Tommy Chong for President: 7 Policy Proposals
Bernie Sanders has been dismissed for having “pie-in-the-sky” ideas, like free public education, Medicare for all and a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage. Let his critics scowl; Sanders’ supporters like that their candidate thinks big.
Take it from Tommy Chong, who recently endorsed Sanders. Chong spoke with Rolling Stone about why he’s feeling the Bern, and laid out the seven-point platform he’d run on if he were in the race. As president of the United States, “my focus would be on fixing the planet,” Chong says. “That’s what I would focus attention on: on the planet itself, the whole planet.”
Here are the finer details of his plan — his far-out, almost certainly drug-induced plan.
1. Solve Syria’s drought
“I would focus on encouraging Israel to share their sea-line — the water treatment plant. I would encourage the Israelis to share that with their neighbors, Syria. You know, so that Syria could get rid of the drought.”
2. While he’s at it: Solve every other drought
“What I would do if I were president, I would create a pipeline — but not for oil, but for water. So when you have floods in one area, you could service, say, a giant cistern in different drought stricken-areas, because that’s really what’s important: that we save the planet.”
3. Turn the Middle East into a “paradise”
“I would encourage big agricultural companies to go into the Middle East to create employment and industry in the desert… because all you need is water, and then you got paradise.”
4. Scrub the world’s waterways
“And then I would make sure there was a massive clean-up for all the plastic in all the waterways, like the Flint River, and all these waterways that need to be cleaned.”
5. Address “all that stuff that needs to be updated and fixed”
“All the infrastructure that needs to be updated and modernized: Now is the time. We have solar power. We should be able to do that with waste disposal and all that the infrastructure stuff that’s needed: bridges and roads, and all that stuff, and the parks. All that stuff that needs to be updated and fixed.”
6. Merge North and South America
“And I would encourage the North America and South America to merge so you wouldn’t have an immigration problem. You’d have freedom of travel — no borders. No borders. Just, you know, obey the traffic laws and sanitation laws and everybody’s welcome!”
7. Outlaw religious violence
“And on the whole continent, I’d make sure that religion doesn’t in any way create any kind of violent thing. Like, if your religion or your beliefs promote violence against another person, then that’s automatically outlawed. That’s a no-no.”
Very cool, man.