Forum Post: Amendment for a Democratic Congress
Posted 12 years ago on June 7, 2012, 3:04 p.m. EST by LeoYo
(5909)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Amendment for a Democratic Congress
The Democratic Congress shall constitute all United States Citizens of the United States Electorate.
Barring conviction for either treason or for voting fraud, the right of all mentally coherent adult citizens to fully participate in the Democratic Congress shall be guaranteed, the violation of which shall be punishable with equivalence to an act of treason.
The Democratic Congress shall convene in groups of approximately 100 voters called a Kentum in the months of January, April, July, and October on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, Sundays of those months for deliberation on matters pertaining to the Local, State, and National governments, respectively.
The Library of the Democratic Congress shall exist at every level of government and shall include the duties of receiving bills proposed by the Kentums, the grouping of any similar bills into amendments of the same bill, and the dissemination of the bills in the order received to the Democratic Congress.
No more than three bills per level of government shall be disseminated to the Democratic Congress.
In the 24th week after a bill’s dissemination, the bill and any amendments to have arisen shall undergo Judicial Review.
In the 26th week after a bill’s dissemination, the bill and any of its amendments to have passed Judicial Review shall be presented to the Democratic Congress for final deliberation.
In the 52nd week after a bill’s dissemination, the Democratic Congress shall vote on the bill and its amendments.Anyone to vote on a bill must vote on all amendments of the bill or completely abstain from voting on the bill.
Any amendments of a bill to receive greater than 50% of the votes, barring any conflict with any other amendments with a greater number of votes, shall become law. Any approved amendment in conflict with an amendment of a greater number of votes shall not become law.
Amendments to the Constitution of the United States shall be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Democratic Congress.
The Democratic Congress shall have the power to revoke any Executive Order at the corresponding level of government.
The Head of the Executive Branch at any level of government shall have no power of veto over the Democratic Congress at the corresponding level.
At every level of government, the Heads of the Executive Branch and the Chief Legal Officers shall be elected to four-year terms on the 4th Sunday of October for no more than three terms.
Candidates elected to office shall take office on the 4th Sunday of January.
Candidates for Public Office shall be non-partisan.
The provision of Patriot Dollars to the Democratic Congress for the sole funding of political campaigns shall be enacted to keep political campaigns free from the undemocratic influences of monied interests that shall be prohibited from funding any political advertisements outside of political campaigns.
The Office of the Attorney General of the United States shall be under the jurisdiction of the Democratic Congress and shall head the management of Congressional Oversight.
The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States shall be unanimous, determined by a court of twelve Justices selected by the Democratic Congress, each Justice serving a maximum of twelve years.
Each State of the United States shall have a state bank collectively forming the Union Reserve Bank of the United States with a state appointed bank official from each State to compose the Union Board of Governors exercising all the responsibilities of the Open Market Committee and a Chairman of the Union Board of Governors under the jurisdiction of the Democratic Congress.
The Amendment for a Democratic Congress is not an amendment expected to ever be passed by elected representatives. After all, why would anyone ever vote themselves out of a good paying job? The Amendment for a Democratic Congress is only expected to have a realistic consideration upon Americans obtaining the right to engage in a national initiative process such as the one proposed among the Free Democracy Amendments http://occupywallst.org/forum/free-democracy-amendment/. Even so, it is doubtful that the American people would ever elect to take on the responsibility of governing themselves full time. After all, why would anyone ever vote themselves into a non-paying job? As Thomas Jefferson had said;
"They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights."
"all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
Declaration of Independence 1776
"Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power."
George Washington in a letter to John Jay dated August 1, 1786
"In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other."
Benjamin Franklin in his address to the Constitutional Convention dated September 17, 1787
"Those who contend for a simple democracy, or a pure republic, actuated by the sense of the majority, and operating within narrow limits, assume or suppose a case which is altogether fictitious. They found their reasoning on the idea, that the people composing the Society, enjoy not only an equality of political rights; but that they have all precisely the same interests, and the same feelings in every respect. Were this in reality the case, their reasoning would be conclusive. The interest of the majority would be that of the minority also; the decisions could only turn on mere opinion concerning the good of the whole, of which the major voice would be the safest criterion; and within a small sphere, this voice could be most easily collected, and the public affairs most accurately managed."
"We know however that no Society ever did or can consist of so homogeneous a mass of Citizens. In the savage State indeed, an approach is made towards it; but in that State little or no Government is necessary. In all civilized Societies, distinctions are various and unavoidable. A distinction of property results from that very protection which a free Government gives to unequal faculties of acquiring it. There will be rich and poor; creditors and debtors; a landed interest, a monied interest, a mercantile interest, a manufacturing interest. These classes may again be subdivided according to the different productions of different situations & soils, & according to different branches of commerce, and of manufactures. In addition to these natural distinctions, artificial ones will be founded, on accidental differences in political, religious or other opinions, or an attachment to the persons of leading individuals. However erroneous or ridiculous these grounds of dissention and faction, may appear to the enlightened Statesman, or the benevolent philosopher, the bulk of mankind who are neither Statesmen nor Philosophers, will continue to view them in a different light."
"Divide et impera, the reprobated axiom of tyranny, is under certain qualifications, the only policy, by which a republic can be administered on just principles."
A few selected thoughts of James Madison from a letter written to Thomas Jefferson dated October 24, 1787
"If, then, control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of their republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their interests require."
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Taylor dated May 28, 1816.
"Hamilton’s financial system had then past. It had two objects. First as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and inquiry. Secondly, as a machine for the corruption of the legislature; for he avowed the opinion that man could be governed by one of two motives only, force or interest: force he observed, in this country, was out of the question; and the interests therefore of the members must be laid hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the Executive. And with grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his machine was not without effect. That even in this, the birth of our government, some members were found sordid enough to bend their duty to their interests, and to look after personal, rather than public good."
Thomas Jefferson in "Anas" dated February 4, 1818
"Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going downhill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion."
Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia) 1781
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Oh come now ...
None are more hopelessly exposed than a LyingDog who falsely claims he wants people to be free.
Just be honest. You hate any pursuit of democracy and fully support the status quo of the 1%. After all, you made that most clear in your opposition to having everyone realize that they've never been free. Maintaining ignorance and false belief is obviously what you therefore support. Even on this post, your desire to maintain the status quo by disparaging direct democracy exposes your true position.
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So, in your world, town meetings either don't exist or are dismal failures simply because on-duty civil service personnel don't have an equal opportunity to participate???
To convince people that democracy can never work, you're going to have to do a whole lot better than that.
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