Federalism’s Machinery Has Never Been Assembled Properly

We have never known real federalism, the ultimate machinery that organizes sovereign states to act as one. What the thirteen states created in 1789 was a new nation consisting of 13 states and a union of peoples determined to make the new nation work no matter how it was assembled. This union of peoples was not the federation we like to think we have.

We have never interpreted the Constitution as a sketchy, partial outline of its deeper implications as it discusses Electoral Colleges and Congressional Districts. We totally scorn Electoral Colleges and have allowed Congressional Districts to degenerate into shameful conglomerates of partisan politics. When those two mechanical parts are fully understood and integrated into their proper places in the federation, this nation will have the federalism that the Constitution attempted to create.

We avidly follow the quadrennial conventions of the two major parties. One of those conventions always produces the next President. A select few people run those conventions. Grassroots voters have to jump through hoops to participate. The Founders had exactly the same thing in mind as they designed the Electoral College, except that the Founders wanted all voters to participate in choosing their President. And, with true federalism, the Founders would have all voters choosing their state officials, also.

Electoral Colleges are the grassroots voters’ state conventions, and their national convention. Their elected reps were supposed to go to those places first after they were elected. The Founders wanted those reps to have full responsibility for the running of the federation.  Therefore, they were to complete the election process and come up with a full set of state and federal officials for the next four years before adjourning.  This process takes political parties almost entirely out of their proposed system.  The only partisan infections at the conventions would have been sent there by local districts.

The second vital part is the Congressional District which furnishes the people who go to the Electoral Colleges. Tragic experience has shown that diluting a district of 40,000 persons by adding 660,000 more persons, destroys local people’s ability to make intelligent choices of reps. This forces them into political parties and destroys the system the Founders intended. Students of government should be watching for results from districts of varying populations. What size district produces the more competent reps for that district? It is a more critical number than the ones guiding the Congresses of the past.

To rectify the errors of the past, and actually form a working federation, this nation needs one common set of home districts of a size somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000. County Election Departments, or their equivalent, should have  the responsibility for setting up and maintaining these local, standard districts. Their reps will rule their respective States as well as their nation. County governments should fill state senate seats.  State governments should fill the senate seats in D.C.

Just as soon as this nation can get this system of reps and their national conventions to elect officials, the people can begin to rebuild it. 

All State Houses of Representatives Should Be Sitting In Washington, D.C.

State Governments have nobody to blame but themselves for the bullying coming out of Washington, D.C.

State Governments have never properly used the Congressional District.

The Constitution says that a Congressional District should have a population of at least 30,000 people.

If every State would organize its people into Congressional Districts of that size, the people of this nation would all be equally represented, whether at their own State Capitols or in D.C.  That one set of reps should be doing the entire job of governing all fifty-one governments of the Federation of States.

The election departments of county governments should be finalizing the setting up of these districts.  Experience has proven that the reps are too corruptible to do it.

Then, let’s restore the original U.S. Senate by rescinding Amendment XVII, which has raised havoc with the Constitutional system for a century. Incidentally, State Governments, likewise, should have similar Senates representing their counties.

The district reps, elected by the grassroots electorate, should hold conventions in their respective states. They should choose all the State Officers with whom they will be working.  Those fifty conventions of reps should reconvene as one body and choose the President and Vice-President.

Study the original Constitution of 1789. Compare it with the above suggestions. The suggestions are in line with the original Constitution. We can have a true Federation of the States as originally intended. Talk to your state rep. Remind the rep that the state constitution is inferior to the U.S. Constitution which calls for a single set of districts for the intended Federation of States. We have wandered in the wilderness long enough.    

The Basic Constitutional Issues That Scholars Refuse To Discuss

The foremost issue is federalism, and the failure of the States to achieve federalism.  During the nation’s first hundred years, the States were represented in the U.S. Senate, but only the people were represented in the U.S. House of  Representatives. Apparently, the States could not figure out how to put their own reps into the U.S. House. If States could have figured out that problem, federalism would have been achieved.  The Constitution would have been a success. Well, almost a success, except for one other thing. The States run all elections through their county elections departments. But the responsibilities of county elections departments should come to an abrupt end just as soon as all local officials are elected. Unfortunately, States have not figured that one out either.

