Since it is St. Patrick’s weekend, I decided to go to Ireland.
You might say I have family connections. Robert Rogers, Will’s great granddad, left Ireland in 1800 and immigrated to America (legally). He wound up in the western part of Virginia, now West Virginia. He fell in love and married Lucy Cordery, a half-blood Cherokee.
Ok, that’s the Will Rogers family connection to Ireland. For myself, my mom, Hazel Lowther, grew up a few miles from Ireland.
I can see that you may be confused. The “Ireland” I visited this weekend is a wonderful little community in the middle of West Virginia. It is a few miles south of Weston and the popular Stonewall Jackson Lake Resort.
Every year Ireland hosts the “Irish Spring Festival” which typically starts on the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day and ends with the Vernal Equinox, the beginning of Spring. Dozens of activities for everyone from 8 to 80 (or more accurately from a few months to 105). Includes a costume contest, Irish Road Bowling, square dancing, a 5K race/walk, duck race, Bingo, and Gospel Sing.
Tonight, I want to highlight their election of a King and Queen because it gave me an idea how to add interest and value to our national election for President. I read a prediction that more than $3 Billion will be spent on the Biden vs. Trump election. And usually, the one who raises the most money is the one who wins. Not always, but if you don’t believe me, ask George Soros.
The Irish Spring Festival lines up 3 candidates for King and 3 for Queen and you vote by donating in the name of your favorite candidate(s). The man and woman with the most money are crowned King and Queen for a year. This year more than $7000 total was collected and all of that money, 100 percent, goes to the upkeep and improvements on the Ireland Community Building.
Now, that’s a pittance compared to $3 Billion, but after the 2024 election is over, I bet your community won’t get even a dollar of it. It will all go to advertisers and consultants.
So, my idea is that each candidate for President (Trump, Biden, and third-party candidates) would have an official bank account to collect all the “votes.” The “votes” could be cash, check or credit card, even Bitcoin. Anyone could freely contribute a dollar, or hundreds or thousands, kinda like we do now.
With no money for advertising, the candidates would have to earn their time on TV and radio news and talk shows by having common sense ideas for the betterment of the country. They could be interviewed for newspaper articles. We would have televised debates. Instead of only 2 or 3, they would be held every two weeks starting after Labor Day. Now, we don’t have all the details worked out, but you get the idea.
At midnight Election Day, November 5th, the one with the most votes (money contributed) would be declared President.
Here’s the best part, regardless of whether your favorite candidate won or lost. The (estimated) $3,000,000,000 will be divided up across the country. Communities and neighborhoods would write a proposal for a local need. For example, the Ireland community might request $50,000 for new and bigger kitchen equipment because they serve thousands of meals during the Festival and other events during the year. Cities would not be allowed to apply, but neighborhoods in a city could request money for local needs, such as a new roof for the elementary school. Folks would be expected to volunteer their labor, bringing the neighborhood closer together for a common cause.
Will Rogers came up with a plan for electing the President. His was based on a lottery. I feel about my plan the same way Will did about his after he shared it on his national radio show, May 5, 1935, “I’ve looked the whole plan over, and I can’t find a flaw in it myself because I haven’t showed it to anybody else. The poor would be for it and the rich would be for it and the candidates would be for it. The main thing is it would give a national election the thing they lack now, which is dignity and prestige.”
Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Well, today is the seventeenth of Ireland. Of all the nationalities that have helped to root the Indians out over here, the Irish are the only ones that have made enough impression on everybody till they celebrate their birthday.” DT#1450, March 17, 1931