The Constitutional Elephant in the Room

[proud2BlibKansan]

by Kelly Gerling

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Our problems stem from corruption of money controlled by an illegitimate minority who rule both parties. That statement deserves an article in Duh magazine. That in turn means the base of both parties consists, not of the people who vote for them, but of a certain illegitimate minority the people—the rich, who determine who gets to run for office among the two parties. This illegitimate few are the money givers. The election king-makers. The plutocrats. They act in their own interests to hijack the system in a financial coup. Citizens, only about half of whom even bother to vote are not the base of either dominant party. We the people are hostages of the system and haven’t thought our way out of our predicament. It is a situation clearly explained by Thomas Ferguson’s investment theory of elections in the US.

This corruption problem would be easily solved if we Americans believed in our right of revolution; our right of assembly and referendum for amending our Constitution; and our right for the democratic majority to fashion government according to what suits our idea of good, representative, accountable, non-corrupt governance.

But since Americans, including progressives like Lakoff and Westen, don’t quite grok these ultimate basics of democratic governance, they are left dealing with proximate causes and short-term non-solutions—solutions like the one both Westen and Lakoff agree on: suggesting Democrats pay attention to the base (who isn’t their base)—citizens, while they themselves are bribed by the rich. Politicians won’t pay attention to the needs of regular citizens. They pay attention to who pays them to stay elected and maintain the plutocracy so they can be players in it.

Americans could, if they chose, assert their right to assemble to craft constitutional, structural fixes; put those fixes to a national vote of the American people; and declare them amendments to our government via a new, modified Constitution. What might such a new constitution or suite of amendments accomplish?

more . . . http://progressiverevolution.org/2010/09/03/lakoff-westen-miss-constitutional-elephant-in-the-room/