Thinking Magazine #16 12-08-92

Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!

You don't know how glad I am that Bill Clinton got elected President. Things had been looking good all along but I just couldn't believe it till it was over. I thought that before Clinton came out and gave his acceptance speech, he should have had a fat lady sing.

I ended up sending out a total of 6000 letters to the editor. But in spite of getting a phone bill that was about a half inch think it only cost me about $1200 in phone charges. When it comes down to it I'll bet I hold the record for reaching the most number of people for the least amount of money.

Now comes the hard part - actually turning the country around. I think Clinton has a lot of good ideas, but he doesn't have any great ideas. But he's looking for great ideas and I'm trying to find a way to get his attention. I'm looking for great ideas on how to do this. I want to go to Clinton's economic summit. I've written a few letters to him with some ideas. I faxed it to him and sent it UPS Red to the governors mansion in Little Rock. Here's what I'm proposing:

Bill Clinton
Governors Mansion
1800 Center St.
Little Rock AR. 72206

November 12, 1992

Dear Mr. President,

I want to be part of your economic summit.

I heard on the news that you were looking for very sharp people with a variety of backgrounds.

Well, I'm very sharp and I have a variety of backgrounds.

I'm a small business owner (6 employees) of a high tech software lab in Springfield Missouri. I sent out 6000 letters by fax to the editors of 250 newspapers to help you get elected. But the best reason for choosing me to be in the summit is that I HAVE A PLAN to fix the economy.

I want to be involved in fixing America. I'm not looking for a job, but I do want your ear. I'll help for free. I am the kind of guy who is capable of coming up with a plan that will work. I'm not talking about ordinary plans like Perot, Tsongas, and Rudman are floating around. I'm talking about extraordinary plans that involve ideas that no one has thought of. Ideas that take the concept of "brilliant idea" to a new level.

Let me present one of these ideas as a sample. I have a lot more than this, but this shows the kind of ideas I'm talking about. What I'm looking for is to be a consultant and bring you my ideas and hope that you can make them real. I have the ability to come up with the ideas that will work. I'm just a phone call away.

==[ Making America Smarter ]==

What is the biggest item in the national budget? Is it entitlements? Is it the interest on the debt? No! The biggest expense we have is lack of intelligence. Lack of intelligence costs us 2 trillion dollars a year.

"But, Marc," you might say, "How can lack of intelligence be costing us 2 trillion dollars a year when the national budget is only 1.6 trillion dollars?" Of that 2 trillion, 500 million is waste, and the other 1.5 trillion is money we could be making if we were smart enough to make it. Follow me so far? OK, if we had an additional 2 trillion dollars, we would not only balance the budget but would pay off the national debt in short order. It is my belief that if we raised the average American IQ by 5% then we could balance the budget. A 10% increase would pay off the national debt.

So the question is, "How do we make Americans smarter?" I'm glad you asked that question, Bill, because it is simple and cheap and it's something that you can do. What you do as the leader of America is to tell Americans that we are in an intellectual race with the rest of the world. A race that America MUST WIN. That it is the duty of all Americans to show their patriotism by becoming 25% smarter than they are today. And that if we Americans don't become smarter, that we will never get out of debt. We owe it to our children ...... etc. etc.

So much for talk. The next move is to back it up with action. The first thing we need to get is a computer in every home. Computers make people smarter. And to help make that happen you offer a 100% tax credit for the purchase of computer equipment for either business or personal use. We must have computers everywhere because computers enhance the mind and will help get us 25% smarter in a short period of time.

Second, you need to start the "Fiber 2000" plan. The Fiber 2000 plan would place a fiber optic data cable in every business and 70% of American homes by the year 2000. We will create a mental grid where information, and the tools to access information, is available as widely as possible.

The next thing you will need to do is lead the nation in "brain-ups." Brain-ups are like push-ups for the mind. There have to be some mental exercises that people can come up with for Americans to do every morning to make them smarter. We do a little research and find out how to do it. People can write books and flood the bookstore on becoming smarter. They would do this because if you, as a leader, made it an issue of national importance, then you would create the fad. Entrepreneurs and writers would make a mint on filling America's need to become smarter.

Finally, like the Kennedy ideas of the 1960s, you make getting smart the "in thing" to do. You invite people to the white house and give people medals for being smart and improving themselves. You honor people for mental achievement. You create a competition for best inventions; perhaps the company that produces the best patents would get a year of no taxes. You give awards for smartest high school in the country and everyone in the top 2% of high schools get to go to college for free.

When the results from this start to take effect -- and this should happen in less than a year -- we should start to see serious economic growth. Realistically, if you do a good job of this, I think that 15% to 30% growth in GNP per year is obtainable. I sincerely believe that we can balance the budget and pay off the national debt by the year 2000. You will also see other side effects on society. These would include a drastic reduction in crime, drug use, unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. This will expand the tax base.

