Saturday, April 08, 2006
An alternative to staying home on election day
I'm getting really tired of seeing good conservative bloggers and blog commenters vowing they're never going to vote for a Republican again. Lately, it is usually because they're disgusted over lack of Congressional support for the Global War on Terror, or Senate inaction on illegal immigration. So I wrote all this just this morning in the comments on one such site:
Withholding your vote has a long and sad history as a guarantor of failure. Even the Sunnis in Iraq have lately learned that lesson. Many millions of Americans may well be strictly adhering to that program now, and virtually no one makes any effort to distinguish between the actively disgusted and the apathetic.
The proven alternative to holding your nose and voting for the least worst is organizing. In a legitimate democracy the threat of action, conveyed by organized and informed people who really intend action, can work and can even forestall the necessity of action.
I wrote up a proposal for a program to return control of the United States to the ordinary voter. It doesn’t specifically reference illegal immigration, but I think it would send a shot across the bows of our political elites and ensure that measures favored by overwhelming majorities of average citizens, as controlling illegal immigration is, would be unstoppable.
I named it the Minuteman Program to show the open-ended commitment it requires of its adherents; I hope the current Minuteman organization doesn’t mind, and I expect they’d buy into it without reservation. Note that only points I and II (after the pledge) would be really binding for 2006; points III through VII would be a suggested program for reestablishing the rule of law in the event Congress can’t move fast enough by 2008, and so would all be debateable amongst those of us who “took the pledge”. Point III is term limits, point IV is an extension of “no taxation without representation” to try and get corporate money out of politics, point V is intended to hound careerists and perk-hunters from office, point VI is a comeuppance I think the US Senate needs, and point VII might be able to cut, over time, the Gordian Knot of criminal law enforcement theory. I’ll bet any of you could add some proposals to it, but I think we’d best start with ideas which have extremely broad support.
The Minuteman Pledge
I am a citizen of the United States of America, or will be when I reach my 18th birthday.
I will demand effective enforcement of the laws of these United States and support the Constitutional order of the same by any and all legal means and at all times.
I understand and maintain that all members of every legislative body in these United States serve at the pleasure of the majority of the legal electorate of their constituencies.
I acknowledge the right and duty of every American citizen to bring about the replacement of any legislator who has failed to properly represent a majority of his constituency.
I do now swear (or affirm) that I will vote in every election of a State or Congressional legislator and ensure that every such seat is contested by a signatory of this Minuteman Pledge. I will stand for election myself if it is legal and necessary.
(signed) _________________ Date ________ Witnessed __________________
The Minuteman Program for 2006
I. An amendment to the United States Constitution shall require that all state and Congressional legislators be subject to instant recall from office upon the presentation (to the officer of their State responsible for the receipt of petitions) of the signatures of a majority of the legal electorate of their constituency.
II. Signatories to the Minuteman Pledge shall establish reliable communications within their electoral districts to ensure that all are informed of which candidates have taken the Minuteman Pledge. A Minuteman Organization shall be founded for each legislative electoral district to ensure such communications. Said Organization shall, should no established political Party or Party nominee contending in its electoral district formally pronounce itself (first) unreservedly in support of the Minuteman Pledge and points I and II of the Minuteman Program for 2006, and (second) open to giving due consideration to Program points III through VII, prepare the way for the timely founding of a Minuteman Party to contest the elections of 2008.
III. Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Constitutions of the several States shall limit the service of any individual citizen to two terms of office in any legislative body.
IV. There shall be no taxes levied but upon persons subject to the laws of these United States. Specifically, no corporate entity shall suffer seizure of any monies whatever, nor of property without just compensation.
V. The salaries and compensation offered to any legislator in these United States shall consist of only zero dollars and the respect due a good citizen of these United States. Signers of the Minuteman Pledge shall be honor-bound to provide from amongst themselves for the voluntary financing of a decent life for any indigent signatory during a term of office to which he may be elected.
VI. The alternative name of the United States House of Representatives shall be "the Peoples' House". The alternative name of the United States Senate shall be "the lower House". The United States Constitution shall be amended to provide that a 60% vote of the House of Representatives shall suffice to enable the Speaker of the House to assume the Presidency of the Senate and to use the current Rules of the Peoples' House to conduct lower House action on bills already passed by the House of Representatives.
VII. Effective enforcement of the laws of the United States and of the several States shall be construed to mean, "any combination of penalties, confinement, education, and treatment imposed on a convicted offender which is found or believed by reasonable persons to ensure that a given offender will be less than 50% likely to reoffend against the same law, and more than 50% likely to deter any person from knowingly committing a similar offense". All legislators shall be bound to readjust statutes, methods of the selection of judges, and penal options so as to ensure judicial outcomes which provide for effective enforcement given current knowledge of recidivism rates, the behavior of persons who may consider offending, and public understanding of the law. Punishments specifically allowed by a majority of the electorate and carried out with all due publicity shall be considered necessary, not cruel, and common, not unusual.
[/end anti-apathy rant]
Note that I'm not advocating leaving the Republican Party, just laying out a program which, if it gained steam, would gut the GOP and make it an also-ran third party if it didn't mend its ways fast, and simultaneously keep the Democrats from ever expanding beyond their radical Left base again. There seems to be a widespread belief that the US is going the way of Europe, that is, toward being ruled by a political elite comprising the leadership of both major parties which is becoming unresponsive to the average voter.
