This morning, I did a fairly dispirited review of my regular blog-stalking. It looks like most of us are pretty down in the dumps over the fol-de-rol in Washington. So, as I told blog-buddy Buck, today I need to have a full-blown worry-wallowing pity-party.
Hence, I'm doing my first-ever re-post. Maybe it'll give someone in a postition to do something about it an idea about how to fix some of this broken stuff. It might have been a little premature in December, but I'd say that it's pretty dang ripe right about now.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Moogie's Fun and Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.
In a moment of blinding clarity, I have stumbled upon what could be the salvation of our nation and our Republic.
We have to chunk out our system of federal elections and start over from scratch.
The states may continue to do whatever they please for intra-state elections pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, and that'll get the Feds off their backs for a whole lot of stuff, primarily because the Feds will have been forced to acknowledge and abide by the Tenth Amendment. If folks don't like what policies their state is enacting in connection with a particular issue, like, say, same-sex marriage, then they are free either to try to effect change in their state through legislation or move to another state whose laws more closely reflect their beliefs. Hello, Republic! A confederation of independent states who are free to follow the will of their citizens, not the sometime-well-intentioned-but-often-cuckoo citizens of Soviet Socialist Massachusetts or Pelosi-world.
You may not be aware of the fact that I was -- fairly recently -- a strong opponent of term limits. I believed institutional memory to be a very important component of orderly government -- we shouldn't have to re-invent the wheel time after time after time simply because no one was in Congress or the Governor's mansion who could remember what happened the last time someone came up with the same bone-headed idea, or how badly its implementation failed. Today, I simply don't care. There are too many bone-headed ideas floating around this ol' world to prevent their redundancy, so opposing term limits is no longer on my radar.
The notion of needing to devise some reasonable facsimile of term limits brought me to the election of our Republics' representatives in D.C. -- so, let's just get all Constitutional about it and return to the Founding Fathers' notion of true "public servants" in which people are called to serve their fellow citizens for a brief amount of time, not to make a career of meddling in the lives of every citizen.
We can retain the Constitutional requirements for eligibility to serve (e.g., age, natural-born citizenship, residency) -- they're pretty sensible. But as for the actual "election" -- there will be no further federal elections.
We're going to have a National Public Service Lottery.
Every eligible U.S. voter (eligibility to be determined by each state) will be required to purchase two lottery tickets: one each in the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off in which only two tickets have all the magic numbers (indexed to population or voter registration; details and cost to be worked out later), but the Presidential Powerball Number on one ticket wins the White House and the runner-up moves into One Observatory Circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory as VPOTUS, both for the Constitutional term of four years. No one may win the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off more than two terms in a row.
Additionally, the eligible voters of each state and territory will be required to purchase similar lottery tickets for Senator (lotteries to be staggered to accommodate rotating 6-year terms) and Representative: one winner per slot per state.
Of course, we'd have to do away with the Electoral College and replace it with a Commission of Electoral Inspection to determine the qualifications and eligibility of winners. The Commission could be composed of 3 members (to have a tie-breaker), appointed, one apiece, by the President, The Senate, and the House of Representatives. Vacancies occurring in Congressional office could be filled by vote of the vacant office's State Senate; presidential succession would be in effect until the following lottery.
Would there be a chance for cheating or corruption? Of course. Is there now?!?! (Hello, ACORN.) Would some mind-numbingly unqualified folks win the Public Service Lottery? Um, duh -- but what's the difference between that and the current system?
Could the loss of institutional memory be regretted, especially in the House of Representatives? Most probably. But, tinkering with the details could find a reasonable compromise to extend and rotate terms in the House, so let's not throw this idea out without trying it.
It's fun! It's a revenue generator! It's a regular fruit-basket turnover in D.C.!! It's Moogie's Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.!
I've given you the bones -- now, hammer out the details.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Moogie's Fun and Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.
In a moment of blinding clarity, I have stumbled upon what could be the salvation of our nation and our Republic.
We have to chunk out our system of federal elections and start over from scratch.
