The process of transforming our current system of capitalism to democratic socio capitalism (DSC) can be extremely difficult. The obvious impediment of course is COTUS, the constitution of the United States with all its articles, bill of rights, the legacy, precedence of interpretations by partisan majorities over time in the supreme court and partisan congressional bills to amend the constitution at various times from its inception in 1776. COTUS is a living document that defines the current state of our democracy, capitalism and welfare systems. Science, technology, religion and society have changed significantly over the last 200 years. Nevertheless, making amendments to COTUS to reflect changes in modern times is challenging if not impossible. That is because, participation of people in making changes to how they want to be governed is shallow (even through elected representatives) and there is now a huge disconnect between common man and the government. Elections have become a sham with significant population not believing in its result. Use of money to overwhelmingly peddle lies and distribution of misinformation before and after elections is a disgraceful misuse of the fundamental right to free speech by all parties. This loophole in the name of exercising free speech is also exploited by foreign powers to install a US government that is no longer “of the people” but controlled and manipulated by paid lobbyists who are often controlled by foreign states. If COTUS continues without reform there will come a day when democracy will no longer exist and the country will be ruled by fascists clothed in pseudo-democracy.
It is high time that “we the people” take logical and reasonable steps to engineer reforms to COTUS in a way that it returns to functioning as an instrument of control “by the people” and “for the people” with openly debated and agreed upon checks and balances to transform our society and country towards a “truly democratic, functioning and a more perfect union”. The big question now is “how do we do it?”. In the next few paragraphs, a method to revitalize and thrive the democratic experiment is described.
A Referendum for a Referendum:
From Merriam-Webster online – Referendum is a Latin word, but its modern meaning only dates from the 19th century, when a new constitution adopted by Switzerland stated that the voters could vote directly on certain issues. Thus, a referendum is a measure that’s referred (that is, sent on) to the people. Since the U.S. Constitution doesn’t provide for referenda (notice the common plural form) at the national level, referenda tend to be on local and state issues. In most locales, a few questions usually appear on the ballot at election time, often involving such issues as new zoning ordinances, new taxes for schools, and new limits on spending.
The key words to note above is “the U.S. Constitution doesn’t provide for referenda” or direct vote. However, a look at the history of making the seventeenth amendment that provides for direct elections of senators, provides clues for methods to reform COTUS when such a process was non-existent. (https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/SeventeenthAmendment.htm) One possible approach, therefore, could be to find consensus or a majority in the House and Senate to pass a resolution to amend the constitution to allow for national referenda for issues of great importance to the country. This approach could be impossible in the current climate due to the highly partisan voting behavior of the two chambers. A second approach could be to ask all the people in the country through state referendums whether a national referendum method could be used to allow voters to directly vote on certain issues to reform the constitution. If a majority of states agree, then there needs to be a final national referendum to ratify this method of direct voting through future referenda to affect changes to COTUS. It should be noted that the congress still “functions” i.e., the legislative process is still alive but it is hard for both parties to agree on even reasonable bills that would benefit the common man. Therefore, while direct voting to affect changes is a good thing, the national referenda process should be used only when (I) there is no consensus on a certain bill or issue and the debate in congress has reached a standstill with no hope of advancement or (II) there is request “from the people” for an initiative of national importance that would not be debated in congress due to various reasons including changes to the way congress operates. Therefore, the first national referendum would ask the people of the nation, shall “we the people” modify Article I; Section I of the constitution to read:
“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. However, in case there is stalemate in congress on a bill or issue or there is an initiate of national importance that is signed by at least 10 percent of voters from each state that voted in the last general election, a national referendum on that issue would be conducted and the result will have the same vested legislative power as the Congress of the United States.”
If this happens, it will be a big win for democracy and many changes to our system of economy, governance, functioning of public and private institutions, etc., could be accomplished quickly.
Assuming that democratically driven changes to COTUS and other issues central to everyday life in the USA is possible through the referendum process, other sections of this site offer suggestions, glimpses of what could be achieved through direct democracy on a bunch of issues currently vexing the nation.
Next Article – Transparency In Lobbying