The Sage Forge

How would you go about changing the way America is run so that the pawl on the ratchet of power favors ordinary people once again?

The first thing I would do is recognize one simple fact.  At present we are no longer a nation of laws.  During the crisis of the Great Depression Franklin Roosevelt was in office long enough to install a Supreme Court that allowed him to enact flagrantly unconstitutional measures.  That was a serious time and one may speak highly of Roosevelt's leadership in the midst of necessity, but the lingering effect of what he did empowered an elite to make choices directly contravening the will of the people.  We became a nation of men, not of laws.  Three fourths of the money we spend at the federal level in this country is unconstitutional by a common sense reading of the Constitution.  Only by having case law supersede the words of the Constitution (in the eyes of a few dark-robed visiers) can one reconcile our founding law with our current behavior.

Second, we must re-orient the pawl on government's ratchet in our favor.  That means we, as a people, must insist that our leaders install those changes in the Constitution that will both reign in the courts and reinforce our influence over those who represent us.

First and most importantly we must change the balance of power in Washington to favor us.  There are two steps to this. 

1. We must limit the time people can serve in any and all elective offices authorized by law.  Yes, that means term limits.  More than that, it means lifetime limits on how long any person can serve in public office.  My formula is pretty simple.  Limit total service in the House of representatives to eight years and eliminate pensions.  Limit service in the Senate to twelve years.  In both houses outlaw seniority as a consideration in assigning positions of power.  The term of the president would remain as it is.  The total length of time any one person would be permitted to hold any elective office or all offices authorized under the Constitution cumulatively, including the Supreme Court, would be twenty-four years.  Even in the Supreme Court continuation after twelve years would be contingent upon the jurist getting at least forty percent of the vote in a nation-wide reauthorization election.

This measure, which would require a Constitutional amendment, would force a greater turnover of leadership in Washington and would make it much harder for people in Congress to cloak themselves in bureaucracy to insulate themselves from us.  Furthermore, because the constantly incoming freshmen would fine the maze of bureaucracy to be an irritation they would be less inclined to extend it and, may even be inclined to reduce it.  In any event they would be highly unlikely to permit the bureaucracy to be condescending to us as is the case today.

2. We must bring our Congressional delegations home.  There is no need to have our representatives resident in Washington, D.C.  They need only be in Washington for certain ceremonial occasions.  Electronic communications obviate the need for members of Congress to be there, where people with deep pockets can concentrate a few lobbyists to overwhelm our personal influence.  Representatives should be officed in their districts.  Senators should be officed in the largest and second largest metropolitan areas in their respective states (again, not by seniority but by the order of second election of their particular senatorial seat as established originally in the Constitution and in the statutes by which each state was admitted to the union).

This Constitutional amendment would disperse the Congress and make it more difficult for a few influential people to make government act like their playground.  Their primary relationships should be with their constituents.  Washington is a seductive place full of very intelligent people.  As a matter of fact they are smarter, on average, than we are.  That is beside the point.  If government by the smartest people worked better than government of the people oligarchies would rule the world.  Such is obviously not the case.

American government overwhelmed the world because the society it engendered had distinct EVOLUTIONARY advantages over the governments of the rest of the world.  A society ruled by the smartest members of that society can't help but limit its evolutionary vocabulary in crippling ways.  Such a society makes social decisons it sees as imperatives though they are, in fact, forms of corruption.  If we want America to continue to thrive we must reinforce the evolutionary advantages of dispersed power and minimize the rule of even our brightest and best.

We must become, once again, a nation of laws.  These are steps one and two.

I'll discuss step three tomorrow, I hope...