THE FOUNDATION FOR ALL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

This foundation consists of one nationwide grid of districts from which all other governing emanates. This is practical governing based on no ideology other than that we rule ourselves by using representatives.

The inspiration for this design comes straight out of the philosophical considerations of the Founders. It does not dispute their thinking in any respect. They speculated that these districts be no smaller than 30,000 people. They actually started with 40,000 people, but that size has grown to 700,000 people. Where is the evidence of any studies by anybody that points to an optimum size that gives the best results? Therefore this foundation will arbitrarily use the 40,000 number.

We divide 315,000,000 by 40,000, and create that many districts and that many elected representatives (reps). Call them “local community” or “congressional” districts, or whatever. Those reps become the ultimate rulers of the States and of their Federation.

We consider our States as “sovereign entities,” which charter or license all activities by their sub-entities. States “constitutionalize” their international activities to a federated entity. The one set of reps control their respective state governments and their federated entity.

We are now ready to kick-start the system into operation. This event is so important every two years that it should be an event apart from the other local elections. (This system makes all elections “local.”)

Let’s digress to speculate that the Founders were subtle elitists in that they did not trust the masses beyond their ability to elect reps. The Founders created a three-tier voting system based upon varying degrees of sophistication of the voter. The first-level voter could elect persons for two-year terms. The second-level voter could elect persons for four-year terms. The third-level voter could elect persons for six-year terms. Please keep this in mind as we discuss the elections of all executive officers and the very special elections of senators.

Now, back to kick-starting the system. The freshly elected reps go to their respective state capitols and collegiately elect all the “constitutional” officers of their state. After which, they assemble nationally to collegiately elect a President and Vice-President.

Meanwhile, back in all the counties and/or cities the sub-governments are organizing. States will have constitutionally designated how they shall be organized to choose their state senators. As soon as they are ready, they will choose all the state’s senators. This will be the last step in the people’s election of their state governments.

One more step to completing the election of the national government, is the choosing of its senators. The state governments are now ready to constitutionally (before Amendment XVII) choose their senators who will sit at the nation’s capitol. This nation should no longer tolerate the utter path of destruction Amendment XVII has wrought throughout its governing system. Today’s U.S. Senate is the bad apple that spoils the barrel. Its state-wide, totally partisan election blows away the basic “districting” concept of governing. The districting concept allows the voters of each district to develop their own district attitude which is incorporated in the rep they elect.

The people (their new candidates) can reorganize and adopt the above system only via their state governments. There is absolutely no need for this redundant, contradictory districting mess that is governing us. 

VOTERS AND THEIR DEGREES OF POLITICAL SOPHISTICATION

A republic, by definition, is the bringing together of equal-population districts to form one common government of the reps from those districts.  The Founders were well aware of the districting differences among the thirteen States.  In order to form a more perfect union, their Constitution specified that the States provide their federal government with a grid of such standard-size districts.  And that is exactly what the States did as quickly as possible.

Should the Founders have also instructed the States: “Now, before we do this, let’s equalize our own State Governments’ districting systems to conform with the Constitution’s districting idea.  Our new districts could run the entire federal system we are setting up.  After all, we are simply reorganizing the same people to run a more complex system. We should not need many additional personnel. In fact, our people’s State Governments would be able to operate their federal system simply by electing their State Reps.

“We have structured the Federal Government into a three-level voting system based on the degree of political sophistication possessed by each level.  The grassroots voter will choose the two-year term officials. The two-year term officials will collegiately choose the four-year term officials. And, when these two-year term officials are assembled as a legislative body, they will be qualified to choose the six-year term officials. 

“We, the writers of the Constitution, hope and expect that our State Governments will seriously consider re-doing their governing structures as mirror images of the Constitutional system we have devised.”

Will our State Governments ever decide to organize us as one federated system of local community districts?  Only then will we finally learn how well we are able to govern ourselves.  It is their constitutional duty to reorganize us grassroots voters.  The States themselves are the most victimized by their inaction.  Imagine the irony of having a U.S. Senator smiling down on a pleading state Governor, when the original plan was for exactly the opposite! 

The Forward March of the Nationalists

The Constitution, Section 3. “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislatures thereof, for six years; ...”

A hundred-twenty-years later, the following time bomb was inserted by the nationalists, performing a coup of the entire federal government, and reducing State Governments to symbolic figure-heads of the union.

The Constitution, Amendment 17 (1913).  “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the people thereof, for six years; ...”

The mere suggestion of such an amendment should have triggered outrage among all State Legislators, as well as other State Officials. It was a thumb-of-the-nose to the Founders and all their federalist ilk.  The nationalists had, overnight, built a wall around Washington, D.C. The nationalists had sent the States back home with their tails between their legs.  The U.S. Congress was now completely under the control of the nationalists.  The situation was a no-brainer that should have caused an immediate realignment of the two major political parties.

