Elections should have no consequences. A President elected on a peace platform should choose indefinite war instead.
It’s very important that elections should have no consequences. When the country votes by a solid margin for a President who promised to get us out of Iraq, against an opponent to promised to keep us in indefinitely, the winner must, in the name of national unity, turn around and keep us in Iraq indefinitely.
Otherwise democracy might start breaking out, and then who knows what will happen?
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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