THIS COULD BE THE SECOND BEST SELF-HELP BOOK EVER WRITTEN
THE FIRST WAS COMMON SENSE BY THOMAS PAINE.
America is steeped in uncertainty. Through the last half of this century our society has been assaulted by selfish interests and battered by the failures of good intentions. We have been subjected to political terrorism, social aggression, legal anarchy and media-driven chaos. Our public schools have become factories of ignorance and warehouses of violence. Yet through it all the vast majority of us have remained silent.
We are now in a crisis and in danger of losing democracy. We've lost our voice in government, education and almost everything else in society. But we have now entered the age of communications and information technology. We have the Internet, and with it, we are discovering the potential for democracy.
As we are exposed to another double dose of presidential elections and the two-party system of divisive political rancor and shameless pandering, many of us are thinking about solutions for a history of expanding government that has simply grown beyond our control.
That said, consider this: Amend the Constitution to establish nonpartisan direct representative democracy with secure voting networks connected to voter's homes. Rather than politicians selling themselves to partisan factions and corporate interests, we would select and elect highly qualified and well-compensated professional government managers to represent our common sense interests in self-government.
The selection of candidates, including the president, and all elections would be conducted over the voting networks. Our representative managers would be required to truthfully and fully inform us sufficiently to make informed decisions. We would decide all matters of taxation, education and public policy with two-thirds super-majority votes, including amendments to the Constitution. We would not be required to micro-manage government.
All elected officials would be subject to periodic confirmation by majority vote, and subject to recall at any time.
With direct democracy we can reclaim government, education and a divided society with common sense, mutual understanding and cooperation. Indeed, we need to move from the cynical divisions of America versus the United States, to the unity of the United States of America. That's what direct democracy is all about.
