We’re gonna need some new laws around here

This edition of shieldWALL is going to do something completely different. We’re going to make this one an “audience participation” essay.

What I’m proposing is a list of new laws that will help us clear away the stain from the Donald Trump presidency and make sure nothing like that can ever happen again. I’ll start it off with my ideas and then everyone out there who reads it can add their own thoughts. In short order, we should have a complete legislative agenda that we can hand over to the new Congress after the 2018 mid-term election.

So here goes…

(1) First off, the obvious. We need to abolish the Electoral College. I live in a deep red state that was going to vote for Trump regardless of what my wife and I checked on our ballot. In other words, we contributed to Hillary Clinton’s margin in the popular vote but did nothing to actually elect the president. Our votes for president didn’t really count.

The same can be said for Republicans in California and New York and Democrats in Mississippi and Alabama. If we’re going to live by the one-man, one-vote doctrine, then all ballots must contribute to the winner of the election. The Electoral College has got to go. If that takes a Constitutional amendment, then let’s get the ball rolling now.

(2) Next, every candidate for president must submit to a comprehensive psychological evaluation by a panel of qualified doctors. This would disqualify, say, any candidate found to be a shallow, childish, vacuous, narcissistic, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist con man tax evading sexual predator who’s also a pathological liar with dangerous, Fascist-inspired ideas and a probable mental illness.

Poor Thomas Eagleton was ruled out as George McGovern’s running mate simply because he was once treated for depression. How far we’ve come that now fully half of the country is suffering from depression because of the man who was elected president.

(3) Third, all candidates must release any and all tax returns. No excuses. Period.

(4) Candidates must truly divest themselves from any business interests that pose a conflict with their duties. Failure to do so by Inauguration Day is not subject to debate and will result in automatic removal from office. Said person will not be inaugurated with a wink and a promise.

(5) Presidents will not have absolute pardon power. Any president who wants to pardon himself or any member of his family or staff for crimes against the government must put the issue to a vote of the people. And good luck with that.

(6) We must overturn the law that says a president can’t be charged with a crime. Are you kidding me? Who came up with this idea? This means that Trump actually could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not be arrested. An amendment to this law would do away with diplomatic immunity that allows really bad people from other countries to get away with all kinds of criminal activity.

(7) And finally, we need term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court and finance reform so that no one can contribute anonymously and corporations are no longer considered “people.”    

That’s what I got straight off the top of my head. Please leave a comment here or on Facebook and tell me what laws you want to see passed. I’ll make sure the complete list gets to Washington.