Replies to post #860 on TOWN MEETING (Selecting Our Leaders) (TOWNM)

[Koikaze]

You are absolutely correct, Frank.

The question is, "How can we accomplish it?"

The laws that strangle us exist at the state level, so our only recourse is to rally enough support to force the various states to abolish the party-preferential regulations that prevent the American people from governing themselves. That's a non-trivial task, but it must be done that way because, as Thomas Sowell (Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University) cites from Tryson & Brother v. Blanton, 273 US. 418, at 445-46:

"I think the proper course is to recognize that a State legislature can do whatever it sees fit to do unless it is restrained by some express prohibition in the Constitution of the United States or of the State, and that courts should be careful not to extend such prohibitions beyond their obvious meaning by reading into them conceptions of public policy that the particular court may happen to entertain." (http://www.tsowell.com/judicial.htm)

Since there are no express prohibitions in our Constitution to prevent the states from making laws governing the electoral process, the parties moved into that vacuum at the state level and enacted the rules which limit our ability to select our own candidates or control our own governments. They established an electoral system that requires candidates to renounce principle and sacrifice honor for the benefit of their party. In these circumstances, gerrymandering and all the other manifestations of corruption that engulf us are inevitable. When we let parties control our political process, we are foolish to expect them to act in a principled manner.

We have a failed political system because we allowed politicians to bastardize the system to serve their own ends. The depth of that bastardization is astounding. It is certainly not limited to gerrymandering. It pervades the entire fabric of politics from rules for caucuses, primaries and conventions to rules that allow riders on our public laws. The system is powerful and it's deeply entrenched. Attempts to clean it up must come before our state legislatures which will render them ineffective while misleading the public with lip-service to "cleaning house". I'd call it a game, if it weren't so serious.

We've allowed our birthright to be stolen. We must reclaim it. As long as we must do so, we must attack the root cause of the evils we endure ... an entrenched political system that requires immense funding to achieve public office.

Is it possible those who support your candidacy for president would consider focussing their attention on changing the rules in one or two states? If they were successful, it might give the rest of us ... like the people of New Jersey ... hope that it IS possible to change the system.

Fred