Ex Post Facto
02-16-2008, 02:16 PM
This is an interesting concept. Thought it should be worth a read.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/02/16/28th-amendment-ending-two-party-rule-quickly-and-easily/
Jim Peterson
28th Amendment: Ending Two Party Rule Quickly and Easily
February 16, 2008 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Vox Populi
Now more than ever before, Americans in February 2008 are seeing the need for their state legislatures to ratify a simple new US Constitutional Amendment that would break the back of the two party system that leaves the majority of Americans consistently unrepresented. When John McCain said about Men's Rights concerns the other day "I am not touching that tar baby," he left much of the American population out in the cold.
220 years ago, geography was the main determinant of what a "special interest group" was, but geography and direct geographical representation became less important in the 20th century and the Internet has made geographical representation obsolete in the extreme. Ron Paul represents you and me more than he does most of the people in his official district. Everyone knows this, but nobody has proposed an amendment to deal with this…until now.
As one of the first "democracies", America got it wrong with its "all or nothing" voting system where every Senator, Congressperson and President is directly elected (where every eligible citizen gets one vote for every position). Tyranny results when every citizen gets to vote for every position…because, in a room filled with 12 people including 7 idiots, the idiots will make sure that absolutely every person they elect will be idiot-certified by a 7 to 5 vote.
European countries, most of which were recently given their freedom by US military action, mostly have a system where, if 5% of the national population votes for an obscure political party, that party gets 5% representation in the national legislation even though. Under such a system, the idiots in the above room could always chose a country's president or prime minister, but never control more than 7/12ths of the legislature.
We probably cannot get a 28th Amendment passed where the Senate and House are entirely filled proportionately (for instance where Ron Paul supporters would be guaranteed 10% of the Senate and House members). Too many Americans might still believe the ILLUSION that they are being specifically represented when they directly elect US senators (two per state) or directly elect someone to represent their district.
But a 28th Amendment could increase the size of the Senate and House by 50% with the additional members being AT LARGE Senators and Represenatives who are UNPAID.
The "At Large" members could be selected either by party leaders in proportion to the percentage of votes a specific party gets in a national "At Large" vote or we could do the following:
Allow thousands of people to put themselves up as "At Large Candidates" where the 50 highest vote-getters become unpaid US Senators, who are JUST AS POWERFUL as the other US Senators and where the next 175 highest vote-getters become unpaid US Representatives who, unlike the other representatives, only represent the 100,000 or so people who felt the need to vote for them (the At Large person we vote for would be more important to us personally than the paid Congressman who will represent the geographical district where we happen to be temporarily living).
The dynamics of making 33.3% of Congress to become "At Large" would be that most of these extra members will NOT have been elected by a majority of people in a given geographical area and, mathematically, because the large amount of idiots in each and every precinct can only vote ONCE for the "At Large" member, they will end up all voting for the few Democrats or Republicans that they can think of who will get maybe 25 "At Large" positions, while the thinking people can then make sure that 5th place finishers and even 20th place fiinishers become US Senators as well.
This way, you won't just get a dozen Ron Paul Party members in the US Senate, you will get some "Pro Life Party" and "Pro Choice Party" and "Women's Rights Party" and "Men's Rights Party" members as well. Sure, you would get a number of movie stars and other celebrities…but only if they put themselves in for the positions and, hey, I would trust a rich movie star not to be corrupt more than I would trust John McCain.
The current "tyranny of the idiots" would end because the idiots who listen to the media would not each have one vote for every potential member of Congress, and there would be no such thing as wasted vote syndrome for the At Large candidates.
And those of us who support Ron Paul now but disagree on a few small matters like immigration…can chose to put Ron Paul in the Senate with 1 Million votes or chose to put a lesser known libertarian into the House with 100,000 votes (enough people would vote Ron Paul into the Senate under such a scenario).
But we could not do both. Everyone would get only 1 vote for just 1 of the thousands of at large candidates, and the top 225 will get their positions after each of us has had our 1 vote.
As in Europe (where parties designate the parliament members based on the proportion their party got in the national vote), this proposal for more direct non-geographical representation, would result in people not having to sacrifice their ideals in order to belong to a winning political team, which is the inevitable result of banding together in today's America to get someone into the White House with a plurality.
A really good benefit to this simple solution would be that the two parties that no control our lives would instantly lose most of their power because the mathematical nature of the two party system is for people to line up 50:50 behind them. An influx of 225 new unpaid Congresspeople would hold all the swing vote power.
