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.

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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.

Western Civilization can be saved by its counties

The political craziness that infects Washington, D.C. and so many state governments , cannot devastate the ordinary county government.  By some stroke of fate, counties have geographical boundaries surrounding optimum numbers of people.  Those optimum numbers can operate a successful direct democracy.  Those optimum numbers also just happen to be quite capable of organizing a local, self-sustaining economy.  Each county has its own version of who is rich or poor, or who is successful or failing.  Each county has its own ideas  about how to deal with its differences among people.

When push comes to shove, a county’s borders are easily crossed. One is free to move in or move out.  Counties should be where personal liberty comes to terms with forces of government. One county could become a haven for one way of life. Another county might attract another way of living.  A greater autonomy should be permitted among county legal systems.  The States and Washington, D.C. have usurped too much authority over what people in their own counties should be deciding for themselves.  Telling others how they must live, just because you can, is inexcusable.  The county is the best place to sort these matters out.

Counties should be ultimately responsible for the success of the representative system of government.  Counties should be originating the home districts which should be producing the reps which should be ruling the Federation of States.  Counties are the saviors of the people from the evils of partisan government.  Western Civilization is being destroyed by the evils of partisan government.

It is the evils of partisan government that prevents inter-state negotiations that will define the standard home district.  Without a standard home district, we are a dis-united people in a doomed and dying system.

The More Perfect Union of Home Districts, Term Limits, and Nonpartisanship

This union of states was clobbered together.  Even In this 21^st Century, it is still just clobbered together. The union that was expedient in 1789 has drifted along with little self-analysis. Its scant three million people have become over three hundred million people.  We are a nation whose collective conscience is full of contradictions.  Although all voices should be equal, religious organizations cower in fear at all the intimidations thrown at them by political organizations.

All voters are cruelly placed in multiple state and federal districts, all of which are far too large.  Such a complicated system drives the voter into partisanship and despair.  We have always governed ourselves quite well within our local communities. But our attempts to organize local communities into a nation state deserve a grade of D-.  

A local community can easily elect one of its reputable leaders to represent it in the legislative halls of a nation state.  But no, states cannot understand what their U.S. Constitution means by ordering one set of equalized districts. That one set of reps can handle the entire representative system of the people.

What are political parties, really, but self-organized gangs which have embedded themselves into our system.  They are the natural enemies of Electoral Colleges. Political parties will lose their influence just as soon as every local community has its own rep, and that rep collegiately nominates and elects all the officers associated with the federation of states.  It works like this:

A local community of 40,000 people chooses one of its leaders to represent it for a two year term.  Constitutionally, that rep is the community’s only contact with the federal system. That rep joins with fellow reps to nominate and elect all elective state officials.  That rep joins with fellow reps to nominate and elect all elective federal officials. That rep joins with fellow reps to run the state’s legislative assembly.  That rep joins with fellow reps to run the house of congress. After two years, the local community evaluates that rep at the polls. A county government chooses its state senator, and thereby creates a state senate. A state government chooses its federal senator, and thereby creates a federal senate. The local community chooses a rep, and thereby creates two electoral colleges plus two houses of representatives.  The people sit back and relax, confident that they can make adjustments every two years. It is their civil right to do this but their states will not allow it. The Founders created a civil right to a home district.

Instead, states force every household of every local community to have five reps, two of which are statewide. The other three are from humungous districts, all having different ranks and pecking orders. The local congressional district, for example, has 700,000 people, up from its original 40,000 people.

If States continue refusing to equalize and standardize their people into one set of home districts, some force is going to set up its own system.  That force will be beyond any orderly control.  State governments and their people have everything to gain, and nothing to lose by acting before such a force takes over.    

This orderly change makes the term limit problems go away. Dependency on Democrats and Republicans goes away. Big money and big press also lose their influence. The home district is the congressional district but with a different name.  If everybody were assigned to a home district of 40,000 (the original size of the Founders’ district), their eight thousand reps would rule everything above the county government level. 

This collection of personal consciences would become the nation’s conscience. The poll takers would be constantly probing that conscience.  Together, they would become a mutual education society, enabling both the reps and their poll takers to act more intelligently.  The nation’s pulse would be on constant display.

