An open Letter: Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, President-Elect Biden and other distinguished Members of the Congress,
I know your time is precious, you have a lot of work to do, and one of your staffers will likely read this instead of you. I support you, I’ve followed many of your careers for years and plan on voting for the amazing things you want to achieve with my Local, State, and Federal Votes! I write now, because I realized something about Republican political power. It only exists, because we allow it to. Let me explain; Every election we read thousands of stories of voter suppression, especially in heavily Gerry-mandered districts. Every Election.
So I propose Congress, using it’s authority under Article I, Section 4, Clause 1, setup a framework for National Elections for Federal Office Holders, which can be accessed Online, through the government. This site will use the same level of security the SSA uses, with multi-level verification's, active monitoring and oversight, and should include UN Observers who report to congress on what they observed. Open it to ALL CITIZENS. With control of the House, Senate, and the Executive Branch, this can be accomplished. There are other ways of getting the states to “early-adopt” this approach, but it will be effective, it will be transformative, and it will be cost-effective and efficient!
Will it be an uphill fight, perhaps, will there be a political price for some? At first, but remember, Magically, people vote and millions more start electing people other than Anti-democratic populists. Republicans lose political power and the party as we know it is no more. I would argue for more, A Constitutional Amendment, to enshrine the Right to Vote by ALL CITIZENS and provide a framework for people to access their federal votes, independently of states, with the ability for states to join the process and use the system. In a constitutional amendment we could start by also including; Abolish the electoral college, a constitutional provision against the use of political Gerry-mandering and Voter Suppression, as well as specific provisions for how to deal with “another trump” because until we change our election laws to prevent this from happening again, It will!
Perhaps calling it a, We The People Amendment, or the Democracy First Amendment. We could then include other sweetheart provisions such as; Corporations are not People, Religious Freedom does not Authorize Discrimination under the law, Law Enforcement must always seek de-escalation, unless they or someone else is in immediate danger as would be judged by a reasonable and rational person. Forcing Law enforcement to undergo the same level of training we give to social workers and nurses. Modernizing Education and limiting the ability of individual school boards to drastically change the standards from one school to the next so that education remains a constant and doesn’t lead people toward a life where they are uninformed and ignorant. We need these types of changes to our system of society and government, without them, we can’t hope to grow or be competitive, and will be lucky to make it another couple of cycles before it all falls apart. After a coup attempt on the Capital yesterday, We really have nothing to lose and need to go for broke. Change has been necessary now for Generations, we are tired of waiting for fairness and equality, reason and sanity to come back to the process.
Hard choices will need to be made, it may cost votes in the beginning. It may take time to adjust, but the benefits to a country actually run by a vast majority of the actual people, is a great thing and doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but it is necessary for the health of a democracy. A few other things we can do is return the tax rate to 1950 levels for the ultra-wealthy, implementing wealth taxes to prevent the spread of hoarded funds from one family member to the next, completely eliminate every single tax cut for the wealthy under Republicans for the last 20 years.
Using National Security reasoning and the legal system, we need to seriously think about De-privatizing certain sectors, which history has shown DO NOT WORK under Privatization; i.e. Energy, Healthcare, Natural Resources. These are sectors which have vital national security implications, but also provide vital services to citizens. As such, we have a responsibility to ensure these services and sectors are run for the people, rather than profit. These aren’t easy to do, but we need a constitutional referendum to address these in public and let the people see where EVERYONE stands. If we do nothing, or make cosmetic changes, our nation is simply marking time until the end. If we are bold, if we stand up for humanity, for decency, for commonality and compassion for our fellow man, we may win, we may lose, but we will have done what was Right, what was necessary, and we can deal with what comes together. In the end, it all comes down to the vote. Ye who control’s the vote, controls the power.
Proud Citizen of the United States and Constituent of Pennsylvania,