children, our grandchildren and their great-great grandchildren will experience. I'm tired of standing by and watching men and women who refuse to listen to the people they've sworn to protect squander our tax dollars, strangle our liberty and destroy our standing in the world. I don't want this country left to government alone, because government alone IS NOT a solution. Government serving as the sole problem solver IS THE PROBLEM. It always has been, and always will be, unless we step in now and stop it. If we're going to stop it, we have to be united, we have to show the people what we stand for and we need to get specific for a change.

 

Now to be fair, we Conservatives and Libertarians talk a lot about personal liberty, we talk about keeping what you earn, about promoting self-reliance and about holding people accountable for their actions. Those are great ideals, but they are not plans. We talk about reforming entitlements, immigration, the tax code, and our foreign policy, but we never get specific enough. Too many Republicans and Conservatives try so hard to steer clear of anything people won't like but need to hear (ever more so in the age of Obama's "free stuff, freed from work" economy) because when we do put forth some specifics, Democrats come marching in to the tune of “this is how their plan proves Republicans hate minorities, women, the elderly, the sick and the poor!” and our message gets derailed before it can even leave the station (Then of course you have the Republicans who just keep repeating the same messages that they’ve been using for 30+ years, which at this point do more to push more people away than bring people in- we’ll get to that…). The Democrats know that if they keep the focus on distraction arguments like “Republicans hate women” then no one will pay attention to the merit of our values (and eventually someone will say something stupid, generating a whole new target for libs and casting an even bigger shadow over whatever ideas we’ve come up with). If we’re going to beat the Democrats and get our true message across to the American people, we are going to have to fight this, tooth and nail, every day, and it’s going to take every man, woman and child willing if we’re going to get it done. It's gonna be hard work, and we're gonna have to deal with the media bias and the preconceived notions and just get it done. Luckily, we're the party that believes in hard work. I believe it can be done. It’s just going to take time, determination and a lot of elbow grease. We can’t be luke-warm for change. We have to be fired up and ready to go if we’re going to bring our brightest days to fruition in our lifetimes.

 

I’ve been contemplating different approaches to spreading the Conservative message to those who don't normally get to hear it for years, and for the longest time I’ve been convinced that our only option is to take our message into the precincts that most consistently vote for Democrats in large numbers, find a way to explain how our ideas will truly help them, and explain how the plans that Democrats want to see put forth will only make their situations worse (as they have for decades). But between the bits and pieces of biased information that people get from the mainstream news, and the slanted garbage they hear from peers who have no interest in fair and open debate, it’s a taxing charge trying to get people to open their ears and listen to what we’ve got to say rather than what someone else has decided we “really” mean. Those preconceived notions are probably the largest barrier to the success of the Conservative message. So we need to find a strategy that hasn’t been tried before, one that removes the assumptions about Conservatives and Republicans from the equation. But how? I’ve struggled with the “responsibility vs. fairness” argument. I’ve wrestled with working around a media that refuses to give our policies a fair shake. I’ve spent countless hours trying to find the words that make people see the benefits of a responsible and informed electorate, and the destruction that nanny state policies really cause. I don’t have to tell you that finding solutions to these problems is much easier said than done.

 

I finally came to the conclusion that the first step we need to take is not in packaging our message or choosing the right words. It’s demonstrating the merits of the message through example. We have to let the people SEE what we are about, and let their eyes be the judge of the quality and the potential of our ideals. But before we can demonstrate our message with examples, we have to agree on what that message should be. This is where I'm going to break with rank and file Republicans and Conservatives. I'm going to show you exactly why the rank and file are so dumbfounded as to why they keep losing elections, and I'm going to show you why Americans see Republicans as Democrats who don't want to help anyone. I have the answer to the problem of losing elections. Listening yet?

 

Why is our message not resonating?