We would no longer have to deal with the issue of term limits because people would be smart enough to vote all ineffective representatives out no matter how much money they spend. Just think about it, Bill, imagine if Americans were smart enough to figure out when politicians are lying to them. Can you imagine that? Wouldn't that be incredible? Or imagine that the press were aware enough to figure out that the economy is more important than the draft issue and the public demands something more than herd mentality from the press. Or imagine a country where a geniuses are honored the way football players are honored as heroes.

America needs this to happen. And it is easily achievable. There is no doubt in my mind that it will work and that it addresses the core of the problem. And this idea is just a sample of what I can come up with. I have hundreds of ideas and you have the ability to make these ideas real.

I'm just 5 hours up the road or a one hour plane flight away. I am ready to come down there ANY TIME. Please call me.


Dear Bill,

I had breakfast this morning with my newly reelected Republican Congressman, Mel Hancock (Missouri, 7th district). I ask him if he was still interested in the line item veto issue now that you're going to be President. He said yes he was but he believes that you are against the line item veto. According to Mel there are a bunch of Republicans ready to force the line item veto on you if they can.

I don't know what reality they're in but if this is true I'd go ahead and let them force it on you. The line item veto is a good tool for balancing the budget and if they want to force it on you I'd let them feel like they won. Anyway, assuming you want the line item veto you might want to give Mel a call. Mel's a little thick-headed, but not as bad as some of them.

Thoughts for the day. I know you're meeting Sunday with the Democratic leaders. Convince them to go for the line item veto rather than the watered down version (I forget what it's called). The ethics reforms will probably save $100 billion alone over a four-year term. What's going to happen when you take over is that you're going to find a LOT of strange semi-ethical goings on. That's why George Bush is being so sweet to you.

One quick way to stimulate the economy and increase employment is to have a retroactive investment tax credit for business purchasing equipment in 1992. Now if you were to talk about this as a plan now then a lot of companies will make purchases or take the savings and hire new people. You could create a spending rush to get equipment purchased by the end of the year. This rush will spike your short term economic figures fast and give you the credibility you need to get tougher legislation. The sooner the better. If you announced it tomorrow then there's 6 shopping weeks till the end of the year.

It's time to let the Republican party know the game has changed. The new game is to work together and fight over the glory rather than to gridlock and fight over the blame. Republicans who are willing to put America over their party (Democrats too) should get in on the thrill of victory. Those who are like Scrooge (Bob Dole) need to feel the agony of defeat. This is a good time to split the Republicans and guide their party away from the "Dark Side".

Campaign reform is another tool. If you can pass campaign reform so that you and the Congress no longer have to coddle the lobbyist to get reelected, the Congress is more likely to pass tougher laws. I want to see more baby kissing and less butt kissing.

The idea at this point is to build power without selling out. By having broad support you can make the tough decisions that powerful interest groups will resist. If you do real well we might actually see national anti-smoking laws!

Summary:

  1. Line Item Veto
  2. Ethics Reform
  3. Campaign Reform
  4. Retroactive Equipment Tax Credit
  5. Split Republicans with "New Game"
  6. Invite me to your economic summit
So these are the ideas I'm working on so far. The idea now is to get his attention and I don't know how to do that. I'm planning on going to the inauguration. I'll be in Washington the week before. I'm exhibiting at a computer network show (NetWorld) which ends a week before inauguration day.

The Clinton Mandate

Those who lost the election are grumbling that Clinton doesn't have a mandate. Bob Dole says that 57% of the country voted against Clinton. Well Bob, Christmas is coming and you're top candidate for Scrooge. Lets deal with reality here. Clinton not only has a mandate, but perhaps the strongest mandate in recent history.

First of all, it was almost 70% of the country that voted against Bush. I say this because the whole Perot party was created because Americans were unhappy with the way Bush was running the country. People clearly wanted change and that's what Clinton and Perot ran on. Even Bush tried to get in on the "change thing" and tried to convince the voters, "I'm not one of us!"

Clinton beat 6 Democratic challengers and 2 opponents in the general election, one of which had 3 billion dollars. To win against those kind of odds, in the dirtiest campaign in history, is a mandate in my opinion. But for those who still don't agree with me let me just make a point with a question:

Q.) What do they call a candidate who wins an election by one vote?

A.) Mr. President

But more important than having a mandate is that the House, Senate, and Presidency are all controlled by the Democrats. There isn't going to be the usual veto fights that we've seen in the past so a mandate isn't as important a factor like has been in the past.

Republican Party Split

After the election I wrote the following letter and faxed it off to my newspaper list. I also sent a copy to Bob Dole. This is something that a lot of fellow Republicans can identify with.

==[ Open letter to Republican Leaders ]=

Dear Republican leaders,

I'm a Republican, but I voted a straight Democratic ticket. Not only that, but I sent out over 6000 "letters to the editor" by fax to 250 of the nations largest newspapers supporting Clinton for President. I want you to know why so that you don't have to guess about what went wrong with this election.

I found that our party was less than truthful, very negative, and lacked responsibility. I'm offended by the religious right and intolerant Republicans like Pat Buchannan, Jerry Fallwell, and Pat Robberson. I'm tired of the blame game. I'm tired of borrow and waste. I'm tired of WaterGate, IranGate, IraqGate, and dirt. I could go on, but you know what I'm talking about.