We have this thing called “representative government” where the whole election process is constitutionally supposed to change gears and enter into a completely separate system of elections.  They are Electoral College elections, over which the county elections departments should have no jurisdiction at all. The Electoral Colleges do their first jobs at their respective State Capitols, followed by their second job at their National Capitol. When both jobs are done, these colleges will have organized themselves into legitimate working bodies and conducted their own conventions that will have both nominated and elected all executive officers of the entire Federation of the Fifty States. Republicans, Democrats, et al leave their partisan labels outside the door, and follow the wishes of the local district which sent them.

The Founders wisely planned that only a body of elites would manage all the affairs of the Federation. States, from the beginning, have bungled and mangled this constitutional plan for creating a true Federation. They should have said to themselves in the beginning, “Now before we start implementing this Constitution, we must reorganize our people into the Congressional Districts required by the Constitution so that the one elected body of people’s reps are qualified to sit in any legislative body to which they are sent. Thereby, every State Legislature will move right on into the U.S. House of Representatives as well.” Those instructions are just as valid today as two and a quarter centuries ago.

We are one people, deserving one local rep to take care of all governing (for a 2-year term) above the county/city level. Of all the crying and fussing over civil rights, all of us without exception should have that civil right to a local rep of our own. This nation needs upwards of 10,000 of such reps. That is 10,000 Home Districts (Congressional Districts) in which all elections are local contests no more exciting than a shopping trip. The three senators and two house members each of have now, can go take a hike.  The Founders Congressional District is all we need.

Political Scientists, this writer has been evolving this idea for eighty-six years, or since I was age ten.   

A Belly Full of Laws. Will We Ever Get Enough? Who Knows All of Them?

There is a law of diminishing returns, like how much chicken can a person eat? So government by the people has seen lawmakers grinding out laws for two and a quarter centuries.  Are laws like fried chicken?  Must we keep them coming? 

What is the purpose of representative government?  Better yet, what is the purpose of a representative?  Suppose there is another way of looking at a representative.  Suppose he/she just hangs out in the home district, and hardly goes anywhere else.  What would that job be like?

The Constitution says (suggests?) that a district’s population should be no less than 30,000.  Congressmen have corruptly expanded it from hardly more than 30,000 to 700,000, and have made it literally useless to the people.  Suppose we go back to 30,000, thereby creating reps who can honestly say what every community is thinking. For a nation of over 300,000,000, that’s over 10,000 reps.

Provide each of those 10,000 reps with modern communications devices, and they can “assemble” in whatever groupings they wish within a matter of minutes. They can transport themselves electronically to their State’s or Nation’s House of Representatives while sitting at their home office.

We have become a nation operated by poll takers.  These 10,000 reps are the most reliably informed political body that could be found for poll takers.

Poll takers ask the reps.  The reps ask the poll takers. Twitter and Facebook get involved.  They can discover the sense of 10,000 communities in a matter of hours. It is a most sensitive system for discovering the will of the people.  Every two years, a refreshed base of reps keeps the system accurate.

Imagine a John Boehner lording over his House in contrast to the above!  Or magine a Harry Reid lording over his Senate in contrast to the above! The above would replace their system with qualified State reps who could sit at both places, as well as elect the U.S. Senators. Today’s electorate is bewildered. There is no way for it to participate as a single body politic until it gets its Home Districts.  

The United States Senate Is an Imposter of Questionable Origin

For the first hundred-twenty years, this senate fulfilled its constitutional purpose. But a mysterious Amendment XVII found its way into the Constitution in 1913.  It stated simply that senators are now to be elected by the people, totally ignoring that there is no constitutional mechanism for electing them by the people.

The people already had their representatives over in the U.S. House. If the senators no longer wanted to represent their state governments, there was no place for them in the Founders’ scheme of government.  Senators had made themselves irrelevant and without purpose. 

This amendment torpedoed all pretense that a Constitution had federated anything.  Rather, it starkly revealed that we-the-people were now living in Washington, D.C.’s Empire of States, and that this empire would be setting its own course.

