Marlin Thompson, who lives just over the line from Roanoke County in Boones Mill (the first house into Franklin County says Thompson) is a 78-year-old retired engineer with some strong views on how the federal government should be run. So strong in fact that Thompson, the holder of six patents (he’s working on a seventh, which has something to do with golf balls) has written and released a book, available only as an “e-book” now.
A Benevolent Dictator: Restoring America to Primacy and Prosperity in One Year is all about taking a chain saw to the government – abolishing the IRS, installing a fair tax, making illegal drugs legal and taxing them (“go buy them at CVS”), shortening the campaign season drastically and lengthening the terms of office for U.S. Representatives in Congress, so they are not campaigning every two years. Available only for Kindle-type devices at Amazon.com for $4.00, Thompson hopes to have a print version available soon.
He did give one printed copy to Susan Allen, the wife for former U.S, Senator George Allen, who is running against Tim Kaine for that same office in a duel of ex-Governors. Thompson is sure that George Allen has seen his manifesto by now.
A self-described ultra-Conservative and a Constitutionalist, Thompson said, “the last four or five years, [and] the size of government…and the national debt,” were his motivation for A Benevolent Dictator. He cites (and uses for cover art) pictures of General Douglas McArthur and a statue of Israel’s King David (1010 B.C.-979 B.C.) as examples of strong yet fair dictators who guided countries through tough times.
McArthur was the “absolute dictator of Japan,” after World War II, even helping to rewrite the war-ravaged country’s constitution, yet they stood “ten deep in the streets,” and cried when he left, according to Thompson, who is currently working on a book about Norwegian homesteaders in his native state of North Dakota.
Thompson said a benevolent dictator here could make the changes needed in America in one year, then hand the country back to a chastened president and the Congress. He is against government stimulus (“let private industry do it”) and would replace most if not all taxes with a national sales tax, which he labels as a much fairer way to collect revenue. “That way nobody could cheat. That would do more than anything else.” Legalizing drugs and taxing them, an admission that the War on Drugs has failed, said Thompson, would also put murderous drug cartels out of work.
Social Security would remain intact but the national sales tax would fund it, not a payroll tax. Thompson said bold ideas like his – and many others who have championed a fair tax – don’t get very far because “Congress would have to give up power,” something they are resistant to. “Then there wouldn’t be any favoritism or ‘gimmees’ to different groups.” Lobbyists would not be allowed in the capitol either: “K Street would be empty,” declares Thompson, who said Mitt Romney is closer to the president we need to make these changes than incumbent Barack Obama.
He also favors an eight-year term limit for any person elected to Congress, including two four-year terms for senators. Everyone except military leaders and those in the State Department would have to turn in their resignations when a new presidential term was in place, assuring that career bureaucrats that may not be doing the job adequately wouldn’t be entrenched. “They don’t care,” noted Thompson.
He’s critical of the offshore tax shelters that Mitt Romney has been accused of using with his millions; Thompson in fact would get rid of those shelters. Thompson would also privatize Social Security, noting that in countries like Chile where that has happened, ordinary people are now “millionaires,” in retirement. “If they could privatize Social Security it would solve that problem.” The government would collect the money but it would go to private investment managers, in his model.
Health care would also be in private hands only, since competition drives costs down. The system would work better if the “unbelievable shackles,” placed on health care providers were taken off. Tort reform – reducing a doctor’s liability – is part of the Thompson plan.
Thompson would set up the federal government like the military, getting rid of a structure where he says 32 people now report directly to the president. “Half of them are those czars that weren’t elected by anybody. You can’t manage 32 people – that’s insane.”
Thompson, who once made missiles for the Navy as a contractor, cut his political teeth working on the Barry Goldwater for President campaign in 1964. His new e-book, A Benevolent Dictator, certainly provides plenty of food for thought.
See more about Marlin Thompson’s book at abenevolentdictatorthebook.blogspot.com.
