By way of preface, let me give you a little of my background. I was born a prototypical Southern California working-class surfer boy. As a poor, white kid, I was educated by the California Public School system of the 1960’s and was, therefore, both the avatar of the Liberal Contract of Egalitarianism and an exemplar of the Last, Best Hope of the Uttermost West. As a student of History, I made it a point to learn the Lessons of History so I could help avoid its Mistakes. Growing to adulthood in the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60’s, my mind was further expanded by the cultural ferment of the times, seeing in the Civil Rights, the Anti-Vietnam War and Countercultural movements a “Great Becoming� as formerly marginalized groups forced the society to be more open, more tolerant, more free. In short, to expand our society to more perfectly realize the vision of the founders of this nation, a Free Self-Government of Free, Informed Citizens Ruling with Equality and Justice for All. Combined with my background as a child of seafaring men, I was instilled with the knowledge gained from growing up in a seaport town, where goods and ideas were exchanged by people from all over the globe.

My upbringing allowed me to both demonstrate against the Vietnam War and then join the Navy. While serving I found myself in charge of safeguarding, loading and firing nuclear weapons during the entire Watergate episode of the Nixon administration while I was suing the Navy for fraud as part of a class-action suit over a bonus they promised me and 30,000 others. As a result of my voyages to some 36 countries across 3 continents, I was able to relate to the people there and see myself in them. It also gave me some inkling of the true power of the vision of America as opposed to its reality. Read more È

 

The Electoral College shall be abolished. Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1; Article 1, Section 3, Clause 1 and Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 shall be amended to provide for random computer  selection of all Federal Elective offices from Internal Revenue Service tax rolls of citizens within the appropriate Congressional District, State and Nation respectively according to existing Constitutional requirements. This amendment shall supersede the Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Nineteenth amendments.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment

As I look back over my experiences as a voting citizen since 1972, I have viewed with increasing alarm the growing disconnect between the citizenry and the leaders and representatives we elect. I have watched the increased growth and power of a Political Class disconnected from the needs of the citizenry as well as the alarming increase and importance of money in our electoral system. This corruptive influence of money on elections has further isolated the aforementioned political class by allowing a defacto form of two-tier citizenship. One class of the wealthy and corporate citizens who have real influence on government, another, lower class of regular citizens like you and me who have little or no influence on the actions of our government. Over the course of those decades, I have seen the Congress repeatedly try and either fail to enact significant campaign finance reform or have it’s efforts frustrated by contrary legal decisions that enshrine that unequal influence on our elections. This view was most recently reinforced by the Supreme Court’s activist ruling in their recent decision on Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission.

As a result of these actions, I have been forced to conclude that the pernicious influence of money on politics has become a clear and present danger to the functioning of our Constitutional Democratic Republic. I have further been forced to conclude that the elective system we have currently in place no longer provides for Real Representative Government responsive to the needs of the citizenry at large. I have, therefore, long pondered what changes can be made to restore citizen control of and real representation within that government. With the recent Supreme Court decision throwing out over 100 years of legal precedent, I do not see Public financing of elections as a credible path to reform. It is time to consider radical solutions to this problem. Since the acknowledged intent of the framers was to ensure that representatives to our government would accurately reflect the citizenry at large, what is needed is a mechanism to restore and reinforce that reflection.

My mechanism for reform would abolish all federal elections for legislative and executive offices and replace that mechanism with one based on random computer selection for all current federal elective offices from Internal Revenue tax rolls. All existing Constitutional requirements for office would remain in force. Using myself as an example, as a 56-year-old native-born citizen with no felony convictions from the 2^nd Congressional District in New Mexico, I could be selected as the 2^nd District Congressman, Senator from New Mexico, Vice President or President. Companion laws would be passed based on existing statutes governing National Guard Service and Jury Duty. The mechanism would work as follows. Read more È