I want to be king of the world, but if not that, than maybe President/King of the United States.  If not that, then perhaps Governor/king of a state in the United States.  Well,  . .  maybe Mayor/king of a smaller town.  If not my town, than maybe President/king of my HOA.  School Board? At least I shall just be king of my own home. Yet even my spouse and teenagers nixed that enhancement of my self esteem. The authoritarian rule of kings just doesn’t work in the cultural psychology of democracy. 

Civilization has just invested a millennium plus preparing the way for reversing the flow of authority as well as governance from the King down to the new collective of “We the People” up.  In 2025 we have a government that wants to reverse that revolution in a four year presidential term. History is not that elastic, and not even close.  But this relatively new desire for a return to authoritarian structures is spread out across the globe. Bearing personal responsibility for the decisions of governance is really quite difficult and it seems, in the age of convenience, there is a desire for a convenient solution to governance. In a time of executive sloth, the door is open for the charismatic personality disorders, to offer themselves as an alternative to democracy. “I volunteer as a king. Go to sleep children, go to sleep. No need to be woke”. 

Modest Proposal for Good

“Keep it simple stupid (KISS)” is a meme that sounded the beginning of this era of emergent kings and spreading executive sloth. It turns out keeping it simple is good only for simple things, and governance is, unfortunately, complex requiring complex thinking merged with the modifying effect of wisdom. As we are finding out, stupid people make a terrible leaders. The basic American civics course was not political 60 years ago. That mandatory civics class described the machinery of the constitution and the rule of law necessary for the reversed flow of authority. This Project recommends that we return to the civics training with a bipartisan description of checks and balances. Once we accomplish an education edge, the lazy citizen dream fueling the KISS meme is dead as far as your vote is concerned. We must work to make our government work. We also must align the facts that navigate our life with our own Constitution. We must educate deeply before we ever open the Constitution for amendment. That would be good. A good watch that runs petty good is much better than any watch you took apart for repair with no clue as to how to put it together again.