 

To be blunt, we Republicans and Conservatives have been abysmally inconsistent in our messaging for years, which only helps Democrats in their attacks and continues to make the American people less and less likely to trust us. Most Americans don't see an alternative in Republicans because most Americans are not out actively looking for that alternative, which you have to do to get past the lies and the spin. We keep hoping they find us and find our principles while the left continues to twist our words and lie about our intentions. You can talk all you want about the "uneducated electorate" (which I've done many times), but at some point you have to stop whining and start finding ways to succeed DESPITE the obstacles in your way. Republicans aren't doing this. They stand idly by complaining (again, I’m guilty of it too) while Democrats continue to tell Americans what they want to give them "to make their lives better". That message is attractive to people, and "Hey we need to end the free stuff and you need to work harder" is not. We need to change that message. It’s NOT our message, but a lot of people think it is and we have utterly failed to show them otherwise. I agree wholeheartedly that we need an electorate made up of informed, self-reliant citizens, but when we say it like that and stop short of an explanation for WHY it's better for them, their families and their communities, the real message gets lost in a haze of "we want to take your stuff and make you work for it". The way Republicans talk about Conservative ideals comes across exactly like that, and the response is always "well if it wasn't for the media, the liberal professors and the nanny state policies, you'd understand". No dammit! We need to quit the "you WOULD understand" bull and start SHOWING people what we're really talking about so that they DO understand.

 

Here’s a key point I think most Republicans are missing:

 

The Democrats’ position rarely needs to be defended, because most of the time it sounds instinctively good on the surface, whether by accident or design- free healthcare, higher minimum wage, amnesty, more Social Security spending, “give peace a chance” etc. If it sounds good, people don’t ask too many questions, maybe because they don’t want to be let down and maybe because they’re only concerned with the good and don’t care about the bad. However, the details beneath the surface of Liberals’ plans are where things fall apart, so why would they explain more than they have to? I can tell you this, Democrats have mastered the art of “It doesn’t matter what IS true, all the matters is what you can convince people is true”. Now, Republicans on the other hand subscribe to ideas that often sound instinctively negative on the surface- lower corporate taxes, tougher immigration laws, entitlement reforms, even approving the Keystone oil pipeline to name something specific. But when you get into the details, Conservative ideas make much more sense than what the Democrats propose. You just have to get those details out there into the hands of the public. Yet, Republicans stick to the surface and won’t show people the best part of their ideas- the details- for fear of having their plans eviscerated before they have a chance to be seen by the American people. That just makes people less willing to give our ideas a chance because it looks like we’re hiding something when we’re not. At the same time, Conservatives and Republicans don’t do enough to challenge Liberals and Democrats on the details of their own ideas. If we did, the American people would have known before the 2012 election that they could not truly keep their plans or their doctors. That combination of 2 major failures is huge factor in why the Conservative message neither reaches nor resonates with much of the nation. It’s why we keep losing elections. That is what we have to change. We have to change our entire approach and give the people something DIFFERENT. We need to give them a real choice between the bad ideas and the good ones, and we need to get specific!

 

Look at it from this angle:

 

If you got to choose your new boss, and that boss was going to have TOTAL control over you and everything you can or can’t do at work (which is exactly how many Americans see government and politicians’ power in their daily lives), would you rather have Boss Number 1, or Boss Number 2?

 

Boss Number 1

 

-Tells you everything you want to hear (positive)

-Gives you “free” stuff (positive)

-Tells you everything they do is to make your life better (Plausible)

 

Boss Number 2

 

-Tells you what you NEED to hear (negative) but won’t explain why that’s better

-Tells you free stuff is inherently bad for you (negative) and won’t explain why

-Tells you everything they do is to make your life better (Illogical)

 

Do you see it now? While many of you might choose the latter, I think it's safe to say most Americans would say the former. When you get down to the basic logic of it, "I love you all and I want to give you free stuff" just sounds a lot better than "I love you all and I want you to work hard to buy stuff for yourself". Why? Because this isn't 1776, it's 2014. In America today we have an electorate that needs to hear things a certain way, and if you don't explain your platform right, they will stop listening and vote for the other guy. Too many Conservatives and Republicans assume that the value of hard work and self-reliance is apparent to all, but IT'S NOT. That's why we need to shift from "work harder" to "this is why hard work and self-reliance are better philosophies than waiting for the government to do something for you..." Many of us understand the need to really dig deep and explain exactly why our policies will benefit every individual, but the Republican leadership and much of the party as a whole is stuck on stupid. They keep regurgitating the same one liners people understood and really got behind 30 or 50 years ago (I’m guilty there too) instead of looking for new ways to explain our beliefs and our policies to a constantly changing American citizenry.

