WE HAVE PERMISSION TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Mechanism(s) for The Revolution of 2013:
Whenever I hear "...take back our country..." I ask "what does that mean?" and "what is the 'mechanism' for taking back our country, and once taken back, how do we keep it?" Obviously many citizens feel our government is NOT being run for the benefit of the average citizen. But what is the "mechanism" for taking our country back? Is it emailing your Congressperson so your voice can be heard? How about voting in someone different the next time? Iceland is submitting their citizen designed Constitution to their parliament, but their process began with political support from their current government. What would happen if 65 million USA citizens designed a Constitution and submitted it to Congress? Most likely...nothing. So, we need a revolution. Our Constitution does not have an article from our Founders to address "in case citizens want a change in the system of government, here's what to do..." John Adams should have insisted his quote be included in the Constitution:
"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestible, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it."
THIS IS IMPORTANT: A violent revolution, like those seen in the Middle East and Africa, are forceful revolutions and when successful, the first thing the revolutionaries do is form a new government and write a new constitution. The Revolution of 2013 is a revolution VOTED "in" by a majority of voters - we'll be ringing the doorbell of the White House and walking in the front door. Not a shot will be fired. The day after I become President-elect, I will request a dinner meeting in the White House with President Obama including Michele Obama and my wife Deb - just the 4 of us. The day after that, I will request a meeting in the White House with President Obama and the 9 Justices of the Supreme Court. Cooperation of President Obama and the 9 Justices is critical to revolutionary success. Since this is an open and transparent revolution, they will already know what the citizens want, but the first formal meeting will be to request a cooperative transition to the new United States of America. What if they say "no"? Here's why this mechanism will work - remember, I'll be Constitutionally elected as a President of the United States of America. I'll represent what my voters want me to represent (the new system of government). As duly elected Commander in Chief, the result of the current government saying "no" is my declaration of an insurrection, and that's when the fight will begin. BUT, I don't believe the Supreme Court would deny the will of the voters backing the revolution. And we need the Supreme Court cooperation to make the transition. Since the House of Representatives will be closed, and the powers of Senators will be revised, I wouldn't expect cooperation from Congress nor see the need for them to vote on the revolution.
151 citizen-Senators
Taking back our country is what this revolution is about. 300 million citizens become the "Board of Directors" overseeing our government, and 151 citizen-Senators would represent us directly within the government. Citizens will be selected similar to being called upon for jury duty. The difference is these 151 citizens will serve 4 years as full Senators with salary and benefits the same as the 150 elected-Senators. There will be minimum requirements and ability to say "no" when selected - not every citizen can manage a 4 year break in their life and/or job/career/business. We're not calling upon them to create or author a whole lot of legislation, but they will have the staff to do so should they individually or as a group feel compelled to create legislation. Their main role is to understand and vote on all legislation before the full Senate (301 Senators) of which most will be created and authored by the 150 elected-Senators. Of course, as a group, the 151 citizen-Senators can pass or veto ANY legislation.
"We the People" remain in charge!!!
These 151 citizen-Senators function in what is called a "deliberative democracy".
So why 3 Presidents? While I’ve never been a Marine I do understand their success as an organization is based on the “rule of three”. Each Marine has 3 Marines he/she is responsible to and for. So 300 million CITIZENS are in charge, and WE have 3 Presidents who work for US.
First President – serving his/her years 9 thru 12
Second President – serving his/her years 5 thru 8
Third President – serving his/her years 1 thru 4
Titled First, Second and Third only for title purposes. They are all equal in terms of their power. Every 4 years WE elect a new Third President as the First President finishes his/her 12 years, and the incumbent Third President becomes the Second President and the incumbent Second President becomes the First President.
Continuing with the rule of 3. WE have 3 Presidents serving US, and they will each have 3 Cabinet Secretaries reporting to them:
First President’s Cabinet Secretaries:
Defense, Homeland Security
State
Treasury
Second President’s Cabinet Secretaries:
Education, Housing, Veterans
Health Care and CITIZEN Services
Attorney General
Third President’s Cabinet Secretaries:
Commerce, Agriculture, Labor, Transportation
Energy
Interior
The Third President (years 1 thru 4) lives wherever he/she wishes and commutes to work at the White House – via helicopter if suburban or rural residence is preferred, or small motorcade if D.C. living is chosen. The Third President is the “CITIZEN hardware” President, responsible for the domestic business environment and infrastructure of the economy.