We need to get back to traditional Republican values. Less government, keeping the government out of people's private business (pro-choice), basic personal integrity, and fiscal responsibility. Not just giving anti-tax lip service, but being truly anti-tax. These principles are the roots of the Grand Old Party. We have become the party of darkness. We need to get back to our roots!

I am writing this letter because it is time to heal our party. This election has given us the opportunity to fix ourselves. The Democrats have an advantage. If they nominate a turkey they vote Republican. No party loyalty. But that improves them and now they have Bill Clinton who is likely to be one of the finest Presidents in history. If we vote for bad Republican candidates, then how are we going to attract quality leaders to our party?

We need to do what the Democrats did, to rejoin the real world. If we don't get back to reality and come back into the light then the GOP is doomed. I want to make it clear that I will not vote Republican until this takes place. It is my hope that you listen so that we don't end up with a one party system.

What I see happening is that the right wing radicals are taking over the Republican party and the future of the GOP in the balance. The right wing is blaming "moderates" in the party for losing the election. If the religious right is allowed to take over then most of what I call "traditional Republican values" will be left to the Libertarian party.

So, if you're a Republican like I am, you may want to become active in your party. If the religious right doesn't make you feel welcome, get rude with them. One of two things are going to happen. Either the right wing will force the moderates out who will form their own party, or the moderates will force the right wing out who will form their own party. I think the right wing ought to go and not try to pass themselves off as Republicans.

More Them Than Us

One of the reasons Bush lost is that he ran a divisive campaign pitting "us" against "them". Where he made a mistake was creating to many of "them" and not enough of "us".

USA Today ran an article written by Stuart Hoffman of Marion Station Pa. who created the following table of people who the Republicans bashed.

~ Them ~

   Residence of Arkansas (US Census)                    2,351,000
   Members of Congress                                        535
   Lawyers (American Bar Association)                     741,000
   Gays and Lesbians (Kinsey Report)                   18,415,700
   The Press (Census)                                     253,000
   Draft Dodgers (Woodstock + Dan Quayle)                 400,001
   Bozos (Clowns Union)                                     5,400
   Moscow Visitors 1969 (Clinton Campaign)                 50,000
   Single Parents (Census)                             13,774,000
   Lobbyists                                                  450
   Non-Christians (Census)                            113,164,000
   People with AIDS (Washington Univ.)                     77,994
   Ozone People (Sierra Club)                             650,000
   Elvis Fans (Postal Service)                          1,000,000
   Nutty Polsters                                           2,300
   Liberals (ACLU)                                        375,000
   Murphy Brown Viewers                                44,000,000
   Cultural Elite (Motion Picture Academy)                  5,210
   Pot Smokers (NORML Members)                             80,000
   Public School Employees                              2,773,000
   Chicken Farmers                                          3,000
   Sunday TV Talking Heads                                    150
   Jimmy Carter Voters                                 40,831,000
   Bush Economic Advisors                                       3
   Working Spouses                                     58,556,000
   Mario Coumo & Hillary Clinton                                2
   People without "G-O-D" in platform (Dem Convention)      4,928
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   Total                                              297,513,673

~ US ~

   NRA Members                                          2,524,000
   Rich People ($50,000 +)                             12,074,000
   Less the Perots                                             -8
   Osprey Builders (Boeing Corp.)                           5,000
   James Baker                                                  1
   Jim Baker                                                    1
   Sister Souljah/Willie Horton                                 2
   Up with People (common knowledge)                          200
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   Total                                               14,603,216

Gays in Military

This is one of those issues where if you're for it or against it you're not likely to change your mind. Although I find the act of gay sex to be somewhat perverted, my experience is that most all the gays I know are average to better than average people.

I think that when it comes down to it the question is will gays do a good job and not interfere. There seems to be a majority of evidence that indicates it wouldn't be a problem.

Perhaps one way to look at this is to compare it to blacks and women in the military. Women are a sexual distraction to more military men than gays are. There are a lot of people who find blacks more offensive than gays. It would be interesting to compare the number of people who don't like blacks to those who don't like gays.

The real issue is that the military needs to deal with the sexuality of their personnel in a fair realistic way. They need to deal with the problem. Banning gays isn't dealing with the problem. I think that being predominately male and forcing men to live in close quarters without women around, that the military turns a lot of "normal" guys gay.

New Compuserve ID

For those of you who are real observant, you'll notice I have a new Compuserve ID. This is because I now have my own section on Compuserve. I have section 3 of the Novell Vendors Forum. You can get there by typing GO COMPTYME at any prompt.

In the section 3 library is the shareware versions of my software. For those of you who want to check out what kind of software I write feel free to download it. Or, if you don't want to pay CIS charges you can get them off my BBS.

Thinking Magazine Schedule

Well, I've been busy lately. After the election I've had a lot of work to catch up on. I plan to come out with issues of Thinking Magazine more regularly. Now that the election is over, I want to get back into some more intellectual stuff.

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