 

Don’t believe me? Consider the fact that Republicans have been pushing the exact same policies as Democrats for decades, and without most people in the party even realizing it. Both parties have been peddling the argument that government is the solution to all of our problems. To their credit, Democrats will at least tell you up front that they feel government is the answer. Republicans will go on six ways to Sunday about the evils of big government, then pivot the other direction to pitch legislative “solutions” to everything they disagree with, ignoring any option that does not involve politicians and bureaucrats coming up with a bill to pass on their own with no input from the private sector or the American people. That's what Democrats do! Think about it- whether we're talking about taxes, healthcare, education or anything else you can think of, the Republican solution, just like the Democrats’ solution, is to have politicians and bureaucrats design a convoluted bill that they refer to as a “solution” and then have politicians vote it up or down. There’s no advice or guidance from the private sector, and no chance for the American people to have a say in the matter. Now, does that sound like a market-driven, small government, liberty bolstering method of governing, or does it sound more like big government in sheep’s clothing? If you said the latter, congratulations you’re a free-thinking American!

 

We Need The Private Sector

 

It’s a blaring fact that we can’t get Congress to agree on a damn thing. Even when one party has total control, all we can get out of them is fighting and stalling, and when something does make it through the backdoor of the lion’s den, millions of people have their insurance plans cancelled and 1/6 of our economy ends up in shambles...for example. We elect Senators, Congressmen and the President to craft and enforce policies that better the nation, then they turn around and install thousands of bureaucrats (who are by no means accountable to the people) to write thousands of regulations and statutes that turn even the simplest of laws into incoherent garbage that does nothing more than make life harder for you and me. To top it off, they lace our laws with pork spending to line their own pockets, bolster their approval ratings and pave the way to early retirement and infinite pensions, ALL ON OUR DIME, while we stand by powerless to change any of it. It’s blatant corruption, yet we just let it happen. It’s got to stop, and WE have the power to stop it, if we stand up and stand together. The answer lies with the people!

 

When I came to the realization that all this time Republicans have been doing exactly what we condemn Democrats for, I started thinking about what a non-big government solution to something like healthcare or taxes should actually look like. I started wondering how the private sector could become involved in the process. I finally decided that we need a way to completely remove unelected government bureaucrats from the design phase of legislation, increase the influence of private sector individuals and businesses (because I'd rather have teachers designing education bills and hospitals designing healthcare bills than politicians), and at the same time give the American people a say in the process. And that’s when it hit me. What 2 things have always been the drivers of innovation? What motivates people in the private sector to create a new, better product that meets the needs and demands of consumers? Competition and incentive. THESE, my friends, are the keys to evolving from a nation of government only solutions that strangle liberty, crush economies and make success harder for all of us to attain, to a nation of private and public sector collaboration that challenges and incentivizes people to find the solutions that we as a nation want and need. These two concepts can take us from “it can’t be done so here's what you get instead" to “finally, the solution we’ve always wanted!” It’s the missing link between what Congress is willing to admit is possible and what truly is possible. Competition and incentive will be the fuels that propel us from polarizing government gridlock to real solutions that help ALL Americans achieve their dreams!

 

So right about now you’re probably either thinking that I’m a moron or a flake or that I’m likely the most naïve person you’ve ever encountered. I get it. What you've heard so far sounds very idealistic and naïve on the surface, especially with no details for support. But give me the benefit of the doubt for a moment, and hear me out. I’ll give you some basics first, and then go over some specifics.

 

What Can Be Done?

 

So how do we keep government around to perform all of the duties enumerated in the constitution, yet remove the partisanship, the stalemates and the political corruption from the process of creating and passing legislation to fix big problems? As I said earlier, you bring in the private sector. How you ask? Let me give you the thought process that made me realize what we need to do:

 

1. We can’t get the government to fix our problems, and whatever “solutions" they do come up with leave millions out no matter who’s in charge.

 

2. The problem is partially partisanship, partially corruption, and partially the severely limited pool of minds tasked with designing policies.

 

3. We need to remove the partisanship and corruption, and increase the size of the pool of minds designing solutions to the country’s problems.

 

4. The more people you ask for ideas, the better the chances that you’ll get a working plan that addresses the wants and needs which must be addressed.

