The
Problem:
90% of voting
age Americans do not know the name of the U.S. House rep.
from their own local district. The United States was
designed to be a constitutional representative republic, however
widespread lack of participation has created a viscous cycle of
dysfunctional government leading to further rejection of
government by the people. This is only made worse by those in the
media who refuse to treat this as a serious crisis, instead referring
to all people as "voters", even in districts were only 10%-20% of the
people actually vote in most elections.
The United
States ranks last among industrialized nations in terms of
participation by the people. Voter turnout in mid-term general
elections averages less than 38% of the eligible
citizens. Voter turnout for presidential elections ranges
between 50% and 60%, but the president is given very little power
according to the U.S.. Constitution.
So, despite
years of work by voter advocacy groups such as Rock the
Vote, turnout remains low in important
non-presidential elections. Media outlets and
blogs make the presidential elections into big events that
perpetuate a false left/right paradigm and further distract us from
constitutional self-governing.
The
Concept of
Self
Governing - All Politics is Local:
Freedom comes
with responsibility, and only the people can be responsible for
fixing things in their own government. Refusing to get
organized or work with-in the system, because of
the belief that the system is hopelessly rigged and
broken, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and only leads to
further control by powerful limited interests.
In Washington,
the U.S. House is the most important governing body, because the people
are supposed to directly elect their 435 representatives every two
years (the constitution does not ask people to directly elect the
President). In addition to legislative powers, the U.S. House
has control over the money in the U.S. Treasury, they have the
final approval of executive branch appointments, and they have
the sole power to impeach the president.
The
Solution:
The solution is
very simple: We must start to acknowledge the correlation between
widespread lack of participation and the rise of dysfunctional
partisan government that is often not working for the people.
Start by
getting informed. Follow our link to your local election web
site. Find out who your current U.S. House rep. is.
Also, look up your governor, your state rep. and your
mayor. Find out who may be running against them in
the next election. Get organized, and join campaigns where
people going door to door can defeat the big money candidates who waste
hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative, annoying ads and useless
mailers that end up in a landfill.
Find links and
information on GOV360's resource page, and spread the word.
REVOLUTION is
in the CONSTITUTION - Don't discard it. Act on it.
