TOWARD A TRUE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [including Liberty], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…

       ~The Declaration of Independence

We cannot accept a government that is fundamentally undemocratic. Half the Senate is elected by states with 16% of the US population. They are elected only by majorities (not the whole people), so about 10% of national voters controls the Senate.

Those 25 states tend to be GOP or Swing (Del, HI, OR and several New England states are the exceptions). And the dozen states with largest populations are almost all Blue or Swing. TX and GA are the exemptions. (Beto and Stacey are working on those.)

The Electoral College is not quite as appalling, because the votes per state include the number the number of Reps. But still, the 25 smallest states have 50 extra votes, and the EC (out of 538 total), therefore tilts toward states with small populations – again, mostly GOP.

Even the House is fairly anti-democratic. It is not just gerrymandering. Any single-winner system essentially disenfranchises 35-49% of voters. And virtually all of our elections are winner-take-all.

Among major industrialized nations, only the UK and its former colonies countries have winner-take-all systems in elections for their national legislatures. Today most of those have abandoned them, at least for one house. It is relic of the 1700’s, before we knew any better.

A multi-winner, multi-party system (with coalitions) represents nearly everyone in the country, down to some floor %.

The GOP has gone insane – unprincipled, amoral, ruthless, uncaring, corrupted by Citizens United, pro-rich, anti-environment, anti-labor, theocratic, racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic, and pro-useless wars, while it bankrupts the country.

Many believed that America was improving, that we were gradually putting racism, sexism and homophobia behind it. We were naïve. It was only closeted. It may be ‘only’ 35% of Americans who are hardcore bigots, but they now control all 3 branches of government.

The GOP doesn’t have a permanent lock on those three branches, but the will of the people will always be a struggle, until we fix these problems. America has never been a democratic republic, and she will never be, until most of these inequalities are fixed.

For a very long time, 1934-1960, the Democratic Party had the same lock on government, until desegregation and civil rights gave the South to the GOP. That too was undemocratic, though that government worked for the majority of Americans, instead of the rich and large corporations.

The American government is a dictatorship by minorities. What allegiance do we owe to a dictatorship? What duty do we owe to an insane party which works against 95% of the population?

Unfortunately, the GOP’s control over Congress and most state legislatures means that Constitutional amendments to convert America into a true republic can never be passed through the two means provided in the Constitution.

In fact, those legislatures are very close to convening a Convention of the States to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment, to do away with Social Security, Medicare, environmental regulations and other humane and beneficial programs. And perhaps more, when it “runs away”.

If we want an American Republic, we need a new Constitutional Convention, and fix the awful undemocratic compromises of 1787. Not passable via the old means, it needs to be adopted by the nation via a national referendum. If we can secure the ballot boxes from tampering.

The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust… the way I hope preparing… for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation.    Thomas Jefferson