The Presidential Candidates: Daniel Kingery

In July 2008, Kingery was arrested in Washington D.C. for wearing a sign advertising his candidacy around his neck when entering the National Archives. The authorities considered this form of self-promotion to be illicit soliciting. The incident appears to have intensified Kingery's existing feelings about government in general. He outlines his views below.




Kingery is a high school graduate and former Marine who has owned a variety of businesses over the years. He bills himself as "President of the United States -- Apprentice." He tells Project VoteSmart, "After writing manuscript about how to recognize candidate who would get me to register to vote for them, I listened to several democratic and republican debates when I knew that candidate did not yet exist. I had to become that candidate."

He also pitches himself as "Your Handy-Man President" and has some ideas for "patches" on loopholes in the Constitution that have allowed politicians to abuse their positions. For example: "Loophole #1: Article 4, Section 4 guarantees a "Republican Form of Government." The loophole occurs by not specifying a Representative Republic. In a republic, those elected rule the People; In a representative republic, those elected serve the People.Loophole-Patch: Amend Constitution to state, "Representative Republic form of Government."

Beyond this, Kingery has a six-step plan including a rewriting of the Constitution to re-establish the principle of representative government in keeping with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and a detailed reformation of elections, including popular election (as I understand it) of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Speaker of the House. The plan also includes a revision of the criminal justice system, interpreting the Thirteenth Amendment to mandate forced labor as a nearly universal punishment while eliminating plea-bargaining and professional immunity, but also abolishing capital punishment and any penalty for victimless crimes. Health care reform, education reforms and a detailed social security reform plan are also included.

Kingery will remove U.S. troops from Iraq within 30 days of his inauguration unless the Iraqi people formally request our continued presence. While he's determined to keep fighting against terrorists, he appears convinced that the Iraq invasion was a mistake, whether it was an attempt to capture bin Laden, seize WMD, control oil or force democracy on people. He reduces his foreign policy, with apologies to anyone who thinks he oversimplifies things, to the principles of the schoolyard playground, e.g., "Pre-school Play-ground 101. If you get caught starting the fight or if you get caught as the first person who throws the punch while defending yourself, you look like a trouble-maker."

As a handyman-politician, Kingery applies what he calls a "Domino Effect Problem Solving Technique." "I've identified the corrupted causes common to the most problems; which when corrected, simultaneously solves many of problematic side-effects," he explains, "Domino Effect Problem Solving benefits you with a drastic reduction in the costs associated with providing the services you desire. "

Kingery claims to have campaigned in 28 states, and has used up $15,000, almost all his own money, in the process. His campaign updates, current into this month, are poignant in a way, because he considers himself a success in that he has done what he wanted to do: travel the country, participate in independent campaign roundtable events, and get his message out. He's set up shop on YouTube and MySpace and has more videos than the one I've shown you. While working odd jobs through the remainder of the campaign season, he intends to contact 200 people a day online, hoping he can get some to spread the word. Without exactly endorsing him, I guess I've done my part. Daniel Kingery is another of the self-selected candidates, and with his homepage leading with the story of his July arrest, I feared the worst about him. But apart from the usual inexcusable errors or typos, I was relieved to see someone who at least aspires to thinking seriously about the political situation. As I've said regarding some of his peers, if there were more voters like some of these candidates, we might well have better candidates across the board.