Not are we too obese. I don’t think there’s much room to argue on that one. We’re pretty chunky.
No, my question is more political: Is the USA too big for one president?
It’s should be clear to anyone looking that national elections are not so much about who’s right and who’s wrong, but about who best represents the values that the voters hold…and we’re a diverse people in America!
Personally, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If we were all the same, how boring would that be?
But do the same national policies really work best in New York and Tallahassee? LA and Austin?
When we first came up with the idea of a president, we were 13 colonies. Did our country outgrow our form of government?
I know this is an off-the-wall idea, and will most likely never happen (I’m not saying it should, either), but what do you think?
#1 by portorikan on September 10, 2008 - 10:10 am
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East Side Versus West Side… Texas goes back to Mexico!!
The war is on.
#2 by Gretchen Fagan on September 10, 2008 - 10:16 am
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Actually you pose a great question! And I have no idea how to answer without first thinking outloud and rabbit trailing all over this comment section. All I can really say is you have me thinking.
Gretchen Fagan’s last blog post..My Grandmother
#3 by MrsNateScott on September 10, 2008 - 10:16 am
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very very good point, I’ve never even considered that
MrsNateScott’s last blog post..It’s a………
#4 by Chad Wright on September 10, 2008 - 10:25 am
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Hey, you leave Texas alone
I say one president. Can you imagine if both Obama and McCain were president? The next four years would be exactly like the campaign has been.
“I want to do this.” “No, I want to do this.” “My fellow President is a stupid head.” “My fellow President doesn’t respect the stupid-head constituency.” Blah blah blah. It would *never* stop. At least we get a (too) brief reprieve between election cycles.
Chad Wright’s last blog post..Blogs, ads and 37signals
#5 by JonWesley on September 10, 2008 - 10:26 am
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Great question. To go one further- has America outgrown the idea of being governed at all? How many freedoms do we have now? How many will we want tomorrow? Can we be “governed” effectively anymore?
I’m just sayin’…
JonWesley’s last blog post..Setlists and Confessions
#6 by jonathan on September 10, 2008 - 11:19 am
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Are you a Separatist? Trying to start a Civil War?
And if you think Texas wouldn’t just storm through the country and reclaim all of the US to be a part of the United State of Texas, you’ve never lived here!
jonathan’s last blog post..Powerful Assumptions
#7 by portorikan on September 10, 2008 - 11:34 am
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@Jonathan I’ve lived there, my opinion remains intact.
#8 by Matt Johnson on September 10, 2008 - 11:41 am
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Didn’t we try this once before? I don’t think it ended peacefully.
How many presidents are we talking here? How would we determine their respective jurisdiction? Would each president represent his/her region in the international arena? Would we have a supreme president with power of veto? The questions are endless.
If I’m hearing this correctly, essentially the country would have divided leadership based on divided interest. I don’t see how we could be united, or even agree to disagree on anything. Just look at how contrasting our views are on critical issues that affect us all under the current system (national security, military interest, federal spending, etc.).
This is dangerous territory my friends.
#9 by Clayton Bell on September 10, 2008 - 1:20 pm
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This isn’t a call for rebellion or cessation, but just some out-loud musing…
I look at Europe and those countries are the size of our states. China and Russia are run more dictatorially that I think we’d like the US, but they’re comparable in size.
Maybe this is why people push so hard for states’ rights, because there are very few issues that apply the same to all portions of the country.
I mean, what if you had one standard of money, one military, one standardized road system, but perhaps different education systems, different tax systems, different healthcare systems, etc?
#10 by Rich on September 10, 2008 - 3:27 pm
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From what I am hearing from you Clayton is how important local government is. Our Governors are each states President. The things that you give as examples are things that are up to each state. How we do education, taxes and health care are up to the state. A lot of people realize that the President is important and make sure to vote for one; but yet they don’t realize how important local government is and don’t bother to do the “little” voting.
#11 by Clayton Bell on September 10, 2008 - 3:29 pm
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Great points, Rich. Thanks for joining the conversation.
#12 by Daniel Gilland on September 10, 2008 - 10:22 pm
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I think you’re also addressing the issue whether government is too big or not and where the power of governing should lie.
And I don’t think our country outgrew our form of government that was set up with the 13 colonies. I think it goes back to a basic understanding of what the founding fathers where setting up. They weren’t setting up a national government to run everything. They were setting up a national government to unite the states. The states were to run more like mini-countries rather than states looking to a national government for direction. That all changed though with the civil war (which was all about states rights). Things have been different since then.
And, the reality is that we probably should do a little reading into the events leading up to the civil war. There are some fairly eery commonalities dealing with leadership and there points of view related to todays candidates.
But yeah, interesting thought. You’re asking the question that a few people asked a while back.
I personally wonder if there even is a way outside of the gospel to unite a country in a place like ours.
Daniel Gilland’s last blog post..Jesus was a Communist
#13 by Brian Ayers on September 11, 2008 - 7:46 am
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intriguing question.
I hit comment because I was going to comment about how the problem was not that the country has grown too big its that the Federal government has grown in size, power and influence… but Daniel beat me to the punch.
So I’ll just “ditto” what Daniel said.
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