Big Brother: Election Edition

Big Brother—the Election Edition


Let’s turn the tables on the government.
Instead of carefully scripted and planned, utterly meaningless “debates” where the candidates show off their skill in filling the air with words while saying nothing, let’s put them in a house together for 6 months and see how they manage.
Politics is managing the polity, right? What better way to see how they’ll lead?
And far more entertaining—and less expensive—than the current process. Let’s see what kind of character they really have, what they’re really made of.
But please, let America set the challenges—not the sadists at CBS. Slop? Swimming through honey, then breaking open feather pillows—the July 15, 2008 episode—tar & feathers indeed! I stand by the sadist comment.

Are you ready? Big Brother, the election edition. The winner gets to be President, the runner up, V.P. (This is closer to the result the Founding Fathers had in mind. Remember, the 2 Party system is not in the Constitution.)

Give them a Hispanic (or Asian, or black) housekeeper for the first week. Watch how they treat the help. See if they learn anything—because next week, they’re on their own!

Have the Head of Household assign cleaning chores. Running a household is a lot like running a country. Give the house a weekly budget, and have them stick to it.

Can the candidates eat nothing but what comes from the Food Bank for a week, or will they try to call out for gourmet pizza in the middle of the night? Who is America’s favorite?

Have the challenges relate to the Cabinet Posts. Institute field trips—for education, instead of a visit to an inner city school where things are going well, have them spend a week at a school with problems—then a week at the other school. Live with a host family. Attend meetings with real people and classroom teachers instead of administrators.

In fact, I think it should be a requirement for every member of Congress and the Executive Branch to live, with their families, on minimum wage for six months. Then see what kind of laws get made.

Challenge: you slipped and fell while mopping the floor. You have no health insurance. What do you do for treatment? If you miss work to go to the health clinic—you can’t afford a regular dr. visit, so you have to miss a whole day to go to the low-cost clinic—your paycheck will be down that much—let alone if they say you should miss more work—and you’ll have to miss your car insurance payment, which means you’ll have to drive without insurance, because you live in a town with not very good mass transit—if you take the bus, it takes an extra 1.5 hours to cross town—each way! And no one’s there to watch your kids when they get home from school…
Challenge: dye your skin black and walk around town for a day.

Challenge: live for a week in the barrio, where you don’t understand the language. How will you eat? How will you get people to help you?

Challenge: a week in rural America, outside the cities.

Challenge: spend equal time on the West Coast and Washington D. C.

Challenge: spend equal time in the “red” and “blue” states.

Challenge: spend a week as a hospice volunteer.

Challenge: spend a week with a soldier; a week with a soldier’s family.

Welcome to the real United States of America, candidates.

Real Democracy…it hasn’t been tried yet.