Fixing America

My Friends,
I have revised the past part of my last post from the book. Here it is:

Before Congress will be allowed to vote on any bill that directly
effects U.S. citizens financially or legally the following must first
take place:

(A) From the time of the first complete draft of major legislation to
the time of the vote a period of 30 days must pass to allow time to
study and discuss the bill. Any revision of said bill will require at
least a week for consideration before another vote is taken.

(B) The first day of this 30-day time period begins when the full
contents of the bill are posted on the Internet for all citizens to
study.

(C) Major legislation is that which involves over $10 billion in
spending judged by 2009 dollars or the creation of a law that affects
the majority of U.S. citizens.

(4) The only exception to this would involve matters of national
security where an action must be quickly accomplished to insure the
defense of this nation..

That's it, short and simple like Proposition 13.

There's one more thing our representative must do, which is to
actually study the bill so they are familiar with its contents.
Unfortunately, it is not practical to pass legislation in this
direction. This is where the citizens must take charge and hold our
representatives accountable. We the people must demand two things of
them.

(1) That they read the legislation and become familiar with its
contents. If they do not do this then they will lose our vote.

(2) That they listen to their constituents who have read the bill and
vote according to the wishes of the majority. If they do not then we
will not vote for them in the next election.

And here is a new section:
Plan of Attack

First we need a name for this proposition. Let us call it WOPP1,
with WOPP being an acronym for Will of the People Proposition.

WOPP1 is not an end goal, but a beginning. We shall follow up with a
WOPP2 and a WOPP3. What all WOPPs will have in common is that they
will be neither extreme Left or Right but will promote the actual
will of the people so they will be represented in areas presently
ignored by Congress.

For WOPP1 to become a binding on Congress it must first be passed by
Congress. Since this proposition applies more to congressional rules
than the public it needs to be introduced and accepted as binding in
the House and Senate.

The problem is that Congress will almost never pass any legislation
or rule that gives them less power or causes them any inconvenience.
If we just sit back and expect them to take such action we will die
in our chairs before anything happens. How then do we get such a
proposition initiated and passed by reluctant legislators?

The answer goes back to the principle discussed earlier on the power
of public opinion. Remember the power of belief? If we believe we
cannot get Congress to pass WOPP1 then we are doomed from the start.
But if you and I and a growing number of citizens believe it then it
becomes the all-powerful public opinion. When public opinion becomes
powerful enough then Congress will respond.

Why will they respond?

There are two reasons:

(1) Public opinion by itself is a powerful force difficult to resist.

(2) They will fear being voted out of office if they flagrantly
violate public will.

Now some may question and say that the approval rating of Congress
has been as low as 9%. If that low of a public opinion of their
representatives does not force change then what will?

Yes the approval rating of Congress has been low for some time now.
Citizens do not vote for Congress as a whole, but their individual
representatives, and senators and when it comes to these guys,
approval ratings are different. Many feel that Congress, as a whole,
is a lower life form than a dogcatcher or used car salesman, but
think their own representative is doing a fine job.

This is illustrated with the fact that incumbents normally sail
through with re-election no matter what the rating of Congress as a
whole is.

In the 1998 election a whopping 98% of House members who ran again
were re-elected. The number has gone down slightly in the last
election but stays consistently high.
(http://www.cusdi.org/reelection.htm)

Does this give us a clue to the reason that they are resistant to
following the will of the people even though the ratings of Congress
are low? Yes, it does. If the local guy has a 98% chance of being
reelected despite what people think of Congress then he is not highly
motivated to follow the will of the people.

Therefore, attacking Congress as a whole accomplishes little or
nothing. Instead, the individual representatives and senators must
be targeted. Their actual jobs must be threatened through an
enlightened public opinion if citizens are to be truly represented

The most important representatives to influence in matters of Senate
and House rules are the Rules Committees. As of this writing both
houses are dominated by Democrats with Charles E. Schumer heading the
Senate committee and Louise M. Slaughter the House. There are 20
members in the Senate Rules committee and 13 in the House. These 33
individuals are the most important to contact, but the other
representatives are important too. Why? Because they can suggest
rules and apply pressure on committee members.

This all sounds well and good, but any type of political change will
require a superhuman effort. How do we go about accomplishing it?

The answer is simple but the path is difficult.

Here is what needs to be promoted.

(1) The public needs to be educated as to their power to create change.

(2) The public needs to be educated to the needed changes and how
they can be made.

(3) The public needs to be educated on the voting record and views of
their representatives. Many vote an incumbent back in because they
mistakenly believe his views are in harmony with their own. When
politicians speak to voters they are very careful to tell them what
they want to hear which is often at odds with their true views and
record.

This enlightenment must be brought to the public before they will use
their power to pressure politicians into following the will of the
people. After all, they are called representatives because they are
supposed to represent the public will.

To get the public to act a certain amount of new political
organization must be undertaken and groups formed. A possible name
could be Citizens for Democratic Action or CDA.

This organization would seek to do the following:
(1) Establish groups in every major population area.
(2) Have regular meetings, probably once a week and perhaps more when
an important project is being undertaken.
(3) Have some type of lecture or class at each meeting so the members
will be politically informed and educated.
(4) Establish goals for political change in harmony with the will of
the people.
(5) Brainstorm on ways to accomplish set goals.
(6) Gather mailing lists of like-minded citizens.
(7) Contact other political groups and solicit their cooperation.
(8) Establish a strong presence on the web.
(9) Establish a pool of speakers
(10) Raise funds to promote group goals.

The key to making this group workable is to create several successful
groups and then duplicate them across the country.

When enough people decide to use their power of influence then we can
then pressure the representatives to represent the will of the people
rather than their own wills or that of pressure groups.

The will of the people is not always my will or yours but the will of
an educated people follows the general rules of common sense much
more than and someone representing the will of a powerful few.

Let us therefore begin to create a country where the will of the
people is truly represented, a country that George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln would be proud to call their own.

--
WANT TO READ MORE?
Over 4500 Articles by J. J. Dewey at:
http://www.freeread.com/archives/index.php

 


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Jóhann Róbert Arnarsson
Jóhann Róbert Arnarsson

Ég er 38 ára, Bogamaður og á ekki börn og er á lausu en annars er þessi mynd af mér orðin gömul. Hvað annað? Ef mér dettur eitthvað í hug þá uppfæri ég bara. Uppfærslur, það er fínt orð.

 

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