 

5. We also need to involve the American people and increase the accountability of our government to the people.

 

6. We need to remove assumptions and look for ways to get all of the good things we want and eliminate all of the bad.

 

7. Competition and Incentive will provide the stimuli needed to spark the creativity and the genius of private citizens.

 

8. So, let them compete!

 

You might be wondering "how the hell can a government so inept and corrupt as ours possibly find such “perfect" solutions to the problems our country faces?" Well the short answer is, THAT is impossible. Let's stop wasting time and effort trying to get government to fix anything. We can and must become the change we want to see in our nation. First, we need to un-convice ourselves of the absoluteness of whatever plans or ideas we've seen to this point. We need to stop making assumptions as well. We have to stop assuming that there is NO way to improve the business environment, lower taxes AND raise wages. We need to stop assuming that we CAN’T help the poor, elderly and sick without forcing others to pay for it. All assumptions of any kind need to go out the window, and we need to tap into the minds of our population to FIND OUT what is possible rather than hanging our heads and accepting defeat. We need to look for new plans, and we need to stop limiting our pool of input to politicians and bureaucrats. These people can't even pass a budget once a year, so why do we continue to task them, and them alone with creating plans to fix America's problems? Hybrid ideas that combine the good intentions of Liberals and Conservatives, plans that allow the individual to succeed based on their own merit AND allow for the care of the truly needy, ALL without costing taxpayers a dime, those plans will never come from DC. But they can, and will come from the private sector. I've said in the past that the private sector can do ANYTHING better than the federal government. I've also said that in this advanced age of technology and thought, there's no excuse for declaring that we "can't" do something, just because no one has found a way to do it yet. And I've also said that it's inherently counterproductive to actively limit your choices for people who can come up with solutions by ignoring those who aren't in government or don't subscribe to your ideology or whatever other arbitrary criteria you happen to be using to choose the people who are designing solutions to the problems we face. If you consider these 3 points, the solution I've come up with is so obvious it's a damn shame no one has tried it or even suggested it before now. Instead of leaving our economy, our education system, our healthcare, our retirements and everything else up to politicians and unelected bureaucrats, let's give the private sector, and the American people, some skin in the game. Let’s use competition and incentive to our advantage...

 

I think of it this way: We waste billions upon billions of dollars each year on frivolous studies and unnecessary donations to pet projects and foreign aid to countries that do not deserve our help, and at the same time Congress give us nothing to fix problems we have been dealing with day in and day out all our lives. How about instead of wasting taxpayers' money, we offer that money as a prize in a competition for designing a plan to solve a problem, ask Americans to give us their ideas, and let the designer(s) of the best idea earn a reward for their intellect? It just makes far better sense than hoping Congress will magically abandon ideology and their pursuit of a page all to themselves in a yet-to-be-made textbook. If we offer say $10 million, for example, for a healthcare plan that gives us low cost insurance, lower cost care, and higher quality care while simultaneously NOT forcing Americans to buy things they don’t want, allowing people to keep their plans and doctors, adding $0 to our debt AND reducing our deficit, I’d say that’s $10 million well spent! Obviously you’ll never get a plan like that from our pessimistic, ideological politicians, but someone out there in the private sector has the mindset that will deliver such a plan. It might be one person, it might be 2 or it might be twenty five, but somewhere out there, in the mind(s) of some American(s), exists the ability to come up with that plan. We just have to ask for their input and offer them that incentive. The same goes for a tax plan, an education plan, for entitlement reforms and so on down the list. All we have to do is define the rules of the competition, open it up to everyone in America and offer a reward for the plan that does what we need it to do. It makes sense because we would have input from millions more people, with millions more perspectives, most of whom are not motivated by politics, power or glory. It literally opens up millions more options! Wealth is a damn good motivator, and if you define the rules well enough, that wealth will incentivize people far beyond what ideology could ever do. It would motivate a solution that actually works, rather than one that promotes a particular agenda and doesn't address the whole problem (or creates entirely new ones)-which is all we ever get from Congress, regardless of who controls either house or the Oval Office.

