Posted by
B.N. Sharpe on Friday, April 25, 2008 12:35:13 AM
Two centuries and a score of years ago, history's most visionary visionaries wrote the most enduring document of individual freedom and governmental restraint, which British statesman William Gladstone described as "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." The man portrayed on our $5,000 bill and proclaimed to be The Father of the Constitution said, "In framing a system which we wish to last for ages, we should not lose sight of the changes that ages will produce." The framers largely accomplished this goal, as the Constitutional structure of our nation has survived ,virtually unchanged over the course of nearly 220 years. But that continued survival is tenable at best, as even those far seeing geniuses couldn't fathom the changes that have been occurring in this country starting at about the turn of the twentieth century, due primarily to the inventive technological advances made in transportation and communication. That progress was greatly responsible for the global dissemination of ideas, such as progressive political thought and theory. Such thought and theory gained momentum of purpose through the 16th and 17th Amendments, New Deal ideology of FDR and the Great Society of LBJ. Another futuristic factor that the Framers couldn't foresee is what the earliest groupings of Federalists and Anti-Federalists have become in the forms of the organizations that I call Democraps and Repulsicans. The Framers, all freedom loving individuals couldn't imagine an America of security seeking, cowed collectivists ruled by oligarchical party line professional politicians rather than served by citizen representatives. In structuring our government, the Constitution and the early officers designated such job titles like President, Vice-President, Senator, Congress(person), Speaker of the House, President
pro tempore, Secretary of this, that and the other thing, Attorney General, Postmaster General, Judge, and Justice The word politician was not part of these great Americans' vocabularies or thought processes. The same could be said of the word bureaucrat.
The Constitution was drawn, not to grant rights to the citizenry, but to protect the population's naturally inherent rights by defining the duties and restraining the responsibilities of government. To accomplish this within Madison's direction about changes and ages, the Framers constructed, a concise, vague Constitution that has become more and more interpretively cloudy through the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first. In envisioning a political system that would allow America to survive this century and more, I have put forth a ten point platform of planks that matter to that survival. Points like enacting HR 25/S 1025, forming The Capitalist Coalition, Winning the War with Islamofascism, Battening Down our Borders, Learning our Language, and Energy Policy could conceivably be accomplished within the bounds of our present system. But the other four certainly would be possible only through a second Constitutional Convention. Cultivating Our Culture as established by the Founders, Minimizing Size and Scope of Government, dealing with The Non-Issue Issues, and perhaps the most important principle of NO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS surely will mandate a new American Constitution, revised for the new responsibilities of governance through the next two hundred plus years.
Recognizing that this is a MOST immodest proposal and an even more ego-maniacal idea that a simple salesman and farmer could compose such a Constitution, I shall, starting here, and continuing in subsequent postings, propose such an undertaking. The present seven article document with amendments has been rewritten virtually verbatim with minor tweaks, additions and deletions to better define such things as freedom of religion, second amendment rights, requisites of citizenship, crime and punishment, and political service. My new American Constitution consists of nine articles, as the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights are included within the body of the document as Article IX, and as there is a wholly new article inserted as IV, defining and dealing with the rights and responsibilities of The Electorate. Some updates that some might consider major include abolition of the Electoral College, conversion to a unicameral legislature, with the 'advice and consent' functions of the Senate being given to the Executive Authority of the several states, and a deemphasis of states' rights in favor of individual's rights. Let's begin, and let me know what you think. That's think; not believe or feel.
PREAMBLE
We the people of the United States, in order to perpetuate a more perfect Union, maintain justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America, hereafter herein referred to as America.
Article I
Section 1 All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Council of America and the Electorate of America.
Section 2(1) The Council shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the Electorates of the several States, the Native Nations, and the Seat of Government.
(2) Any citizen may be a Councilor who has been a citizen for seven or more years, and is an inhabitant of that State and that Council district in which he or she is chosen, and meets the requisite requirements of Elector.
(3) Councilors shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers of citizens and legal resident inhabitants. The number of Councilors shall be one per every approximate 500,000 citizens and legal resident inhabitants, with each State having at least one Councilor. Actual enumeration of the populace shall continue to be performed decennially in that year ending in the digit zero. Until the first census following the adoption of this Constitution, Councilors shall be apportioned among the several States as follows:
Alabama 9; Alaska 2; Arizona 10; Arkansas 5; California 68; Colorado 8; Connecticut 6; Delaware 2; Florida 31;
Georgia 16; Hawaii 2; Idaho 2; Illinois 24; Indiana 12; Iowa 6; Kansas 5; Kentucky 8; Louisiana 8; Maine 2;
Maryland 10; Massachusetts 12; Michigan 20; Minnesota 9; Mississippi 5; Missouri 11; Montana 2; Nebraska 3;
Nevada 4; New Hampshire 2; New Jersey 16; New Mexico 3; New York 36; North Carolina 15; North Dakota 1;
Ohio 22; Oklahoma 7; Oregon 6; Pennsylvania 24; Rhode Island 2; South Carolina 8; South Dakota 1; Tennessee 11;
Texas 40; Utah 4; Vermont 1; Virginia 14; Washington 12; West Virginia 4; Wisconsin 10; Wyoming 1;
Native Nations 2; Seat of Government 1.
(4) When vacancies occur in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.
(5) The Council shall choose their Director and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
We'll pick up next time with Section 3 of Article I.