The Second President (years 5 thru 8) lives wherever he/she wishes and commutes to work at the White House – via helicopter if suburban or rural residence is preferred, or small motorcade if D.C. living is chosen. The Second President is the “CITIZEN software” President, responsible for the people of the USA, their healthcare and general well being.
The First President (years 9 thru 12) lives in the White House. This President now represents US on the world stage as “CITIZEN world traveler” President, responsible for OUR place in the world. Half of this President's time will be spent outside the USA, and the other half hosting invited/visiting foreign officials here in the USA.
Whether you believe what I propose, a Presidential Triumvirate, is good, bad, or ugly, I will bet $100 that any past President would cheer making his job easier with more time to accomplish the things he wanted to accomplish. This is the core of the Revolution, giving our Presidents MORE power and MORE time to be effective.
The 747s have gotta go. Our Presidents can fly in much smaller private jets, and all 3 will never be in the air at the same time, nor more than 2 in the same plane. We want our Presidents to be able to snooze or read a novel while flying, but they don't need a flying White House. If for some reason a President gets “stuck” in a foreign country or somewhere in the USA, he/she can hop a commercial flight or a military transport back home. Security for each President can be lightened, as the risk of the job is lessened because if one President is compromised, there are 2 others who are still on the job. So each President has a smaller security team, but when 2 or 3 of them are together the security teams merge into one larger security team.
Each President will know he/she is coming to Washington D.C. to serve as part of a 3 person team.
The Election Process
The electoral college will be gone. Presidents will be elected by popular vote. ANYBODY over the age of 18 can be elected, regardless of citizenship or country of birth. The requirement for USA birth was established by our Founders for fear of a British born person being elected President and then being loyal to the King of England. Regardless of what you might think of Governor Arnold Swarzenegger's political or personal life, you cannot question his patriotism and love of the USA. What are we afraid of? That Arnold might make us subjects of Austria and mandate that we all learn to ski? “Candidates” will no longer even have to be a “candidate”. I’ll use Bill Gates as an example. I’d vote for him and if he got the most votes then he would have the option to accept or decline the opportunity to serve as a President. If he declines, then the option moves to the person who received the second highest votes, etc. Political parties could still nominate a candidate or even several candidates if they wish. Other candidates can simply “announce” their candidacy and/or spend as much money as they wish to get their candidacy in the public eye. There will be NO taxpayer’s money spent on campaigns.
The first election in 2013 will be to elect 3 people, the First, Second, and Third Presidents. Whoever gets the highest votes is the Third President, in for 12 years. The second highest is Second President in for 8 years. The third highest is the First President in for 4 years. This first election will be the only time 2 Presidents will be restricted from serving 12 years. President Obama (and for that matter any former President) has a shot at 12 more years.
The Social Security Administration will be tasked with “one vote per social security number”. If American Idol can figure out how to count 100 million votes, so can we!
CABINET SECRETARIES
The 9 Cabinet Secretaries will be appointed as they are today. Each President has 3 Cabinet Secretaries reporting to him/her, so every 4 years the Presidents get to choose who is their own Cabinet Secretaries.
SUPREME COURT
The 9 Supreme Court Justices will be appointed as they are today, by a 2 of 3 vote by the Office of the Presidents, confirmed by 151 Senators. The only change is a limit to 12 year terms. Every 4 years 3 new Supreme Court Justices will be appointed.
SENATORS
150 Elected-Senators, 3 per State who will mimic the Presidential election process. Senators will serve 8 year terms without re-election.
Do note that the Federal government will still be bicameral with 2 chambers to cross-check each other. It will take 151/301 Senators to vote for or against any bill. It will take 2 of 3 Presidents to vote for or against any bill.
Elected by the States who will mimic the Presidential election process. Governors will serve 8 year terms without re-election.
"Taking money out of politics is like taking jumping out of basketball"
~ Senator (and NBA star) Bill Bradley
Well, I agree that you can't completely take money out of politics because afterall, our federal government has a $3 trillion budget and our elected politicians are charged with spending that money.