Since 1789, when the States demonstrated an inability to set up a working federation, the Constitution has been doomed. Its only purpose was to create the federation.  Since no workable federation has ever been created, neither is the Constitution workable. It’s like passing a law without an enforcement clause. Their fates were inextricably intertwined.  The only relevance either one now has is as idealistic goals. 

The  political climate prior to the election of 2014 appears to be contemptuous more of the Democrats than of the Republicans.  The great political center that fringe groups love to hate, may be about to get another chance to show that they stand for something.  If so, do Republicans have the gumption to lead the great political center through the reforms we must accomplish?

First.  Every community of 40,000 needs its own home district rep. This means that the U.S. House of Representatives shall have 8,000 reps. Those reps will also sit in their respective State Assemblies.  As electoral colleges, they will elect the officials of their respective states plus those in D.C.  As members of their state governments, they will choose U.S. Senators.  Their local county governments will be in charge of setting up their districts for them.  Reps will probably cluster at work stations close to their homes and continue being good community citizens.

Second. State Senates should be composed of delegates from each county government.

Third. The registered voters will vote as usual in all local elections.  What will be different, is that representative government puts local district reps in charge of state and national elections.  They are our chosen elites and will administer the Constitution and the fifty-one federated governments in our behalf.

Do these three things, and all the grief and despair surrounding the failed Constitution and Federation will be over.  After setting up the wonderful system, what shall the people do with it?  There must be something better to do with it than to punish the achievers and reward the non-achievers.  Why not offer to everybody the opportunity to work hard and be proud of one’s self? Why not try to create such an abundance of goods that we are forever grateful.

*****

In reality, all of the representative districts into which voters were registered had lost their local bases, and therefore their purposes.  By 1913, the sizes of all representative districts had been expanded to the point that local communities were turning to Republicans and Democrats to take over the running of the representative system. 

This was the opening the U.S. Senators were looking for as they quietly made their move to also dump their constitutional status.  It did not matter that Amendment XVII provided no mechanism for their election by the people.  Democrats and Republicans had become the new election mechanism and would improvise new balloting.

No true history has been written, of the successive blunders which have brought the electorate to its present demise. The Founders wanted us to have our own community representative.  So why do we have five?  They wanted us to select the rep from among our friends and neighbors.  So why do our ballots list mostly strangers from far away as our choices? I am constantly making choices of who to deal with.  Why can’t my voting choices be equally intelligent? If voting is no more than flipping a coin, why vote? That must be why national elections    in equalized voting districts. We are as happy as a bunch of morons for all the meaningless voting opportunities. Meanwhile, we have allowed our nation to drift into the hands of gangsters, except that we would not know such a gangster if we saw one handing out candy. 

State Governments are totally to blame for this mess. The opposing political gangs of the red states and blue states are in no mood for reorganizing their people into home districts. Nor are they interested in giving up their electoral power to any elite group of reps organized into electoral colleges. However, it may be possible to take another route to home districting and electoral college elections.

Suppose the Republican Party decided to do the right thing in behalf of all the freedom loving agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and commercial workers of America.  Suppose they simply wrote off all the tax leeches such as teachers and postal workers who thrive on the income tax.  Suppose they encouraged good people in every way to help with the local politics of direct democracy, thereby building a strong base of local reps from local home districts.  Suppose they fully supported everybody’s right to work at free market wages.  Suppose they promised every school age child his/her voucher share of all school tax moneys. Suppose they held every parent responsible for the welfare of every child.  Suppose all public assistance were placed into the care of locally elected officials.

Just as soon as they decide the proper size of “a people’s home district,” then register their voters into one national grid of home districts, their people can thumb their noses at Democrats and Republicans.  But will these opposing political gangs of the red states and blue states be willing to bury the hatchet and negotiate? One standard home districting system that replaces Republicans and Democrats with Electoral Colleges on a standard home district? with each other to create a people’s home district system? Two chicks were fighting over a worm, when a hawk spied them.  That hawk is gangster government.

The Original Constitution Was Improperly Implemented

The people of the United States do not know how to set up a representative system of governing.  They have never been able to do so.  If they had pondered the uses of the congressional district more extensively, they would have solved the puzzle.

