daydreaming about making unilateral changes to the US
icon: "revolutionary (a gif flipping through 4 photos of me nude in various dancy poses)"
prompt from wanderipity: If you become the President of the USA, what will be the first thing you would change?
Well, I don't see the president as having much power other than as a figurehead. So if I managed to get elected, I'd do weekly lectures on stuff like how to empathize, and I'd make 'public recommendations' and generally use my platform for speaking more than anything else. I'd pardon everyone who was jailed for an offense I thought was ridiculous, like having weed or selling it to adults.
On policy stuff, I'd try to get rid of for-profit prisons and raise the minimum wage to a livable wage. I'd close all military bases not in the contiguous US. If I was magically powerful enough, I'd raise taxes on the rich in such a way that they were encouraged not to pay themselves so much -- for instance, the CEO could keep 70% of their wages if they made less than 90K, but if they made more than that they'd only get to keep 30%. I'd sue evil companies on behalf of the people. I'd make police match the demographics of the area in which they worked, raising wages and advertising as needed to attract the right sort of people, and I'd assign mandatory empathy training to be done on AT LEAST a once-weekly basis (because cognitive empathy can be effectively and easily taught). I'd make state representatives ALSO represent the demographics of their area, and I would re-district all of the counties in the US into a grid based on population density, so that all counties had roughly the same number of people. Chaos, at first, but necessary. I'd assign a minimum income to every adult. I would sue for treason everyone involved in selling arms outside the US for military use (except for those who sell TO the US, them I would break contracts with). I'd decriminalize drugs, homelessness, and sex work. I'd set a massive tax on films and shows who had fewer minority characters than the percent in the US (that means at least 1/2 female characters, at least 1/3 people of color, at least 1/10 disabled people, at least 1/10 queer and/or trans, etc), and I'd use the profits from that for creating free art programs located in poor areas (none in wealthy or middling ones). I'd set a massive tax on businesses that are not accessible and use the profits from that to increase accessibility in government-owned buildings and programs, and I'd set up an accessibility assistance fund for small businesses who couldn't afford to fix their place on their own. I'd set maximum wages for government officials based on average wages for elementary school teachers within the state/city/county they govern (whichever is lowest), and permit some bonuses awarded by the constituents based on how well the constituents thought they were represented (let's see how YOU like a tipping system, shitsops). I'd put prohibitively huge taxes on any wasteful luxury item like owning more than 1.5 car per adult in the household or purchasing a new truck/SUV/hummer/etc without having a farm or other practical use for it, and use the profits to create a better public transit infrastructure. I'd provide a public shaming system for hate crime committers -- if you recorded someone saying something hatefully racist or sexist or ableist or assaulting people in any way, you could submit it with their name and it would be checked for tampering and correct sourcing and then filed, and if more than three incidents were filed then all would be played over public broadcast TV and on certain billboards along highways.
I'd do a lot if it were possible but the US president is more of a figurehead than anything else.