Forum Post: Take Back Our Republic: One Demand is Enough
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 12, 2011, 1:48 p.m. EST by dollar
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We all know, and each of us understands, that at some time in the recent past, the American political system ceased to serve the interests of the American people, and began to serve the interests of corporations, unions, and special interests. I see the good people of the OWS movement, with their banners and their fists in the air, and I realize that these good people do not yet truly understand how their government came to ignore them, and do not yet truly understand what can be done to restore the balance of power in our great country. I am here to tell you why, and to tell you how it can be changed.
Some of us believe that wealth and power are the same thing, and some of us believe that wealth creates power. But this is not the truth. Wealth and power both come from the consent of the people. We consent to work for a wage, we consent to trade our wage for the things we want, and this is a wonderful thing. We consent to be ruled by a body of representatives that we elect, we consent to the rule of law in our land, and this is a great and wonderful thing. It is the mechanism of the latter which is broken, and that mechanism is called apportionment. Apportionment is the process by which the number of our representatives in government is assigned to the number of our people. For over 100 years after the founding of our country, the number of our representatives increased with the number of our people. Then in 1913 our Congress decided to abandon the process - without our consent.
The framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights intended that the total population of Congressional districts never exceed 50 to 60 thousand. Today, the average population size of the districts is nearly 700,000, and in the next few years it will exceed 1,000,000. I ask you, how can the needs, beliefs, politics, and fears of 1,000,000 people be represented by only 1 person? The last increase in representation occurred after the 1910 census when the total number of congressional districts was increased to 435, and there it has remained ever since - not by the consent of the people, but merely by the consent of those Congressmen who wished to preserve their power districts. I ask you, how can 300,000,000 possibly be represented by only 435 men and women?
Our Congress took our power without our consent, and they have used our power to gain our wealth. Good people of this movement, our problem is not with the people in the tall towers of New York City, those ordinary people with jobs, families, mortgages, our problem is with the people we have elected in WASHINGTON, those people who sell our power for their own gain!
This can never change, will never change, without the consent - the demand - of the American people. The people in Washington will never yield what they falsely believe is THEIR power. We must take back our government, and demand that Congress increase the number of representatives in the House, so that we are fairly represented in Washington.
“Numerous bodies are less subject to venality and corruption” -- James Madison, 1789
1) To the government and the capitalists: you are elits and were granted the capital and power based on our trust on you. However you abuse your wisdom for gathering your own wealth; you abuse your power and military force for maintaining your governing. So, you have no right anymore to control the capital and materials, and to lead the army. You should either whole-heartedly serve the people, or give up and let those who have a higher wisdom as well as mercy to lead us and control the capital.
2) To all the monopoly : you should give up the aim of pursuing maximum profits, and change the aim into minimizing the costs and the labor time but should not fire the workers or reduce the payment for the reason of improved productivity and reduced costs. the enterprises are not yours, but us all human beings. If you feel reluctant to serve us all, you should leave your position and let all the people to chose the managers of the enterprises.
3) To all the citizens on the Earth: We should be united. We should all be benevolent and selfless, should advocate virtue and high spiritual pursuit. We should make the global enlightment and the global material and spiritual freedom our common goal and struggle for it whole-heartedly.