The Constitution of 1789 was an adequate governing instrument. It was to guide persons in setting up a workable federation of states. Since the Constitution did not succeed in creating the federation, it has reverted to a cherished and revered document whose state government enforcers have no power to enforce it. The Supreme Court became the fall-back cajoler as it has whimsically opined about it.

What would have succeeded in creating a real, genuine, working federation of states? Answer: If the States will ever show the good sense to adopt a single standard set of  h o m e  d i s t r i c t s  for all their people, their people will be able to operate all fifty-one governments with one set of reps.

Instead, the districting mess the States have contrived is unbelievably redundant. It creates reps for humungous, useless districts with all manner of pecking orders. Yet States are somehow unable to create a single local rep that serves one local community. Ironically, it is the State Governments who have tied their own hands. For over two centuries, they have failed to see the original congressional district as their key to federation.

Constitutionally, the grassroots voters were to directly operate their local governing districts, up through the County level governments.  At that point, grassroots voters were to turn over all governing of the federation, including the nomination and election of its officers, to their elected reps. However, reps have abused their freedom to set district sizes and boundaries. Counties should be supervising the setting up and maintenance of the boundaries of these districts.

Suppose the fifty State Governments decided to do themselves a favor.  Suppose they all just happened to adopt the same 40,000 size HOME DISTRICT. Suppose they repealed Amendment XVII, and restored the original U.S. Senate.  State officials would be swarming over Washington, D.C.  D.C. would be theirs.

Reform Number One:

Whereas, there are fifty-one constitutions with fifty-one unique organizations of the electorate in a nation that is trying to become more united;

And whereas, the Founders thought their proposed government’s success depended upon a single set of equally populated districts of about 40,000 each;  

And whereas, the reps from those districts have engaged in boundary wars that have created personal fiefdoms;

And whereas, each district rep has arbitrarily enlarged his domain to 700,000 each, thereby depriving sixteen other local communities of their reps;

And whereas, local electorates have been forced away from their locally derived reps and into unwanted partisan activities;

Now therefore, we demand that our respective States shall reconcile their inferior constitutions’ to the superior constitution that they have all signed. And that, having done that, they fill the seats of the U.S. House of Representatives with the exact same reps who fill the seats of their State Assemblies.

Reform Number Two:

Whereas, this nation operated for over a century with a U.S. Senate composed of reps from state governments;

And whereas, this nation has operated since 1913 with a U.S. Senate composed of reps from state partisan organizations, thanks to Amendment XVII;

And whereas, the on-the-job loyalty of U.S. Senators underwent a major shift;

Now therefore, Amendment XVII must be repealed and the Founders’ purpose for senators restored.  States, likewise, should have counties filling their senate seats.

Reform Number Three:

Whereas, the intent of the Electoral College was to have a more elite body of electors choosing all the executives officers of the new federation;

And whereas, fifty-one sets of officers will be elected by such assemblies;

And whereas, the reps themselves as electors may need some constitutional latitude to organize and do their jobs properly;

Now therefore, be it resolved that the electorate step out of the way and allow their elected reps complete autonomy in the selection of the executive officers with whom they will be working (and/or impeaching) during their respective terms in office.

The above three reforms will, for the first time in our history, create a workable federation of states governed by approximately 8,000 home districted reps.  Each two-year-term rep will be bossed by his/her district’s majority rule. Their local county election departments will manage the process. 

No membership in any partisan organization will be required for voting at any opening of the polls. The reps will be in a working relationship with their district constituents at all times, whether in their electoral activities or in subsequent legislative activities.

The “Congress” referred to by the Founders in their Constitution was a theoretical body of “people’s representatives” plus “representatives of the States.” Since such a body had not yet been created, Its various possibilities were still in limbo at the end of the Constitutional Convention.  The Northern States and Southern States and little states and big states, all had reasons to fear each other in any power sharing arrangement. But they feared outside nations even more. What they ended up creating was neither horse nor donkey, but an unviable mule. The one more perfect union of people needs a more perfect union of governing reps.

What a great day it will be in America, when the people are able to send to Washington, D.C. the same officials who run their state governments. We will finally have transformed contentious governing into coordinated governing.

