Why We No Longer Need Congress

August 3, 2009

Thank you for coming to the second meeting of Town Hall USA. Last week, I was the only person here. I'm glad to announce attendance has doubled. To make sure you are in the right place, let me say that the purpose of this unofficial congress is to express ideas, concerns, opinions, and problems and solutions for and about the country I love; my country; our country, the good old United States of America. God bless America.

The topic for exploration tonight is, "Why We No Longer Need Congress". I'd like to begin with an extremely short history lesson.

Back in the early days when our country was being formed it was difficult for people to travel to a meeting to communicate their ideas, desires and instructions to leaders who could be far away. So they elected a representative to travel to the meetings for them and express their views and vote for them. The representative was honor-bound to accurately carry out the instructions of the people, unless he thought they were wrong. However, who knows how accurately he knew those instuctions. What methods did he use to accumulate those views? Did he keep accurate records of each conversation he had with 100% of them, or of 50%, or even 10%? Were polls taken? How accurately did he understand their instructions on how they wanted him to vote on their behalf? How much did he care about accurately representing his constituents? How often did he stray from their instructions and vote his own will?

It was over 200 years ago that this representational system was put into use. During this long time, the reins of power have been gently pulled from the hands of the people and placed into the hands of a very small number of, many times, unelected people who seemed to believe that they knew what was best for all. If you will forgive me for pointing out the obvious, times have changed. You and I no longer need a representative to speak or vote for us. In my opinion, it is time to upgrade the system and bring it into the 21st Century. We no longer need Congress. I'm suggesting we keep our three branches of government, but that we the people remove the present body called Congress and replace them with ourselves, gently taking back the reins of power. We are educated and well-able to express our own ideas and vote our own wills. I say, "Goodbye Little Old Congress, hello Gigantic New Congress."

I am overwhelmed with frustration and fatigue at hearing people on television say things like, "The American people want..." I'M an American person. I can speak for myself and so can you.

I realize that it would take a Constitutional amendment to out the Little Old Congress and replace it with the Big New Congress, so let's get at it. We the people of the United States of America (WPUSA) have accomplished much more difficult things. Sure there are many fine, honest, intelligent, educated, professional men and women representing you and I in Little Congress. But, that is not the point. The point is: You and I can represent ourselves now.

Has anyone asked you lately whether or not you want to let convicted criminals out of prison because the prison is overcrowded? Did anyone ask for your advice about bailing out the automakers? How about the proposed health care reform package? Has anyone from Little Congress contacted you for your input? Did the governor of your state call and ask you how many convicted sex offenders you want in your neighborhood? What about sentencing? What should the maximum/minimum sentence be for a particular crime? Who decides these things? I know for sure I have no input.

Today's communication methods are super-advanced from the early days of our country, but these advances are not even closely reflected in our present system of governing our country. Take, for example, the Office of the President. Here is one great man with a vision (so we're told). One man (historically) with charisma, intelligence, money, powerful friends, sometimes little or no experience, who becomes elected, not by us by popular vote, but in the end by the electoral college (a small group of wealthy, unelected, and mysteriously unknown people) who have the final say-so about whom will be OUR president. Who said these people know what's best for us? Who put them in control? No one asked me. Did they ask you?

In my opinion, we need a president whose primary function is to carry out the will of the people, WPUSA. Not his vision, but our vision. Not his program, but our program. I suggest a title change from President to Chief Servant. His job should be to serve the will of the people. Not his will. The President is only one person in a country with over 307 million people. Who said he knows best? How can he possibly speak for us even if he did want to? Why should he speak for us? We can tell him what we want him to do. I, for one, do not want to follow a president's ideals and morals. Let him follow ours. I think, all too often, presidents want to create a legacy for themselves so they can get a bronze statue of themselves in the Rotunda or a good review in the history books. Bah!

We have some bad habits in this country that we need to overcome. We let other people spend lots of our money on crazy, illogical, and sometimes immoral projects and things we weren't even asked about. If, WPUSA, wanted it, we could, for example, have elections every Friday, or every Saturday. If we wanted, we could have elections every Friday and Saturday. We could arrange a system that would allow every interested citizen in this country find out what's on the docket and get the necessary information to make intelligent, educated decisions and speak for herself/himmself by voting. We could vote weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever we want. We could call special elections for more urgent matters.

Our federal government could have its own website where issues could be posted and dates set for voting. Interested citizens could vote by entering an identifying code and speak for themselves with their vote. Every state could also have such a website. A new Advisory Board could allow political parties to issue an information sheet with say ten pros and ten cons about a particular proposal. An interested citizen could study the issues and take an "open book" test via computer before he/she cast their vote. They could keep taking the test until they got 100% correct. The vote of this educated voter could count as two votes. Why not? This type of online voting could be done at home or in a library, or anywhere one has access to a modern computer.

Citizen's with no computer access needn't be left out. Every post office in the land, every public library for that matter, could easily be outfitted with a "voting station" where a person could get an information sheet and cast their vote. Also, we could use mail-in ballots. Important issues don't have to be decided in a day. What's the rush? Voters, for example, could have Monday - Saturday to go to a voting station and find out the issues and pick up an information sheet. Rough spots can be worked out. Systems can be dreamed up.

Getting a new system in place shouldn't be a difficult matter for a country with universities, colleges, junior colleges, technical schools, high schools, low schools, schools in every hamlet, city and state. We're flooded with educated people. Come on, People. We can do this.

We will need some new titles, offices and boards. (Let me know when this becomes too difficult for us.) I can see a Board of Advisors coming into being. This could be a group of, say, two elected people from every state whose duty it would be to inform the Chief Servant and WPUSA on important issues and upcoming votes. They wouldn't vote collectively or enact anything. This would be a relatively small group and they would have enormous power and would need to be watched, but at least they would be elected by us. Besides this board, we would still have other means of getting information like the media and the internet.

I don't claim to have all the answers figures out. For example, in case of the demise of the president and vice-president, the current next in line would be the Speaker of the House. If we got rid of Congress, who would then become president? I don't know. We could figure this out. This is not a big hurdle. If you have some answers, questions or comments, please feel free to leave them here for consideration. If we put some of our 307 million heads together, I'm sure we can come up with some better methods of governing ourselves.

Before I open the floor for discussion, I would like to invite you back for the next meeting of Town Hall USA and ask you to bring a friend. Perhaps we can triple our attendance next time. Now, it is time for your input. I should say that comments from all are very welcome and encouraged. That said, I should let you know that only those comments that are polite and smut-free will be allowed to remain. Thank you. Citizen Jane