Bednar, John

Dr. John Bednar, Professor Emeritus of Languages and International Trade

Book Details: A sequel to THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT (IN THE NATION’S SERVICE) should be completed by mid-2019. Any emeritus faculty member wanting a complimentary copy of the completed novel should contact me. I will be glad to give you one.

Published Writings: I’m writing an op-ed article about my conviction that our democracy is in such division and turmoil that we should seriously consider electing many more Independents to Congress, since a recent poll announced that 44% of our electorate consists of Independents. With only two Independents in the Senate and no Independents in the House, less than half of one percent of this segment of our population is represented.

Other Details: I ran as an Independent candidate in the November election … as an Independent, write-in candidate on a budget of zero … for the District 3 seat in the United States House of Representatives. A second conviction in my mind, and in the mind of many others, is that there is far too much money in politics today, corrupting our democratic process in many ways.  My thanks to the votes I received from a few of you who knew. I intend to ask Jeff Duncan to introduce a bill which I call the “Super PAC Matching Gift Bill” which would force all Super PAC’s to donate an additional dollar to public education for every dollar they spend in the state of any candidate they endorse.  A proviso would be part of the bill stating that any state legislature that reduces its budgetary support of education after receiving these windfalls would subsequently be disqualified from receiving further funds, thereby guaranteeing a massive new influx of monetary support for public education. Clemson University could well benefit from this in the future, both in terms of better pre-college public education in South Carolina (and therefore better qualified state applicants) and possible allocation of some of the funds directly to the our state university by the state legislature. I would very much appreciate any and all feedback from all of you on this subject.