The U.S.A. A nation of dependant children, who vote

This nation is being drained of its resources by persons with the economic intelligence of a fifth-grade child.  We are like a family of two parents who have turned over all money management to their three grade school children.  The family has mistakenly given all five of its members equal voting power.  Mom and Dad get outvoted at every turn.  Although Mom and Dad know how to bring money into the family and how to parcel out its expenditure, the kids are able to override Mom’s and Dad’s decisions.

The majority of voters have the economic intelligence of fifth grade children. Among all the political exhortations from our claptrap educationists, nobody seems to get around to saying something about “educating children about economic competence.”

Do you know what would happen if the claptrap educationists actually taught the honest version of production economics?  Those kids would grow up and begin asking the questions that seems never to be asked: “What are you claptrap educationists doing over on the governing side of the economic equation? You belong over on the production side among those of us producers who want to take home more of our earnings for our own uses.  Why aren’t you earning your money the same way the rest of us must earn ours?  If you were, you’d begin thinking the same way we do about keeping the tax bite low.”

Economic literacy and political literacy go hand in hand, just in case you’ve been wondering why the U.S.A. is being dragged back into poverty by its rulers. We have been conned for a hundred years about ways big government can decrease poverty.  If big government would get its taxes off the backs of its local communities and let little governments deal with the same problems on a local basis, huge tax costs and much political strife would simmer down.

The county system of governing dates back to the Magna Charta (freedom document) of 1215 at Runnymeade Island in England. Our ever-reliable counties of the U.S.A. could operate the federal system, instead of relying on the plethora of unequal, and wrangling, districts we are now using.  We have never given the Founder’s Congressional District a fair chance.  How the counties could do it is a subject for another blog.

Create Home Districting for the Federation

The partisan quagmire that is about to crash the system stems from a failure of the States to properly organize their people.  What the people most need is a sensibly sized “home district” and their one rep who takes over all governing duties in their behalf.  This nation has never known the tranquility that such as system could bring to it.

Only the State Governments are able to reorganize their people into sensibly sized home districts.  Inexplicably, States have never seen fit to do so.  Their myopic legislatures feel bound by their State Constitutions, while at the same time they fail to see that they are contradicting their Federal Constitution’s call for Congressional Districts.  The two constitutions should be reconciled in favor of the more dominant Federal Constitution.

The Federal System requires a common set of districting.  Otherwise, it simply will not work.  It is not working now and never has worked.  What is working now are two clashing systems of States vs. the Federal Government.  The people are caught in the middle and are being driven insane as they try to satisfy the voting demands made upon them by the two clashing systems.

Whenever the State Legislatures see fit to abandon their districting system in favor of a “commonly agreed upon size of Congressional District” to also run their State Governments, the people can have their sanity back.  One set of “home districts” of 40,000 each creates 8,000 reps.  With those 8,000 reps, let’s return to the original plans laid out in the Constitution.  Let them elect the executives of the federal system, Governors, President, et al.  And, tranquilly, make all of our laws.

HOW INEPT DISTRICTING LEADS VOTERS INTO PARTISAN DEPENDENCY

The Founders’ experiment with representative government was supposed to keep partisan ideologues from gaining control of the system.  Their first districting system placed 40,000 persons in each district. Today, 700,000 people live in each district, and the U.S. Congress is in political deadlock  State Governments, as usual, shrug powerlessly over any prospect of doing anything about the situation.

In fact, State Governments are the only entities with the sovereign power to completely empty out Washington, D.C. and replace the personnel with their own.   Their problem is that they must agree among themselves on whatever plans they want to pursue.

The two-year representative system still has partisan flexibility.  But, since the six-year senatorial system was sidetracked into an election vacuum in 1913, the Founders’ purpose for the U.S. Senate has been absolutely negated.  Its members have become loose cannons who follow only their own personal whims. There is no Constitutional process to effectively control their tenure once they achieve name recognition on their state-wide ballots.  State officials must govern in the shadows of these whimsical beings.   When Amendment XVII is cancelled, they will go away and State Legislatures will again be able to send their reps to the U.S; Senate.  And the people and their State Governments can prepare their districting for a different set of reps who should be sitting in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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. 

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.