So broken: our political system and our way of life. And still another mass shooting, this one in
a CA bar. We’ve become inured to them by
lack of any action, the NRA’s tentacles wrapped around Congress. There are solutions. It only takes the will.
Anyone who caught Trump’s news conference yesterday, his
firing of Sessions and replacing him with a Yes Man, should understand the
fragility of our democratic system.
Demagogues play the Press to their propagandist advantage. Demagogues demand obedience.
I had only one wish for the Midterms: gain the House,
although like most moderate progressives, I was rooting for Beto, Gillum, et
al. Still, I sleepily emailed ebullient messages
to a few friends at 3.00 AM declaring “victory” with the subject heading “bring
on the subpoenas.”
But I am no Pollyanna, thinking that having control of
the House will ameliorate the deep dark political divide in this country. It might exacerbate it, but as with an
operation, the aftermath therapy can be more painful than the procedure.
We focus on Trump, which is the way he wants it but there
are so many systemic issues. Our Constitution is the best political document
ever drafted, but it was by 18th century thinkers.
The 2nd Amendment needs updating. Muskets are no longer the only “arms” that we
have the right to bear.
The Electoral College needs fixing or abandonment,
allowing the direct popular vote to determine the outcome of Presidential
elections. Slavery and concern that the average
person might not be best suited to make those decisions led to the Electoral
College. We need to question its
legitimacy in today’s world where information is readily available to everyone.
Similarly, another consequence of the great
Constitutional compromise was the one giving each State the same number of
Senators, irrespective of population. I
quote what Alexander Hamilton had to say about that in The Federalist below. Who
could have seen what now exists, with thinly populated states such as North
Dakota, about the population size of an El Paso, Texas, having the same Senate
representation as the entire State of Texas itself, giving the people of ND nearly
40 times the political clout to have their say over Supreme Court Justices,
etc.? Even a greater multiple when it
comes to states like NY or CA.
Another bête noir of mine, and thankfully we now have a brief
reprieve, is political advertising.
Super PACs representing special interests, as well as extremist political
party advertising, are a form of government approved brainwashing, appealing
primarily to emotional issues. We’ve successfully
removed cigarette advertising from our airwaves. Time has come to remove political advertising
and endless robo calls (spend the $$ on our decaying infrastructure, or
healthcare, etc. instead!). Make all
political discourse over the airways subject to universally recognized debate
rules. If a candidate has something to say,
write an opinion piece for local and/or national publication, maintain a Web
site expressing plans and opinions. Aren’t
we sick of the political advertising which portrays the opposition as being
sent from hell?
Easier said than done, I know, but we have to do
something to separate the democratic process from mass persuasion dollars. The next couple of months before our new
House representatives are sworn in are going to be critical. May we survive
those days to get democracy back on track.
The Federalist No. 22 by Alexander
Hamilton
Every idea of
proportion and every rule of fair representation conspire to condemn a
principle, which gives to Rhode Island an equal weight in the scale of power
with Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or New York; and to Delaware an equal voice
in the national deliberations with Pennsylvania, or Virginia, or North
Carolina. Its operation contradicts the fundamental maxim of republican
government, which requires that the sense of the majority should prevail.
Sophistry may reply, that sovereigns are equal, and that a majority of the
votes of the States will be a majority of confederated America. But this kind
of logical legerdemain will never counteract the plain suggestions of justice and
common-sense. It may happen that this majority of States is a small minority of
the people of America; and two thirds of the people of America could not long
be persuaded, upon the credit of artificial distinctions and syllogistic
subtleties, to submit their interests to the management and disposal of one
third.
