A new declaration

  I was thinking about how our Congress, and government in general, has become so corrupted. Now when I say corrupted I mean in the sense it has been changed. This government isn't what the founding fathers envisioned. There were thinking in the terms of the ideal. And, that is what they tried to write down. It isn't that they were really any different than men today, but they had a different vision of the truth. In their world things like holding slaves where simple matters of fate. Fate caused empires to rise and fall and fate caused your personal fortune to rise and fall as well. It was the acceptance of fate that drove those men forward. For them fate could be influenced by strict personal behaviors, adherence to a code, and that code was often called Christianity. Some however called that influence by a different name, or no name at all, those people called themselves deists. They did believe in a power greater than themselves but felt no need to name that power. Was that a method to separate themselves from the doctrines of the church? Each denomination of the Christian faith does have its' own doctrine, its' own interpretation of the instructions. Each denomination is a corruption to some. That same corruption is the doctrine to another. And that is what I'm saying here, our government has become corrupted to the point that it is no longer functioning as it was designed to work. 

 First I think we have to remember in those days a mans word, his reputation was everything. It didn't mean he was perfect, it meant he tried not to allow anyone else to see his flaws. They would go to great lengths, including putting their lives on the line, to uphold their principle. These men would face off in a duel for perceived breaches of honorable behaviors. There was no making excuses, blaming  others for your shortcomings, you were expected to conduct yourself within the societal norms. Those men attempted to codify those behaviors. It began with an explanation. We call that the Declaration of Independence. It was a Declaration of why we felt it necessary to do what we were gong to do. It was the proper thing to do, offer the reasons. Had the King chose to negotiate, chosen to listen to that Declaration, war could have been avoided. The King chose otherwise and continued to impose his will upon the people. We revolted! What most of us fail to think about is that there was a period of 11 years from the start of the revolution (1776) until the Constitution was ratified in 1789. It wasn't we made a declaration, revolted, and started the United States under the Constitution. It took a decade to compose that document. The Federalist papers encouraged the general public to support that document and to ratify it. They did so by publishing the document for all to read and their representatives listened to the people! Now there is the original concept, the representative is the voice of the people. That is to say, your representative is your parrot! I don't think that is the case today. How many bills, how much proposed legislation have you seen? Oh, we hear that the Democrats want to do this, or the Republicans want to do that, but seldom do we really know what that is. Consider this latest bit of legislation, 5500 pages! Was that really read, discussed, and carefully considered in a few days? Practically passed overnight! It is ironic that is this day and age we have the capability, the means, to distribute information faster and to more people than at any time in history, yet few ever know a thing about what is going on in government. And our representatives get their input from where? Is it you and I? No, most likely it is through a lobbyist. Someone paid to present a point of view. That isn't to say that particular ploy wasn't used back in 1789, I'm certain it was. They didn't call it that, but the result was the same. As I said we do have to remember those were real men, flesh and blood human beings with their own interests, opinions, and desires. But they wrote a Constitution that was intended to protect the people from government, not the government protecting the people! The people are the government. A precept many fail to fully comprehend these days. In 1791, two years after the Constitution was ratified the Bill of Rights was added. The Bill of Rights are guarantees to the American public. There are limitations on what the government can do! They are among others, free speech, religion, the press, keeping arms, search and seizure, speedy trial and no cruel and unusual punishment. That's some of what they say and they are their to protect you from Government! 

 We are told it is our vote that guarantees our voice is heard. Yes, that was the original idea. Those men writing that document were well aware of, wait a minute what we would call today "population inequities." That is why they included the electoral college process as a vital part of the document. Article 2 of the constitution explains all of that. Without that article most likely we wouldn't have a constitution. It was a compromise among the delegates. Simply put the farmers realized the cities could control the government unless there was some method to, wait for it, "redistribute the vote." You hear a lot about inequities and redistribution these days. It's not coincidence or by accident. There are many that would change that portion of our constitution. Fortunately those same delegates wrote Article 5. In that article it is explained that a Convention of the States will be convened whenever the necessary signatures on a petition from a specified number of states, has been garnered. It is, the Right to Petition, the government! Currently that would require 34 states with a 2/3 majority to be enacted.

 Of course all of that is predicated on the vote. We can all sign the petition, but it still has to be voted on. The state legislatures have to recognize those petitions and vote accordingly. 15 states have already done so. That's almost half. Remember it took ten years to write and ratify the Constitution, we have to remain persistent. Remember the last amendment passed, number 27? Happened in 1992 and prevented Congress from giving themselves an immediate pay raise. They can still vote themselves a pay raise, and do so. The Democrats are asking for one right now, 4500 dollars. The only thing that amendment did was make them wait for the next Congress to convene before they got a raise. Of course we should remember that well over 90% of those voting will be reelected. So I can vote myself a raise but I'll have to wait a little while. 

 If we wait for Congress to propose amendments like balancing the budget, voter reform, term limits and the like , you will be waiting a very long time. That is why we need to convene a convention of the states. That is just the beginning of the process however. The delegates would then have to propose amendments. Those amendment would then have to be fully disseminated to the American public and voted on. Can we trust Congress to do that? More importantly however is securing the vote. Until we restore confidence in the voting system I believe we will have unrest. Why did we make that Declaration in the first place? We weren't being heard! Today there are millions of Americans that feel we aren't being heard! But before we make any Declarations we need to exhaust our constitutional avenues for redress. Call for that convention! Insist upon it. We need to insist upon a Constitutional Amendment that requires voter ID and a method of independent verification of the vote! Look, if some clown in India can get my phone number to check on my cars warranty surely we can secure the vote! I question why? Why hasn't Congress acted on this issue? Why do we hear that voter ID laws would be discriminatory? Seems to me the ones that do not want voter ID and ensuring only qualified, authorized, citizens cast a ballot are the ones that benefit from not having those laws! A vote by any other name is still a vote. That seems to be the mindset of the politician. We need to change their mind. Send a Declaration to those representatives. That Declaration is your signature on the petition.