Here is the good part: Such an Amendment would fly through the State legislatures and could be ratified quickly, especially in the current climate where the media just convinced a bunch of people to make John McCain the frontrunner for conservatives.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/02/16/28th-amendment-ending-two-party-rule-quickly-and-easily/
Jim Peterson
28th Amendment: Ending Two Party Rule Quickly and Easily
February 16, 2008 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Vox Populi
Now more than ever before, Americans in February 2008 are seeing the need for their state legislatures to ratify a simple new US Constitutional Amendment that would break the back of the two party system that leaves the majority of Americans consistently unrepresented. When John McCain said about Men's Rights concerns the other day "I am not touching that tar baby," he left much of the American population out in the cold.
220 years ago, geography was the main determinant of what a "special interest group" was, but geography and direct geographical representation became less important in the 20th century and the Internet has made geographical representation obsolete in the extreme. Ron Paul represents you and me more than he does most of the people in his official district. Everyone knows this, but nobody has proposed an amendment to deal with this…until now.
As one of the first "democracies", America got it wrong with its "all or nothing" voting system where every Senator, Congressperson and President is directly elected (where every eligible citizen gets one vote for every position). Tyranny results when every citizen gets to vote for every position…because, in a room filled with 12 people including 7 idiots, the idiots will make sure that absolutely every person they elect will be idiot-certified by a 7 to 5 vote.
European countries, most of which were recently given their freedom by US military action, mostly have a system where, if 5% of the national population votes for an obscure political party, that party gets 5% representation in the national legislation even though. Under such a system, the idiots in the above room could always chose a country's president or prime minister, but never control more than 7/12ths of the legislature.
We probably cannot get a 28th Amendment passed where the Senate and House are entirely filled proportionately (for instance where Ron Paul supporters would be guaranteed 10% of the Senate and House members). Too many Americans might still believe the ILLUSION that they are being specifically represented when they directly elect US senators (two per state) or directly elect someone to represent their district.
But a 28th Amendment could increase the size of the Senate and House by 50% with the additional members being AT LARGE Senators and Represenatives who are UNPAID.
The "At Large" members could be selected either by party leaders in proportion to the percentage of votes a specific party gets in a national "At Large" vote or we could do the following:
Allow thousands of people to put themselves up as "At Large Candidates" where the 50 highest vote-getters become unpaid US Senators, who are JUST AS POWERFUL as the other US Senators and where the next 175 highest vote-getters become unpaid US Representatives who, unlike the other representatives, only represent the 100,000 or so people who felt the need to vote for them (the At Large person we vote for would be more important to us personally than the paid Congressman who will represent the geographical district where we happen to be temporarily living).
The dynamics of making 33.3% of Congress to become "At Large" would be that most of these extra members will NOT have been elected by a majority of people in a given geographical area and, mathematically, because the large amount of idiots in each and every precinct can only vote ONCE for the "At Large" member, they will end up all voting for the few Democrats or Republicans that they can think of who will get maybe 25 "At Large" positions, while the thinking people can then make sure that 5th place finishers and even 20th place fiinishers become US Senators as well.
This way, you won't just get a dozen Ron Paul Party members in the US Senate, you will get some "Pro Life Party" and "Pro Choice Party" and "Women's Rights Party" and "Men's Rights Party" members as well. Sure, you would get a number of movie stars and other celebrities…but only if they put themselves in for the positions and, hey, I would trust a rich movie star not to be corrupt more than I would trust John McCain.
The current "tyranny of the idiots" would end because the idiots who listen to the media would not each have one vote for every potential member of Congress, and there would be no such thing as wasted vote syndrome for the At Large candidates.
And those of us who support Ron Paul now but disagree on a few small matters like immigration…can chose to put Ron Paul in the Senate with 1 Million votes or chose to put a lesser known libertarian into the House with 100,000 votes (enough people would vote Ron Paul into the Senate under such a scenario).
But we could not do both. Everyone would get only 1 vote for just 1 of the thousands of at large candidates, and the top 225 will get their positions after each of us has had our 1 vote.
As in Europe (where parties designate the parliament members based on the proportion their party got in the national vote), this proposal for more direct non-geographical representation, would result in people not having to sacrifice their ideals in order to belong to a winning political team, which is the inevitable result of banding together in today's America to get someone into the White House with a plurality.
A really good benefit to this simple solution would be that the two parties that no control our lives would instantly lose most of their power because the mathematical nature of the two party system is for people to line up 50:50 behind them. An influx of 225 new unpaid Congresspeople would hold all the swing vote power.
Here is the good part: Such an Amendment would fly through the State legislatures and could be ratified quickly, especially in the current climate where the media just convinced a bunch of people to make John McCain the frontrunner for conservatives.