You are offered the position of Absolute Dictator of the United States for a period of 10 years. You can implement any changes to the Constitution, fire anyone, disband anything, change any law, even have people arrested and imprisoned or executed. True absolute dictatorial powers to remake the nation in the image you desire over the course of a decade.
But the catch is that you personally will be put to death at the end of the decade no matter what. It's the one thing you cannot change, cannot avoid, cannot alter in any way. Even if you do the best job ever, you will be put to death at the end of your term. So no clever 'I would change the rules so I don't' or 'I would flee to another country right before it's over' or other dodges like that. You absolutely will die after the term is over. You in essence will be performing a soldier's sacrifice, but only much more effective and individually focused. Instead of giving your life for your country in the hopes of saving it in the abstract, you personally will be able to actually save it in whatever form you think that takes, but you will absolutely be giving your life for it.
Do you take the deal?
Fuck you. I dissolve NIST and issue an edict redefining the length of a year to be a period of 10 orbits of the Earth around the sun. It's going to be a long decade.
The honest answer is no. If you have to use absolute dictatorial powers to achieve your goals, they'll probably fall apart shortly after your death. We've seen how the enemy plays this shrewdly. People have to think they're acting of their own free will even when they're not.
But I think you need to clarify one aspect of this scenario: secession. Obviously you have to plan for the power vacuum following your death. Does this bargain get offered to someone else on your death? Do you get to make the offer? Can I spend 10 years looking for / preparing the perfect leader and them appointing them as dictator for life on my last day?
Exactly.
This particular scenario only works based on who succeeds you.
Any one of us could come up with a ten year solution to fix the U.K., or the U.S., but it's what happens AFTER that matters most.
The long march through the institutions wasn't even something that took a decade... it took multiple generations.
The sacrifice for ten years of progress is only worth it if -- as you pointed out -- there is going to be succeeding results that mirror what you've accomplished based on who takes over next, otherwise it's an absolutely pointless sacrifice if everything you've done gets undone once you die.
Bold of you to assume there would be anyone left to succeed me after a decade of Scar-level mismanagement.
I'm thinking there'd be a 1 year gap where people can form political parties & stuff, then have a general election :/ So making a (not literal) clone of yourself wouldn't work.
Now in my case, there aren't going to be many idiots left, so the Public can be trusted for a generation or two.