We've got to do something as a nation to upgrade our candidates for POTUS no matter the ideology. This just might be the low point in modern American politics.
I don't think it's possible to do this until one or both of the major parties collapses. There's too much vested power at the top this point and the vesting is towards a single dynamic, that being the corporations that run this country. The GOP defends them at every turn, and in fact operates as an agent of the Chamber of Commerce at this point. The Democrats have joined the party over the last generation and they're just as happy to slop at the trough, sucking up the juicy morsels that overflow as the 1% continues outsourcing America.
Bah, people have been whining about this since the two party system arose. I remember Bush I v. Dukakis and people were saying the exact same thing. Somehow, the republic has survived intact. The fact is that anyone inclined to run for the job and seriously contend for it is going to have to have been around long enough and gotten into bed with enough people that they necessarily will have all sorts of political hair all over them. It's the way our system is set up. There really just is no Santa Claus.
We need a viable third party candidate to surface as we get closer to November, not to be elected this year - it's way too late, but to be in the forefront as this election smacks people over the head. Whoever rides in on the white horse would be around every time in the next four years the incumbent exposes him/herself as a useless yammerer for special interests and can begin to lead us in spirit and build support for a successful run in 2020. Side thought: It's ridiculous that the president's salary is still only $400,000. Could it be that this has never been raised by congress in order to make it harder to get a viable nonpartisan elected?
A national drawing. Lucky winner gets to be president or defers because of skeletons in closet to the next person up. Politicians , today, make bad presidents. IMO it couldn't be any worse.
What exactly is it that the President pays for while he's in office? He gets free protection from the Secret Service. He gets free meals complements of the American people. He gets free transportation all over the place. He's not even allowed to carry plastic. Everything he buys when he's on the move goes on a government account somewhere. I guess he's still paying his mortgage wherever he used to live.
I don't believe what he pays for is relevant to what we pay him. In the US we don't get paid based upon our needs but rather on the work to be performed. One would need to go way down the list of Fortune 500 companies and even then may not find a CEO who makes only $400,000 a year. Why should the president make less?
Base the pay on customer satisfaction. Under 50% approval rating u lose 10K a week. Over it you make an extra 10K a week. Over 80% you make an extra 20K a week. Also, would put a rule in where no former president can make a dime on speaking engagements or appearances.
This is maybe a problem with the Fortune 500 companies and not the Presidency? CEO's and executives get paid way too much under our current system because they effectively control their own compensation. They do that by the buddy-buddy board system where the CEO's and top executives of various companies sit on the boards of other companies and set compensation for the CEO's and top executives at those companies. If it was just shareholders sitting on those boards and none of the board members could be peer group members of the executive class then executive compensation would likely be dramatically lower, maybe 10x lower than what it currently is.
