FIVE STRAIGHTFORWARD IDEAS
1. MOVE ELECTIONS TO SATURDAY (OR SUNDAY)
2. OPEN PRIMARIES
3. END GERRYMANDERING
4. BRING BACK & ENCOURAGE THE SMALL DONOR
5. TERM LIMITS FOR THE SUPREME COURT
At the outset let me say that these ideas were put forth in an insightful
November 4th NYT column by Op-Ed writer Joe Nocera; although he rightly acknowledges they were not his ideas alone …. he more or less smartly summarized them in his column. I entreat you most heartily to take a moment and read his column reference the link provided below. I truly believe with insight and understanding we can together make our country a better place — fair for all of us.
First, 'MOVE ELECTIONS TO SATURDAY (OR SUNDAY)' versus Tuesday; there is no logical reason to hold elections during the middle of the week. Yes, unfortunately, this is the way we do it now; and there were reasons why it began (basically religious reasons, which Nocera reviews in his Op-Ed). But those reasons do not exist today to justify continuing—it doesn’t have to be. Some refer to it as being traditional. However, in that regard Thomas Paine observantly noted that, "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of the custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason." It’s time to change to Saturday!
Of the remaining four ideas, 2 & 3 are quite straightforward, and they may defy one’s imagination as to why they haven’t already been put into effect; well actually they have. In California and several other states they’ve begun what is known as ‘OPEN PRIMARIES’. Simply, there are ‘not’ primaries for different political parties; there’s only ‘one’ primary and it’s open to all. You may wonder how it could possibly work. Well, it does! Having participated in several open primaries, I can attest that it works astonishingly well. Its results weed out the extreme candidates, like those from the T-party. It presents the voter with a broad section of moderate candidates from which to choose—individuals more likely to govern from the center, work across party lines, and more fully represent the truer views of the entire electorate versus a small swath of extremists.
With respect to ending 'GERRYMANDERING', California has again shown the way by forming an independent body that redraws voting districts to better reflect views of entire communities and not those of a select few. Many are unaware that in the last election Republicans won fewer votes nationally, but gained more seats in the congress than democrats. Why? It was due to flagrant 'gerrymandering' by republicans after they overwhelmingly won in 2010—their so-called ‘mandate’. How could they do this is another story. However, clearly perfidious, 'gerrymandering' is antidemocratic; it’s rigging the system so the results turn out in your party’s favor even though it’s not in any way reflective of how the population actually voted!
The last two (4 & 5) — ‘BRING BACK & ENCOURAGE THE SMALL DONOR’ — New York City has shown how the small donor can matter, and it encourages small donor donations by matching them 6 to 1; so a small $100 donation can become $600. Lastly, the ‘SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS’— will be the hardest of all; and these two ‘donations & the justices’ are obviously intertwined. We all recognize that large amounts of cash, much of it crazily secret money, is warping our democratic process—and it is literally killing our democracy*; and, of course, we have the Supreme Court’s ‘Citizens United’ decision for almost singularly creating this national nightmare. These Supreme Court jurists should not be given lifetime tenure—it’s illogical to do so. These nine people are not gods and should not be allowed to have life and death control over us for their and our entire lives. We have clearly seen this destructive bent in the Roberts’ court with its extremely partisan right-wing agenda—they are the most conservative jurists in our history. They do not represent the consensus of American thought and they should not stand in judgment for an entire lifetime.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
*As a side-note I’m using the term ‘democracy’ loosely, for it’s important to understand that the United States is not, and has never been, a democracy—and rightly so. From its inception our country was established by the founding fathers as a constitutional republic; more fully, in a technical sense, we’re a ‘Constitutionally Limited Representative Democratic Republic’. If you’re not versed in the difference between the two — Democracy vs. Constitutional Republic — then I would direct you to the following website, which will more fully elucidate the subject:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/...
In brief, a democracy is simply where the majority rules; while in a constitutional republic the rights of the minority are protected against the majority by rule of law.
In addition, I’ve included a 4 minute plus video which might also be helpful in giving you a clearer understanding of the differences between them.
http://www.youtube.com/...