BUT I believe we can take big-money out of politics and we can take personal financial gain out of politics too:
1) Inexpensive and/or free election processes means candidates don't have to spend a lot of money to be elected. Yes, candidates can still spend lots of money on marketing & advertising, and yes, the advantage goes to those with bigger budgets. But if all it takes is a website to be a candidate, it opens the doors to inexpensive elections. This coming 2012 Presidential election will probably see $2 BILLION spent in total by all the candidates - that's a lot of money to go after a $400,000 per year job!
2) Term limits - when the President(s) and Senators have longer fixed terms, without possibility of re-election then there are no "money" issues concerning re-election that might sway a politician's vote during his/her term of service.
3) 151 citizen-Senators. The Senate will start producing government that is FOR "We the People". BIG MONEY influence over the Congressional process will be reduced or eliminated. Lobbying won't need to be made illegal because it will be ineffective - why would a "special interest" spend $millions to lobby when the 151 citizen-Senators (and the Office of the Presidents) is just going to "shut the door" on special interests anyway?
4) POLITICAL PARTIES A big reason why political parties exist is because it takes a lot of money to get elected. Today if one is not a member of either the Democratic or Republican party one's chances of getting elected are very slim. The "2 party system" brings an established organization and money to candidates and politicians of their respective parties. With 1, 2, and 3 above, the playing field will be leveled for smaller parties and independents too.
While I state emphatically, "...it's NOT the people...it's the system...", changing the system DOES change the nature of the participants. The system designed here should bring more people into the system who are not seeking personal power and money by a career in politics. Eliminate the ability to get rich in the political system and we eliminate the influence of big-money!
The system designed here will reduce (or eliminate) the domination and gridlock cause by the 2 party system.
The OBJECTIVE of a re-organized system of government is to create a system of government that is FOR "We the People". Our current government is a catastrophic system, making decisions in reaction to what has gone wrong. We have an adversarial form of government, rather than a cooperative form of government. To survive as a country, indeed to survive as a species, our leader need to be making GOOD cooperative decisions for our future - 5, 10, 25, 50 years into the future. I often hear that we are burdening our children, grandchildren, and unborn greatgrandchildren with the problems we are creating today. So today, we MUST start looking at solutions that will positively impact our children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren...
Okay, here are some of my PERSONAL OPINIONS - remember, I will NOT be making any policy decisions during my 100 days as your President. You are NOT electing me because of my personal opinions, you are electing me to represent the revolutionary platform as presented here.
1) War. Simple, but certainly not "easy". We simply have to stop fighting. The USA has 5% of the world's population but we spend 50% of the world's military spending. War destroys many things, including the home economy. At least in the "old days" war had "spoils of war" including whatever could be looted and brought home, plus conquered territories became part of a growing empire.
2) Employment, capitalism and socialism. I believe there is a HUGE question that few are considering:
"WHAT IF, we simply don't need every able-bodied person to work to provide ALL the goods and services needed by our society ???"
In 1952 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. wrote "Player Piano" about a society where machines did all the work.
"The novel follows Doctor Paul Proteus, an engineer at the Ilium Works. The novel takes place in an America of the future where machines run everything and do everything, making people almost afterthoughts. Specialization is the norm, and all of the wealthy upper-class people have doctorate level degrees, with eight years of schooling for everyone; consequently it creates a society of well-educated thinkers and not doers. Paul seems to be on his way up the ladder of success in this techno-utopia - a perfect wife, a fast-track position at Ilium Works and a shot at a major promotion. But he is plagued with doubts about what modern life has become. Through a strange series of events, Dr. Proteus joins a revolutionary organization called the Ghost Shirt Society and even becomes its leader, at least in name. These Ghost Shirts, their name taken from the Native American Ghost Dance succeed in destroying much of Ilium's mechanized infrastructure. Yet, they realize the lack of hope in their mission, and at the end it becomes clear that their goal was to give man hope instead of revolutionize society."
Are were there yet? Or at least on our way? In my opinion the BIGGEST REASON FOR THE DISAPPEARING MIDDLE CLASS is NOT the exporting of jobs, but of the reduction of needs for middle management jobs because of computers and robots. One middle manager with a computer today, can do the job of 5 middle managers of "yesterday".