The states may continue to do whatever they please for intra-state elections pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, and that'll get the Feds off their backs for a whole lot of stuff, primarily because the Feds will have been forced to acknowledge and abide by the Tenth Amendment. If folks don't like what policies their state is enacting in connection with a particular issue, like, say, same-sex marriage, then they are free either to try to effect change in their state through legislation or move to another state whose laws more closely reflect their beliefs. Hello, Republic! A confederation of independent states who are free to follow the will of their citizens, not the sometime-well-intentioned-but-often-cuckoo citizens of Soviet Socialist Massachusetts or Pelosi-world.
You may not be aware of the fact that I was -- fairly recently -- a strong opponent of term limits. I believed institutional memory to be a very important component of orderly government -- we shouldn't have to re-invent the wheel time after time after time simply because no one was in Congress or the Governor's mansion who could remember what happened the last time someone came up with the same bone-headed idea, or how badly its implementation failed. Today, I simply don't care. There are too many bone-headed ideas floating around this ol' world to prevent their redundancy, so opposing term limits is no longer on my radar.
The notion of needing to devise some reasonable facsimile of term limits brought me to the election of our Republics' representatives in D.C. -- so, let's just get all Constitutional about it and return to the Founding Fathers' notion of true "public servants" in which people are called to serve their fellow citizens for a brief amount of time, not to make a career of meddling in the lives of every citizen.
We can retain the Constitutional requirements for eligibility to serve (e.g., age, natural-born citizenship, residency) -- they're pretty sensible. But as for the actual "election" -- there will be no further federal elections.
We're going to have a National Public Service Lottery.
Every eligible U.S. voter (eligibility to be determined by each state) will be required to purchase two lottery tickets: one each in the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off in which only two tickets have all the magic numbers (indexed to population or voter registration; details and cost to be worked out later), but the Presidential Powerball Number on one ticket wins the White House and the runner-up moves into One Observatory Circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory as VPOTUS, both for the Constitutional term of four years. No one may win the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off more than two terms in a row.
Additionally, the eligible voters of each state and territory will be required to purchase similar lottery tickets for Senator (lotteries to be staggered to accommodate rotating 6-year terms) and Representative: one winner per slot per state.
Of course, we'd have to do away with the Electoral College and replace it with a Commission of Electoral Inspection to determine the qualifications and eligibility of winners. The Commission could be composed of 3 members (to have a tie-breaker), appointed, one apiece, by the President, The Senate, and the House of Representatives. Vacancies occurring in Congressional office could be filled by vote of the vacant office's State Senate; presidential succession would be in effect until the following lottery.
Would there be a chance for cheating or corruption? Of course. Is there now?!?! (Hello, ACORN.) Would some mind-numbingly unqualified folks win the Public Service Lottery? Um, duh -- but what's the difference between that and the current system?
Could the loss of institutional memory be regretted, especially in the House of Representatives? Most probably. But, tinkering with the details could find a reasonable compromise to extend and rotate terms in the House, so let's not throw this idea out without trying it.
It's fun! It's a revenue generator! It's a regular fruit-basket turnover in D.C.!! It's Moogie's Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.!
I've given you the bones -- now, hammer out the details.
Posted by Moogie P at 10:03 AM 2 comments
Labels: Congress, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, D.C., Elections, Lottery, Tenth Amendment, Young President
Labels: Congress, Constitution, Constitutional Convention, D.C., Elections, Lottery, Tenth Amendment, Young President
Thanks for the linky-lurve, Moogie. I couldn't sleep last night and awoke at 0300 hrs after tossing and turning pitifully for about three or four hours. Or so. Watching the Pelosi-Party kill the Republic is sorta traumatic, yanno?
ReplyDeleteBut. We shall persevere. The fight ain't over, it's only begun. And associated clichés. I find it ironic that our post-partisan president has done more to divide the country than his predecessor ever thought of doing.
Hey Moogie, thanks for reposting this. I needed a "smiler" today. Girl, it looks like you've got as good a plan as any!
ReplyDeleteA lottery. We know that ALMOST all lottery winners make the best of their good fortune. And, we know that a much smaller percentage squander their winnings.
While looking at the current state of affairs, it seems that the majority of Congressmen, Senators, and Exec-elects squander theirs. Maybe a lottery would provide better outcomes.
But ya' know...I'd hate to be the dumb sumbitch that won. Just sayin'...