Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Comprehensive Plan

The United States is self-destructing like never seen before.  The financial situation is already well beyond the possibility of reversal through established political channels.  This is all well known and documented by those who have been paying attention.  So what do we do about it?  Armed conflict (AKA civil war) is the obvious answer that many have been talking about, but we have not quite come to that yet.  I have been thinking about this problem and decided to see if I could come up with a plan for this country roughly based on the recent Iceland government reformation that might avoid armed conflict.  Unfortunately at this point it’s a bit of a “last ditch effort” as a literal culture war seems all but inevitable, but I would like to think there are enough good people left that could make this happen if they were well informed.  One very key aspect of this plan though is timing.  Events are moving much to rapidly for anyone to wait for anything.  The tipping point could be only days away at worst case.  So everything must be done in the shortest timeline possible for there to be any remote hope of success.  No “waiting for the next election” to replace the bad apples.  The bad apples have to be immediately removed to have any chance of success.

  1. The first and foremost problem and the primary driver behind how we got here is the intense corruption of politicians with little accountability.  Even elected officials lie, commit felonies, take bribes both legal and illegal, commit sedition, even kill people with little or no consequences.  Not to mention ignoring the voices of their constituents, or now even telling their constituents what to do, what to say, how to think and how to believe.  If the media breaks a story on them, they just issue a public apology and continue business as usual.  Not even resignations are common any longer in these circumstances.  We see it almost every day in the news now but little is done beyond paying lip service.  It continues to get worse because no one enforces any consequences, so each time it happens they just get more bold.  There must be a “grass roots” will to enforce swift consequences on any politician from the local level to the federal level that fails to uphold the integrity of their office , fulfill the oath of their office, or just plain do their job.  I believe that starts with recalls.  Later, prosecution of crimes will be needed as well, but that will be inconsistent as long as the corrupt power base controls the courts and justice departments.  
  2. The next problem is the scope creep and definition shift of the government structure.  Our constitutional republic was not designed to control every aspect of our lives, neither is it a democracy.  Those who have tried to convince the populace that we are a democracy and shift the structure to be “democracy like” have just created a huge mess of a system that can no longer balance itself.  The most obvious part of this would be the goal of repealing the 17th and 23rd amendments.  In like manner, restore/change local governmental structures to follow the republic model more closely.  Senators should never be elected by a general popular vote, that defeats the purpose of having a senate.  Representatives are to always be elected by popular vote, that is the purpose of the house.  On a state level, senators could be elected by county commissioners as the elected representatives of a county.  The current systems in place in most states having population based “districts” of popular vote mirrors the federal system in it’s unbalanced distribution of power.  If these changes were applied at both the state and national levels, it would restore the balance of regional vs. population center influences in lawmaking.  Specifically with the 23rd amendment repeal, the District of Columbia was setup as a federal reserve specifically to prevent self serving interests from having disproportional influence in the federal government.  In simple terms, by nature any congressional representative elected by the district of Columbia has a conflict of interests.  All similar situations on federal and local levels should be identified and scrutinized through this filter.  This MUST start at the state level, recalling representatives that don’t represent and invoking Petition/Referendum/Ballot Measure systems available in the states to push the changes.
  3. Once items 1 and 2 have momentum, there will be more opportunity to fix the many things that are tearing the country apart.  The first opportunity there is laws that automatically holds politicians accountable to a common standard WITH irrevocable consequences (extending the idea of point #1).  One politician should not have the power to pardon crimes their peers have been convicted of.  A politician should not be able to vote on something that would personally benefit them directly or indirectly (for instance, senators and representatives from a particular state would be prohibited from voting on anything that includes any provision that specifically benefits that state).  One solution to how to implement this would be a special jury system.  Citizens or government bodies could petition for a jury review independent of the “justice departments” and district attorneys who have the power to arbitrarily decide if a particular case is worthy of review.  This would invoke an automatic process where a random jury of citizens (think grand jury only invoked automatically by due process instead of at the whim of a district attorney or justice dept) would be called on to review all available evidence (with summons and warrant powers).  If found guilty of breaking the oath and/or integrity of office (especially in regards to conflicts of interest), the defendant would be automatically removed from office and subsequently prosecuted traditionally according to criminal codes if applicable.  This would eliminate the “good old boy” system of politicians covering each other’s backsides or crucifying outcasts in “ethics” committees and remove the burdensome requirement of general population base involvement to force consequences on a politician’s actions.
After these things are addressed, it would open up the possibility at least to fix the other pressing problems we face. 

  • ·        Burdensome laws that interfere with our daily lives
  • ·        Burdensome taxes (eventually) 
  • ·        Wasteful spending on things not in the general interest of the country
  • ·        Entitlement programs that don’t work
  • ·        Wars that nobody wants
I could add a hundred more points and detail solutions, and maybe someday I will.  But none of it will be possible unless the above three major reforms are implemented. 

There are some who seem to actually like the idea of civil war and anarchy.   For those of you who may be reading this, I encourage you to look at this as a war on corruption, just an alternative way instead of using guns and bullets.  That said, my root purpose is to not be tread upon as a citizen so if the above fails: ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ suckas!

If you like what you read, I encourage you to share like/share/tweet/post.  If you would like to discuss it, send me an email:)