 

Basically, we would set the parameters for the end results, like "Low cost healthcare that 100% of Americans have access to but that does not force ANY American to subsidize another…” Then, we open up the floor to competition, by offering a cash prize to the individual, team, town, state or company that designs the solution that meets ALL criteria and is chosen by the American people. Now you have millions of people working on the plan and otherwise wasted taxpayer dollars will now be well spent on incentivizing our nation to help us find solutions to the biggest problems of our day. It’s Capitalism at its finest! And here’s an important note: This plan is an example of a Conservative alternative to the big government way of doing things. It’s a demonstration of our ideals. It takes the hypocritical way Republicans have done things in the past and turns it on its head. Instead of government designing, passing, implementing and enforcing what they think is best, American citizens get to design and choose the plan that they truly want. It puts power back into the hands of the people and shows our commitment to reducing the size and scope of government. This plan is different from anything ever tried before, and it is a far cry from the “ram it down their throats, I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone" tactics of the Obama administration. We need a real plan, with details, that isn't the same garbage DC has been pushing for decades, and this plan is all of those things.

 

The Breakdown

 

To start the process rolling, we use tax dollars wasted each year by Congress. We spend upwards of $3 trillion a year, and we waste billions (conservatively). So, let’s take that wasted money and put it to some good use. Once we start implementing real fixes, we will start to see the waste, AND the spending in general, dwindle down (especially once we tackle the big ticket items) allowing for the annual budget to include allotments for future incentives. Here’s my rough outline for the process:

 

1. We go through the budget line by line and identify every single dollar that is not essential to sustaining our country, cut the items that we are wasting money on, and divert that money to a pool from which winnings will be drawn. With the amount we waste every year, we could put that sum in a generic savings account and generate enough interest to sustain this program if we wanted to! We’re not going to cut or alter ANY of the biggest spending items, like Medicaid and Social Security, at least not at first. That will be addressed later on using the rest of this system (stick with me…)

 

2. Next, we devise a list of all of the major economic and social concerns that need to be addressed (jobs, education, healthcare, poverty, entitlements, taxes, regulations, upward mobility and so forth…). We’ll need to put them in order of importance based, at first, on their effect on the economy (I say the economy comes first because we need to get the economy growing and producing and get people back to work so that we can keep revenue flowing and ensure that we will be able to sustain this system. Once we get the economy on a booming growth path, we can turn our focus to long term problems, like Social Security and Medicaid, healthcare, education, and social issues).

 

3. We take each of those categories, and define what needs to change, improve, or disappear in order for the problem to be FIXED- not held over with a Band-Aid and not put off until after the next election. That means we ask Liberals AND Conservatives what is wrong with our education system, for example, and compile a list of fixes (teachers don’t earn enough, poor schools don’t have ample resources, kids don’t get to choose where they learn, bureaucracy, unions, etc.). Then we define the parameters of the competition to include EVERY good thing that everyone wants, and to eliminate ALL of the bad things we currently experience. So we would include things like updated resources, more challenging curriculum, the ability to attend the school you want, more pay and incentives for teachers and so forth, but also include provisions for eliminating problems that currently exist and that may come from instituting the fixes mentioned, like the negative impacts of standardized tests and finding a way to remove unsuccessful teachers that doesn't offend the teachers unions (I know you’re instinctively thinking “That’s impossible" but remember, we’re throwing out assumptions and adding millions of minds to the pool of ideas here, don’t call the game before we throw the first pitch!)

 

4. Now we get to the fun part. We enlist the help of EVERY man woman and child in America (That’s right, I’m not leaving anyone out because that will only limit the chances of success). Even politicians and bureaucrats will be able to submit ideas, but ALL plans must be reviewed and considered. If we end up with 10,000 submissions and only bureaucrat-designed plans make it through to the final decision process, then we’ll know someone isn’t doing their job. We set the parameters, set the incentive and set the deadline, then open the floor for submissions.

 

5. Next, we compile all submissions and task the applicable Congressional committee(s), the applicable Cabinet agency or agencies, and a panel of private sector experts in the applicable field(s) with sorting, reviewing and analyzing each plan for these criteria:

 

a. Does the plan address AND meet EACH criterion that needed to be met?

 

b. Does the plan violate the Constitution in any way (SCOTUS will be asked to weigh in here)?

 

c. Does the plan have any negative effects on the American people?

