Posted by
HARRY on Thursday, April 26, 2007 2:42:46 PM
“We The People” have clearly made a statement in giving democrats the majority in the House and Senate. “We The People” have indicated our dissatisfaction with the current Administration’s handling of the war in Iraq. The import of these events is the current bill before congress which requires the initiation of a troop withdraw by October 1, 2007. The bill is likely to pass congress only to be vetoed by the President. A veto which would be opposed by a majority of the American people. Assuming arguendo that we as majority are incorrect and withdraw is a mistake, in this so called democracy we call America “We The People” have a right to make a decision even if in retrospect it was the wrong decision. “We The People” should have our opinions our desires and our goals adequately represented by our representatives in congress. This was the intention of our founding fathers. An intention which is apparently being ignored by our government. If as a nation we vote for individuals and give them some mandate with regard to our positions and that mandate can be squashed by a veto of the President, than “We The People” have lost (in even the most minimalistic sense) our ability to obtain proper and adequate representation. When did this democracy turn in to a system of representation in which our leaders impose their personal opinions upon the majority or super-majority of the American people.
The most pressing issue in the failure of our democracy is that “We The People” now lack the basic power to have our desires translated in to action by our political representatives. Did the founding fathers of our government indicate somewhere that our representatives could impose their isolated desires and judgment in place and in stead of ours? The basic principles of this democracy (as envisioned) was the dilution of any potential concentration of power such that the individual will of any branch of government could not be imposed upon us in opposition to our desires. The veto of this bill by the President exemplifies the lack of power “We The People” now have. Our votes apparently have no merit in Washington. Clearly what is lacking in the current form of our democracy is an ability for “We The People” to impose our will on our government by a majority (or even a super majority) of the citizens of this country. Our disenfranchisement is evident when overwhelming public approval in support of one thing or another is transgressed upon by the will and desire of our leaders. “We The People” need a mechanism to seek redress. We need a mechanism to hold our representatives accountable when they ignore our opinions; when they cater to special interest groups and lobbyists; when they make decisions which we find abhorrent. “We The People” need the ability to recall a representative (any representative) we feel is not abiding by his or her sworn duty to represent our wants, our desires and our goals. What we need to include is a mechanism to give “We The People” a CLEAR means to make amendments to the Constitution or create laws on a local or national level. There are simply and verifiable ways in which such a process could allow “We The People” to place an issue which is important to us on a ballot for a vote at any time. A method for “We The People” a simple means to either create a local or national law or in the alternative to remove a representative from office. A simple three step process would insure that “We The People” could impose our will on our government. In lieu of the current from of democracy which permits our government to freely impose it’s will on “We The People”.
I would propose a simple three step process. This three step process could start with a simple petition for change. A step which would require on a local level signatures from citizens of a particular state and on a national level an equal number of signatures from all states or a super majority of states. The number of signatures required to proceed to the second step is open to debate.
The second step would require ballot approval via a quarterly local and national vote. This vote would decide whether a particular issue would be placed on semi annual ballot for a final determination. A simple majority vote would be required to place any issue on the semi annual ballot - either at the local or national level. This would insure that a majority of the people on the local or national level in fact wanted to debate and have heard any issue before our nation.
The third step would be the aforementioned semi-annual vote which would require a super-majority on both the local level and national level to make any respective changes in the law at the state or federal level of government or to remove a member of any state legislature, congress or even the President.
This three step process would provide “We The People” with a means of redress when a super-majority of our citizens desires some change in either the law or the representatives of our government.
Many people will argue that the proposal is unworkable. The simple people of this country, they will say, would (for example) not have the ability to properly translate their desires in to a functioning law. However, I have presented this process in it’s simplest form. In a proper working form, with the additional required bells and whistles, this addition would permit the public the power it needs to over turn legislation, make law and impeach members of local and federal governments.