The federal constitution is superior to state constitutions.  Where a state’s constitution conflicts with it, the federal one should prevail. The goal of having a more perfect union calls for one uniform set of districts, not fifty one odd ball sets of districts into which our states have put us.   We-the-people are psychologically tortured over voting decisions we should not have to make. All because the States do not know how to set up and run the federation of their dreams.

Direct democracy by the people manages local communities very well.  The federal system should be using representative democracy. The voters step aside and allow their reps to run the system.  But States have never agreed on the common grid of local districts that can run the entire federation. Where there is no vision, the people suffer. Our federation has remained inert. The fifty states are strangely allied with their nation state, all being too stupid to federate.

When States structured their double system of representation in 1789, they created a districting mess. We are not two bodies politic.  We are one body politic being forced by our states to act as if we were two bodies politic.  It would be so simple to set up a grid of equal local districts and allocate them among the states. The reps produced by that one grid are the sum total of all the reps needed to run the federal system from the county level up the pyramid. 

Gigantic egos, putting themselves first, stand in the way of doing it. Only submissive egos allow gigantic egos to stand in the way.

Let’s get our ducks all in a row and synchronize this system into the federation it should be.  Even with home districting the reps should not set or adjust boundaries. That job belongs to the counties in which the districts are located.  Counties know their fractional share of the total population and can work with adjoining counties in setting up and managing these home districts.

Let’s get our double lawmaking out of its constant stream of jurisdictional disputes in the courts.  The delegates who signed the Constitution went back home unaware that they had agreed to home districting.  They were all thinking inside their own little boxes.  That has not changed.  

Ask any State Rep about this.  The answer you will get goes something like this: ”I took an oath to abide by my constitution which has its own districting system.” These state reps see no need to abide by a superior constitution.  They are caught up in the same schizophrenia that forces one body politic to act as if it were two.

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.

Two clashing economies, one slave - one free

Humanity prospers according to its ability to produce.  If humanity were so lovingly perfect that they needed no government at all, everybody would be engaged in some form of productive activity.  All human attitudes would be directed toward organizing production for the greater good of all humanity.

The monetary system would develop in much the same manner as the one we now have, except that its flow would be more spontaneous and voluntary with no governments taking bites out of the production.

Humanity can, and does, voluntarily organize into all manner of groupings such as family, church, and school.  America has led the world in voluntary organizations among business enterprises, in addition to family, church, and school.

Governments are involuntary, and are brought into the human condition to protect mankind from the predations or certain others of mankind.  It is only when family, church, school, and business organizations are unable to reconcile all persons to conventional disciplines, that governments must be established.

The orneryness of one or two percent of humanity is what necessitates “governing,”  Once a government camel gets its head into the tent, the entire tent of civilization is vulnerable.  When humanity must resort to force, it is an admission of some one’s failure.  Somehow, the ninety-eight percent should remain free from the involuntary actions that government imposes.

Childhood education is a case in point.  Humanity has turned to government for the education of its children.  Apparently, this means that family, church, school, and business organizations are unable to work voluntarily together to allow their children to grow up in a climate of freedom.  By fifth grade in government schools, most children have set up “defensive mechanisms” to survive the dictates of government curricula.  

Children’s inborn curiosities are blunted.  They become children of dictatorships. Their teachers must join the dictatorships in order to be teachers.  The “education economy” expands the tax structure enormously. When a government dollar buys something, that something costs three times as much as when a private dollar buys something. How much of the knowledge of a fifteen-year-old comes from the expertise of a government-paid teacher?  Perhaps fifteen percent?  Suppose both the child and teacher were working in an entirely voluntary system of childhood education. And suppose that the parent-teacher-child relationship became more voluntary.

Can education be quantified?  Public educators are constantly measuring it.  Why?  Do we know enough about what one needs to learn in order to take its measure?  Everybody is different.  Government is given “rights” to “educate” children.  It is the height of folly.  Such resorting to governing is an admission that no voluntary group can do it as well.  That’s poppycock. What are we trying to perpetuate, our rich and many sided cultures, or a tyrannical government bent on standardizing a slave system?