 

d. Does the plan have any foreseeable unintended future consequences at all? (These criteria will be key because as we've seen from the last 5 years of Obama, unintended consequences can severely damage people's livelihoods)

 

e. Will the plan actually work in practice (as opposed to only on paper)?

 

f. Can the plan be implemented without causing undue social or economic harm to Americans?

 

ALL of this review period will be broadcast live and uninterrupted. It will be recorded and archived for transparency and record keeping, including the process for choosing the panel of experts. For this process, we would ask the top firms in the field(s) for recommendations and then appoint 5 people to the committee with a vote of the applicable congressional committees (Senate AND House). A 3/5 vote of each applicable committee will be required to confirm an appointment. In the event that a committee cannot come to an agreement on appointments, the head of the applicable Cabinet agency can temporarily appoint someone until the Committee can agree on an applicant(s).

 

6. Next, ALL submissions must be posted to an online database for a minimum of 90 days (We’ll need access for those who don’t have access to a computer, as well as for those who cannot physically use one but are of sound mind and capable of voting. Local libraries would be a great option). ALL plans will be permanently archived and kept accessible forever, for transparency and for historical reference. If you send in a submission that meets all of the before mentioned criteria and it does not get posted, then Congress and all others involved will be docked 5% of their yearly pay and the sum of those penalties will be added to the incentive for the project (and the submission will be posted promptly). Politicians and bureaucrats are more protective of their wallets than their campaign donor lists, so that ought to ensure no submission is selectively "missed".

 

7. Next, a panel of 5 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and 5 private sector experts (the previously appointed pool) will narrow the field to 5 or so choices, based on the analyses done before the plans were posted. This will allow the public to see ALL choices submitted, as well as the finalists, so that patterns of favoritism and corruption can be spotted outright and dealt with accordingly.

 

8. At this point, the American people will be given a say with a vote. We’ll open the voting up online as well as in polling centers, where citizens will be able to vote online with the help of poll workers. You must have a valid, government issued social security number to vote (we can have the photo ID debate later). Every Social Security Number gets one vote. Once that SS number has entered a vote into the database, that SS number will be closed out for that plan’s vote (that individual competition). In order to avoid the government keeping tabs on who voted for what, the online system will need to be built in such a way that the vote is recorded and the SS number is verified via the Social Security Administration without the two being traceable to each other. The idea is to have the two linked, so that you must enter a vote AND a SS number before the vote can be counted, but not linked in such a way that it could be determined what vote was cast by a given SS number (I’m no techie, so far all I know this is very simple to do, but for all I know it might be very difficult as well, but in any event this the design and build of this system will be vital, so we should make sure to have the private sector handle that as well so we don't end up with another $600 billion website that cannot function).

 

-By the way, this voting system might actually be a viable alternative to photo ID's if done right...I'll save that one for later...

 

9. The plan with the most votes is accepted and the creator will be awarded the incentive money, TAX FREE! I'll say it again, The government will reward the creator of the winning plan with a very large, life-changing sum of money, and they will pay NO TAXES on that money. If two or more plans end up with vote totals within 5% of each other, a runoff vote would be held between those plans. We want to end up with a plan that has the support of as many Americans as possible.

 

10. Finally, we implement the chosen plan. As long as the plan meets the criteria we set, which it must before it can be considered for a vote, the implementation should actually be the easy part. We will enlist the help of the private sector in the implementation of the plan as well, because as we've seen the government cannot be trusted to properly implement anything on their own. Politics and partisanship will always block the way.

 

11. Some other ground rules of these competitions would include but will not be limited to the following:

 

a. If anyone who is involved in either the review or selection process (Congress, other politicians or bureaucrats, the panel of private sector experts, etc.) is found guilty of fraud or corruption in relation to one of these competitions, they will face a mandatory minimum penalty of 1/10 the amount of the incentive offered for the contest in question, and 10 years in prison.

 

b. If Congress fails to meet its deadlines or other requirements for appointments of experts, analyzing submissions, selecting finalists and so forth, each broken deadline will result in a 1% reduction in pay for each day that passes after the deadline before that particular requirement is met, up to and including 100% of their salary for that term in office.

