Politics are never easy. Somebody’s livelihood is always affected as a result of political change. Americans do not like leaving people out in the cold, letting them go hungry, or letting them go with untreated medical conditions. This attitude is one of our greatest blessings. However, we need to begin enacting necessary structural fixes to our republic before we find we’ve moved beyond simple fixes. Tough love is still love; and while the majority of us generally treat politicians with due respect, we’ve allowed many of them to abuse the trust we’ve placed in them; therefore it’s time to discipline them.
Prepare to put these and other ideas forward to your state legislatures. Our representatives will be required to do our bidding.
We the People are going to have to start reminding the politicians that we are sovereign, and that they work for us.
Don’t simply “Take action.” Take specific actions.
Below is a quick sketch of an action plan to restore the republic. We need to do these things, even if it means the republic will look different afterward.
Be prepared to call a constitutional convention.
We will need to modify many parts of the constitution.
- We will need to be more specific in the preamble about why we have this social compact than “In order to secure the blessings of liberty.” We will also have to bring over some of the language from the Declaration of Independence specifying what we’re allowing the government to do, and to not do.
- We will need to specify that not only “Congress shall make no law” but also that “the Executive shall not enforce any regulation,” and “the Courts shall decide no case” that will abridge natural rights.
- We will need to insist on reasonable and just means of voter authentication, and that States adhere to the minimum standards. We won’t have a legitimate republic without a fair and just process for electing our representatives. We may have to specify that interfering with balloting falls under the High Crimes and Misdemeanors category of criminality, and we may further have to specify the remedy.
- We will have to restructure Congress.
- The basic structure and division of power between them is fine.
- We will have to do away with the Permanent Apportionment Act and allow one representative per 100,000-200,000 people.
- After allowing for more representatives, there will need to be five senators per state. Three of these will be elected by their states’ legislatures from citizens who meet eligibility requirements and will be term-limited to two terms. The other two will be elected by popular vote in their state. The only people eligible to run for those seats will be people who served at least one full term as one of the senators elected by their state’s legislature.
- We will have to restrict the number of people each Congressman may have on staff to two or three.
- We will have to limit who in Congress may author legislation.
- We will specify what must happen for a bill to be approved for a vote in a committee or in a chamber.
- The government’s fiscal year is from January 1st through December 31st.
- The default tax rate per year in all categories of taxation is zero percent. Resolutions continuing the prior year’s budget shall not be valid. If a tax rate is to be set at greater than zero percent it must be done in the annual budget, which shall be signed into law not earlier than October 15th each year and not later than October 31st each year. The sole exception to this is that the tax rate during the year of a presidential election shall be the highest tax rate of the previous three budget years presented as prescribed.
- Election day shall [still] be the first Tuesday in November, right after the budget is approved and the tax rate is set.
- Incumbents will have limits placed on them; not through strict term limits, but rather by placing gates on the ballot counts.
- Nearly all laws will be subject to a sundown provision. After thirty years, regardless of the number or type of amendments to laws, they expire at the end of the month thirty years after it passed.
There will be many more structural changes that will need to be made. I will continue explaining them in the days to come.
Be prepared to help with the push to secure the blessings of liberty in a more tangible way.