draft
The
time and emotional issues of getting ready to move by the end of the
year, of getting any academic applications in before the end of the
year, and other things, has meant that I can not spend as much time
on this blog as I would like.
From
time to time, however, short notes will be posted, if for no other
reason than to remind me to go back and do a better, more reasoned,
hopefully more humorous treatment of a topic.
Today's
short note is my concise opinion for what has to be done to restore
democracy and legitimacy to this country. It is the second issue,
legitimacy, that is the most tricky and the most controversial.
Every government that has ever existed has at one time or another
done something that violates its laws, its ethics and the trust it
has with the people. We understand that.
But what the politicians and some people do not understand is that you can not do that indefinitely without severe consequences. And the consequences are that the government loses legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The people no longer believe you, their representatives, that you are representing them. They no longer trust the government to do the right thing. They believe that their government has been captured by the wealthy, that justice is for the rich, and that the system is corrupt.
The point is, you only have to address these problems if you want a country where people trust their government, pay their taxes, obey the laws and fight the wars.
But what the politicians and some people do not understand is that you can not do that indefinitely without severe consequences. And the consequences are that the government loses legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The people no longer believe you, their representatives, that you are representing them. They no longer trust the government to do the right thing. They believe that their government has been captured by the wealthy, that justice is for the rich, and that the system is corrupt.
The point is, you only have to address these problems if you want a country where people trust their government, pay their taxes, obey the laws and fight the wars.
Briefly,
this is the minimum I think that has to happen after 30 years or more
of betrayal and kicking the can down the road. Everything below is
self explanatory.
1.
We need to change the constitution to define when an election is
invalid and what to do about it. In this case, we have an election
that was thrown by a foreign power and resulted in a person who was
not elected and who is the least qualified president in our history.
We need a way to declare an election invalid and hold another one.
2.
We probably need to eliminate the electoral college. Twice in my
life time, for a minimum of three presidential terms of office (two
under Bush and one under Trump) a person has been put into the office
of the presidency who did not, in the opinion of the people, win that
election.
3.
We need a way to ensure that officials of an administration obey the
letter and the spirit of the law. We currently have a head of the
EPA that is doing everything possible to see to it that the
environmental laws and protections in this country are either not
obeyed or destroyed. We have an Attorney General and a department of
Justice which is defunding enforcing the laws that protect people's
civil rights.
4.
We need to have a change in the constitution to make clear what the
issues are involving conflict of interest, and what needs to be done
before someone is allowed to take office. Full financial
transparency and such issues as tax returns being public need to be
made explicit.
5.
We need a way that is less traumatic to remove people in the
judiciary who have been appointed by an administration that is later
shown to have been invalid. Between the invalid election of Trump
and McConnell breaking the law, we have the right wing nutty boy,
Gorsuch, on the court and bigots and right wing nuts being appointed
to other posts in the judiciary. We need a way to remove these
people.
6.
We need to regulate our social media and hold them responsible for
their role in allowing foreign intelligence agencies to disrupt and
destroy our ability to hold public discourse. That means officers of
a company need to go to jail when they have failed to protect us.
7.
We need to make countries such as Russia and to a lesser extent the
PRC know that their espionage and disruption of our civic discourse is a
cause for war.
8.
We need to end gerrymandering for political purposes.
9.
We need to have national standards for how an election is held, and how the
results can be verified.
This
is the minimum that needs to be done, in my opinion. But only if you
care about people believing that they live in a fair and just
country. If you dont care, then we can continue on this path and our
country will be, or already has been, destroyed.
No government is perfect, but in our case we have let things go too far. Business as usual clearly has failed us. I hope that our politicians and political elite understand this and do something about it, but I doubt they will.
No government is perfect, but in our case we have let things go too far. Business as usual clearly has failed us. I hope that our politicians and political elite understand this and do something about it, but I doubt they will.
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