Back to basics, government-wise: reorganize the Executive Branch according to Constitutional purposes

In the Preamble to the Constitution, the basic purposes of the United States of America are enumerated:

1. Form a more perfect Union
2. Establish Justice
3. Insure domestic Tranquility
4. Provide for the common defense
5. Promote the general Welfare
6. Secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity

So if I were President, I'd reorganize the Executive Branch to fit. Six Departments, or Ministries, or whatever you want to call them, with the appropriate agencies and bureaus rearranged accordingly. Functions that couldn't fit within this scheme would be kicked back to the states, unless we decided by Constitutional amendment that we wanted to add other purposes.

Of course, there would be some very interesting conversations that would have to go into this redesign - what do we mean by things like "more perfect Union" or "domestic Tranquility" or "general Welfare," anyway? But once we were done, we would know that whatever the Federal government was doing was indeed something that it is intended to be doing.

Decentralized power

If I were to be elected to any kind of Federal post (President, House, Senate) I would work for increasingly regionalized governance - a/k/a the devolution of power, or decentralization. By breaking up the concentration of power in Washington DC, I think we could make the system more responsive to local needs.

There's a flip side to this, though - such decentralization could only succeed if it were accompanied by a parallel and proportionate increase in awareness and responsibility on the part of the more local units of governance. Without this, devolution leads us back to the time of squabbling fiefdoms.

For more on this idea, check this out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/opinion/10alperovitz.html

My general economic stance

I'm not a centralized-command socialist, but I'm not a laissez-faire capitalist either. As a Green, I'm distrustful of large government and big business alike, and for similar reasons.

If I had to sum it up in a soundbite or two, I'd say this:

• "The basics are free - and you can work for the extras." The fundamental needs of life - food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, etc. - should be available to everyone. (This follows directly from the Golden Rule on the one hand, and the "inalienable rights" language in the Declaration on the other.)
  
• At the same time, one should be able to work for as many extra goodies as one might want - though we have to evaluate carefully the effects of our "wants" on other people and on the larger environment, and be responsible about the choices we make when it comes to those "extra goodies."
• Neglecting that responsibility eventually - and inevitably - brings negative consequences.

For me, that all follows directly from the Golden Rule. Your mileage, of course, may vary.