 

Conclusion

 

Now, I realize that this idea is simultaneously fairly simple yet very ambitious, but if you look at the benefits and compare it with the way we do things now, it really does make sense. A lot of the politics is removed from the process because you can’t argue against the specifics of plans (and charge that they're racist or sexist) if the plans haven’t been designed yet and politicians have essentially been removed from the design phase. Those preconceived notions that Democrats rely on to get them through policy debates won't work in this arena, because if they start calling private sector plans designed by every day Americans "sexist" "racist" "homophobic" and "anti-poor" it will quickly become apparent that those baseless arguments are all they have and they will lose all credibility. My plan even offers people who have truly good ideas but no status in life to speak of, the opportunity to earn a reward for their intellect and hard work. It makes a lot of sense as far as giving the people control of our lives, but it’s gonna be very difficult to get our politicians to agree to give up so much power. They’ve spent more than a century stripping as much power from us as they could get their paws around, so convincing them to give it up and hand it back to us will be a battle. It just makes sense to stop leaving our fate in the hands of a few elitists who are no longer accountable to the people, and who fight with all they have to NOT be accountable.

 

I believe this plan is the BASIS for taking the politics and the partisanship out of policy making, and actually fixing our problems. I say it's a BASIS because I am only one man with a few ideas, and I, like all of you, can be limited in what I see. There may be problems here that need to be overcome, and I'm ok with that. I’m completely aware that some will tear it to shreds and call me incompetent or naïve. But we need that debate in order for this to succeed. I want people to tell me what’s wrong with my ideas and point out the holes. That way we can address the problems and fix them. I can’t fix what I don’t see, and we can all be blind to problems with our own ideas. If Congress would admit this then we wouldn't have a need for measures like this. But power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So I say, let’s just do what make sense. You can’t trust the government to investigate itself, regulate itself or punish itself when it does damage to its people, so why do we trust it to check its own programs and policies for inconsistencies and then actually fix them?

 

Now, I want to be clear about the uses for this plan. This is not an uprooting and/or reformation of our system of government. It’s not meant to be used for every policy decisions or for every legislative argument. It’s designed to address our most pressing problems, the ones that polarize the country and gridlock Congress. It's designed to tackle them in a way that balances conservatism AND liberalism, Republican ideals AND Democratic ideals (but NOT socialist or communist ideals!). It's meant to give the people a direct voice, it's meant to remove politics from progress and it’s meant to keep us from ever running into another Obamacare debacle where part of the government forces a complete upheaval of 1/6 of our economy, against the will of the people, with zero votes from the other party, for the sake of achieving a purely ideological end. I don’t want the government doing everything because it doesn’t know everything and it CANNOT be trusted to remain impartial and hold the best interests of we the people at heart. The private sector invented the IPhone, and the federal government created Obamacare. Obviously, if we want innovation, something we’ve never thought of before and something that actually meets the demands we the American people have set, then we need the private sector, not the government. The men and women working in the private sector- scientists, doctors, teachers and entrepreneurs- have the knowledge, skills and experience that we need if we’re going to get anything done, and it defies all logic to leave them out of the process when we try to design policies to address our biggest problems. When you cut out such a large number of minds, for any reason, you cripple your chances of succeeding in whatever it is you’re trying to do.

 

I don’t have all the answers. I will never claim to have all the answers. Republicans don’t have all the answers. We all know that Democrats don’t have all the answers (See the last 5 years…). This obviously isn’t a perfect plan, but it damn well could be, with your help. I don’t care about possibly looking stupid, and I don’t care about what detractors will say. I care about getting America back on the right path, and I believe the minds of the citizens of this nation are the key to achieving that end. This is how we show America what we care about. This is how we show America what our principles can do for them as individuals, and for the nation as a whole. This is the first step in defining Conservatives and Republicans as a better alternative to big government Democrats. I believe that if people are going to listen to the details of our stance on self-reliance, hard work, personal liberty and personal responsibility, it will be because they see something in our ideals that they like and can identify as good for them and their families. If we can give them a plan like this, a true alternative to the DC train wreck they've been subjected to all these years, they'll begin to see the good within our party. So you can look at this proposal and tear it apart, or you can offer ideas of your own that will improve upon a good start to a real solution. You can be part of the problem, or you can choose to be the solution you want to see.

 

I’ve made my choice.

 

What is yours?

 

God Bless.