The Biggie In Taking Our Country Back Is To Rescind Amendment XVII

The two houses of Congress are both “representatives of the people” since the passage of Amendment XVII a century ago. Only one house should be representing the people. The other house, the senate, is supposed to represent the states. A century ago, the amendment told the state governments to pack up their reps and vacate Washington, D.C. What little excuse there had ever been for calling the national government a federation, was gone. The D.C. government thereby transformed itself into an empire over the inert state governments.

The succeeding century has been a disaster, legislative wise. The only reason the Founders gave the senators six-year terms and the house members two-year terms was because the house members were essentially the appointers of the senate members. Senate members were to act as more mature councilors who would act as a brake on sharp changes of legislative direction. They were to be the more deliberative body.

Now, let’s throw a few jokers into the shuffle of the cards. That’s exactly what the states did in 1789 as they assigned two representative bodies to a newly unified people. One body of reps should have been enough. So, should the state assembly reps be appointing U.S. Senators or should the U.S. house be appointing the senators. At this point, logic is lost and absolute nonsense takes over. The states bungled the setting up of the system.

Meanwhile, the U.S. house was incrementally increasing its district populations from an original of 40,000 to 700,000, thereby losing any pretense of local control by the electorate over their reps.  Democrats and Republicans began originating the reps and voters could only choose between two foreigners. It was in the middle of this two century trend that the U.S. senators made their big move to partisanship in the evolving system. They quietly pushed Amendment XVII to its passage without either party taking a position on it. The Founders had provided no mechanism for their popular election. They became freelancing politicians not unlike loose cannons on the deck in the D.C. government.

We have lost the few virtues of our system because of outright fraud and deceit. We have never had the pleasure of living under the federated system that should have been set up.

Let’s rewrite No. XVII and establish the elusive federation instead of sabotaging it. It should say that the U.S. house should be the grand assembly of the houses of the fifty states. Every person should be living in a standardized grid of home districts of somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000.  Our present five make-believe reps should be elected to the new single grid of reps. The new set of reps should have full authority to operate the federal system of fifty-one governments. They will hold a convention in their state, and elect all state officers. Then, as one body, they will elect the two national executives. 

If we want to take our country back, let’s follow the above instructions. Look carefully and you will find all of the above in the original Constitution.

We-the-People Need Fifty-One Federated Houses

We need to live in families and self-sustaining communities such as counties or cities. But those counties or cities need to live in their own associations which culminate in States attempting to work together as a union.

We-the-people operate a hands-on system of running our own affairs up through the operations of our county/city governments. Beyond that point, counties and/or cities should be using our representatives to build a pyramid of federated houses.  That pyramid has never been properly set up.

Our system is in big partisan trouble because it has never been set up properly. Federated Houses will build the proper pyramid. Federated Houses is a newly coined phrase that needs further explanation. The Constitution calls for a nation that is organized into Congressional Districts. What it does not call for is a nation that is organized into two, three, four, or five sets of districts. Yet the people are actually contending with five districts per voter. When they are able to get rid of four of those districts, they should end up with one local home district. The Founders called it a Congressional District.  It becomes the basis for building Federated Houses.

The Constitution says that it should be no smaller than 30,000 people. Using that figure, the election departments of counties and/or cities should organize their people into one such districting system. It would result in the creation of about 10,000 districts and fifty-one Federated Houses. Each State would have its House of Representatives. Washington, D.C. would have its grand assembly of the fifty houses as its House of Representatives.

There is one other Constitutional requirement that gets rid of partisanship. Those 10,000 reps should be holding conventions in their respective states, at which they nominate and elect all state officials. They should meet as a national convention to do the same for the federation’s executives.

Federated Houses are what this nation needs to calm it down and establish a synchronized system of governing.

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.    

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.  

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.