"Are Jobs Obsolete?" ~ Douglas Rushkoff
From Time Magazine (8/29/2011): "Firing Bankers for Fun and Profit" ~ Rana Foroohar
"...are now being axed, not just because the economy isn't rebounding, but also because they are being displaced by software..." "Even in the relationship side of the business, like mergers and acquisitions, software can increasingly do what humans used to, so that you need just two investment bankers and a lawyer rather than 20 to complete, say, a major oil-company merger."
WHY are we not ALL enjoying the fruits of the productivity of computers and robots? Why aren't we ALL working 20 hours per week and enjoying more time at the beach or more time playing with our children? Here's my layperson's explanation:
Let's use a simple factory as an example:
1) Factory #1 is owned by a single person owner. 20 workers each work 40 hours per week, so 800 person-hours required. The owner spends $$$on automation and computer/robot now replace 10 workers, so 400 person-hours required. 10 workers are fired. Because of reduced labor costs, owner reduces the price of the product(s) to the customers (this is generally a good thing).
2) Factory #2 is owned by it's 20 workers. Now the 20 workers spend $$$on automation and computer/robot. They decide EACH of them will now work 20 hours per week at the same 40 hour per week pay, so they can ALL enjoy the fruits of the automation. Sounds great, huh? BUT, competitive pressures from factory #1 means factory #2 has to reduce it's prices and can no longer afford to pay the 20 workers for 40 hours, so pay is reduced to pay only for the 20 hours worked, and the 20 workers now have to find part-time 20 hour per week jobs to make up for their personal shortfall in income.
Can't win? I don't pretend to have the win-able answer, but it's a big question for the 372 people running this country after The Revolution of 2013. How do we ALL benefit by the high productivity of this wealthy nation?
The answer starts to look more like socialism. Before you reply with a kneejerk reaction to the word "socialism", do note that our system is already capitalistic/socialistic. Services like libraries, public schools, police, and fire department are not part of the capitalistic system. Many "social services" already exist in our system. We share a lot of things in this country already.
I was a born capitalist. I grew up in a family business and most of my family were entrepreneurs and business owners. Even though my family were "neo-cons" I was the "Alex" from the TV show "Family Ties", destined to be the Republican capitalist of my family. I got my MBA from University of Chicago, which is known as the center for free market capitalism. BUT, maybe it's my age, maybe it's what I'm observing about our economy, I'm becoming more of a Socialist.
I believe it's only a theory that a capitalistic economy expands to provide (good) jobs for everyone seeking a job. Especially without population growth, a society eventually gets to the point where we don't need more "stuff". Capitalism rewards efficiency, so as in the discussion above about computers and robots, human jobs are replaced. It's only a myth that laid off workers can be retrained for better jobs in the computer/robot society - the math just doesn't add up. Population growth can be a good temporary band-aid (more people means more of every good and service are needed), but it's only temporary because population can't grow forever.
I read that one can measure the level of "civility" of a civilization by how highly they pay/paid their athletes and entertainers. By that measure the USA is HIGHLY civilized. In an economy, items that are not classified as "necessities" all become "trickle down" items. To the extent that an economy is wealthy and has "extra" money because of efficiencies of production, money is circulated to pay for items like athletes and entertainers. My own business is "entertainment" - nobody has a "need" for artificial flowers for a gift item.
Capitalism assume unlimited resources. A mere 200 years ago it appeared to all of us that resources were unlimited - smokestacks billowed smoke into the air because the skys seemed unlimited. Streams and lakes were polluted because they too seemed unlimited. Oceans have been fished...oil has been pumped...and coal has been mined. All of Earth's resources "appear" to be unlimited because for the most part their quantities are huge, but huge is still limited. The game of Monopoly™ is an accurate (and horrible) example of capitalism with limited resources - the game ends when 1 player owns ALL the resources, and everyone else cannot afford to purchase or rent resources from the 1 owner. Game over.
Socialism assumes limited resources and is based on a sharing, preserving, and renewing resources. We have to do a better job at sharing resources. From the 2008 movie "Swing Vote" (Kevin Costner): "Bud Johnson: [reading a letter] 'If this is one of the richest countries in the world, why is it so many of us can barely afford living here?'"
Our BIG issues are things like water, food, energy, transportation, education and healthcare. If you believe our current system of government can handle these issues, then refer back to the John Stossel video and then answer me this one question:
If every President since Nixon has promised an "energy policy" why has it not ever happened?