Twenty years later, President FDR consolidated disparate political factions into one partisan group which began looking to the national government to solve all their problems.  Since that time, the nation’s electorate has been waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Their question: “What is the other major party going to do to counter the trend toward nationalism?”  “Who will come to the aid of those cherishing the right to vote with their feet?”  Who will carry the message that fifty states are better than a single government in D.C. for those pursuing “a life of freedom and opportunity.  Fifty laboratories of democracy competing with each other for the best talent to come live in their State, should be the ideal of a free people. Eighty years after FDR, the nation still waits for the formation of a political party that is dedicated to federalism and will go all out in the fight to limit nationalism to its proper role: the pursuit of a common foreign policy.

Boiled down to one issue, that new party should go all out for the adoption of one grid of local community districts for the entire federation.  That is the key that unlocks the secret to successful federalism. It qualifies a single set of legislators to rule the entire nation.  And it empowers the people to change them every two years if they wish.

Term Limits

SOLVED  BY  THE  PLAN  THAT  MODIFIES  FEDERALISM

A preponderance of astute political observers look at the term-limit problem and think there must be a way to solve it.  The modified federalism plan solves it by reducing the district to community-size.  A community habitually elects its sheriff and changes sheriffs without the term-limit problem.  They have no need for partisan haranguing of voters over their political belief systems in order to choose a sheriff.

Political scientists should be critically studying the interactive process between voters and their local candidates. Voters should not be expected to make wise choices from among candidates who do not live in their community.  The representatives that run the federation of states should be from those local community districts.

Suppose it were determined scientifically that a grid of districts with 40,000 people each was smooth running and successful.  And that a grid of districts of the 700,000 size created confusion and conflict.      Common sense would dictate that we choose the system of 40,000.  Please note that today’s U.S. Congress is totally made up of officials coming from either the 700,000 size districts or from state-wide districts many times larger.  Their 98% reelection rate is due to campaign garbage that does not impress local voters who have neighborhood relationships with the candidates.

There is a dirty little secret that politicians discovered very early: Expand the size of one’s district to increase one’s legislative clout.  The Constitution’s Article 1, Section 2 contains an obscure statement that a district should not be formed with less than 30,000 persons.  The actual size the Constitution started with was closer to 40,000 persons.  After each ten-year census, the reps from these districts have assumed authority to consolidate districts until districts are now 700,000 pop each.  That is seventeen times their original size.

Ask any legislator about “district reform,” and the response is, “I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and cannot do anything about it.”  Then, how did you guys manage to increase its size seventeen fold?  But the problem is five times worse than that because every voter is saddled with five districts and their reps, producing all manner of pecking orders---all supposedly in a federalism of equals.  We live in a representative fairyland of make believe.

The electorate needs only one standardized grid of districts to operate the entire federation of State Governments and the one in Washington, D.C.  That is what the modified federalism plan does.

Federalism Modified

A New Model That Removes Built In Conflicts

Is there still time to correct a few things about the way we govern ourselves, before we begin setting fires and shooting bullets? Why don’t we try reshuffling this old “house of cards” that the implementers of the Constitution handed us? Please hear this proposal out. The Constitution our people were living with in 1900 was admirable. In any event, this is not about the Constitution. It is about changing the nonsensical legislative districting that the states gave us at the beginning. Those districts are a mess, and need re-doing. The states shot themselves in the foot when they gave us all those duplications of districts. It was they which set up the bullying central system that is taking over the governing of the people of the states. Well, not exactly, because thirty-seven states and 310,000,000 more people have been added to the districting mess since then.

FEDERALISM: THE AVEY PROPOSAL (with minimal editorial comment)
First, states will amend their Constitutions to adopt a single grid of legislative districts of 40,000 (?) per district, thereby voiding all other state districts.

Second, states will amend their Constitutions to provide that the new reps from the new districts shall meet soon after their election, to choose all state-wide Constitutional Officers.

Third, states will amend their Constitutions to enumerate every county and/or city government that is eligible to choose a 6-year term Senator.

Fourth, states will wait out an election cycle so that their new legislative bodies and governing officials can become working teams.

Fifth, by this time, the U.S. Congress will have gotten the message: “The States are coming with qualified reps to take their rightful places in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Amendment XVII is doomed.”

Sixth, Appropriately, Amendment XVII will be repealed, and State Governments will again resume their places in the U.S. Senate.

Seventh, States will begin sending their Houses of Representatives to the Grand U.S. House of Representatives.

And finally Eighth, the states will designate the same electors of their officials to join with all other electors to choose a President and Vice-President. The simplicity of THIS COMPLETED MODEL is unbelievable. Those looking for hope and change need look no further. This is hope and change of the kind one can believe in. It integrates all governing into one harmoniously interacting system of small districts. In small districts voters can vote for the person rather than the party because they can trust the community’s information sources.

The Founders thought the body politic should have three levels of voter sophistication: (1) those choosing officials for two-year terms, (2) those choosing officials for four-year terms, and (3) those choosing officials for six-year terms. The model incorporates this idea.