Withholding your vote has a long and sad history as a guarantor of failure. Even the Sunnis in Iraq have lately learned that lesson. Many millions of Americans may well be strictly adhering to that program now, and virtually no one makes any effort to distinguish between the actively disgusted and the apathetic.
The proven alternative to holding your nose and voting for the least worst is organizing. In a legitimate democracy the threat of action, conveyed by organized and informed people who really intend action, can work and can even forestall the necessity of action.
I wrote up a proposal for a program to return control of the United States to the ordinary voter. It doesn’t specifically reference illegal immigration, but I think it would send a shot across the bows of our political elites and ensure that measures favored by overwhelming majorities of average citizens, as controlling illegal immigration is, would be unstoppable.
I named it the Minuteman Program to show the open-ended commitment it requires of its adherents; I hope the current Minuteman organization doesn’t mind, and I expect they’d buy into it without reservation. Note that only points I and II (after the pledge) would be really binding for 2006; points III through VII would be a suggested program for reestablishing the rule of law in the event Congress can’t move fast enough by 2008, and so would all be debateable amongst those of us who “took the pledge”. Point III is term limits, point IV is an extension of “no taxation without representation” to try and get corporate money out of politics, point V is intended to hound careerists and perk-hunters from office, point VI is a comeuppance I think the US Senate needs, and point VII might be able to cut, over time, the Gordian Knot of criminal law enforcement theory. I’ll bet any of you could add some proposals to it, but I think we’d best start with ideas which have extremely broad support.
The Minuteman Pledge
I am a citizen of the United States of America, or will be when I reach my 18th birthday.
I will demand effective enforcement of the laws of these United States and support the Constitutional order of the same by any and all legal means and at all times.
I understand and maintain that all members of every legislative body in these United States serve at the pleasure of the majority of the legal electorate of their constituencies.
I acknowledge the right and duty of every American citizen to bring about the replacement of any legislator who has failed to properly represent a majority of his constituency.
I do now swear (or affirm) that I will vote in every election of a State or Congressional legislator and ensure that every such seat is contested by a signatory of this Minuteman Pledge. I will stand for election myself if it is legal and necessary.
(signed) _________________ Date ________ Witnessed __________________
The Minuteman Program for 2006
I. An amendment to the United States Constitution shall require that all state and Congressional legislators be subject to instant recall from office upon the presentation (to the officer of their State responsible for the receipt of petitions) of the signatures of a majority of the legal electorate of their constituency.
II. Signatories to the Minuteman Pledge shall establish reliable communications within their electoral districts to ensure that all are informed of which candidates have taken the Minuteman Pledge. A Minuteman Organization shall be founded for each legislative electoral district to ensure such communications. Said Organization shall, should no established political Party or Party nominee contending in its electoral district formally pronounce itself (first) unreservedly in support of the Minuteman Pledge and points I and II of the Minuteman Program for 2006, and (second) open to giving due consideration to Program points III through VII, prepare the way for the timely founding of a Minuteman Party to contest the elections of 2008.
III. Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Constitutions of the several States shall limit the service of any individual citizen to two terms of office in any legislative body.
IV. There shall be no taxes levied but upon persons subject to the laws of these United States. Specifically, no corporate entity shall suffer seizure of any monies whatever, nor of property without just compensation.
V. The salaries and compensation offered to any legislator in these United States shall consist of only zero dollars and the respect due a good citizen of these United States. Signers of the Minuteman Pledge shall be honor-bound to provide from amongst themselves for the voluntary financing of a decent life for any indigent signatory during a term of office to which he may be elected.
VI. The alternative name of the United States House of Representatives shall be "the Peoples' House". The alternative name of the United States Senate shall be "the lower House". The United States Constitution shall be amended to provide that a 60% vote of the House of Representatives shall suffice to enable the Speaker of the House to assume the Presidency of the Senate and to use the current Rules of the Peoples' House to conduct lower House action on bills already passed by the House of Representatives.
VII. Effective enforcement of the laws of the United States and of the several States shall be construed to mean, "any combination of penalties, confinement, education, and treatment imposed on a convicted offender which is found or believed by reasonable persons to ensure that a given offender will be less than 50% likely to reoffend against the same law, and more than 50% likely to deter any person from knowingly committing a similar offense". All legislators shall be bound to readjust statutes, methods of the selection of judges, and penal options so as to ensure judicial outcomes which provide for effective enforcement given current knowledge of recidivism rates, the behavior of persons who may consider offending, and public understanding of the law. Punishments specifically allowed by a majority of the electorate and carried out with all due publicity shall be considered necessary, not cruel, and common, not unusual.
[/end anti-apathy rant]
Note that I'm not advocating leaving the Republican Party, just laying out a program which, if it gained steam, would gut the GOP and make it an also-ran third party if it didn't mend its ways fast, and simultaneously keep the Democrats from ever expanding beyond their radical Left base again. There seems to be a widespread belief that the US is going the way of Europe, that is, toward being ruled by a political elite comprising the leadership of both major parties which is becoming unresponsive to the average voter.
