Political Party ~ Two Party System Failed?
Government Based on the Original United States Constitution
~ Proposed and Submitted by Johnnie Johnson
July 11, 2011
CLOSENESS TO REPRESENTATIVE
The founders wanted us to have an intimate relationship with our Representative, (as George Mason said, to dwell among them and to think as they think and to feel as they feel) and for us to know him well enough that we could trust him in the decisions over our life and property. In the founders’ day, they had a representation of around 37,000 per Congressional District. It was like a small town experience where word travels quickly, and verification is just around the corner. This very thing of familiarity, helps qualify us in choosing our representative. Choosing a representative from such an environment would be like having a friend in government who was familiar with our society, and could truly represent us in government decisions.
Now days, with the candidate for the House of Representatives living in such a vast area and representing well over half a million people, familiarity is out the window. What we have most to base that election decision on now, is paid advertisement, political promises, and maybe a town hall experience. This is hardly intimate and hardly reassuring, as we elect a stranger from our District and hang our hopes on a star.
ACT TO SHRINK THE SIZE OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS.
Let us take the peaceful path to change our government. Restore our Congressional Districts to a smaller, more intimate size, thereby enlarging the United States House of Representatives. (one Representative per congressional District) The House of Representatives can then have better policing of government officers, and government programs, reigning in government to the intimate will of the people. The founders said the Representatives “shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand” people, in the House of Representatives. (Article I Section 2 Par.3) Accordingly Congress established representation close to thirty-seven Thousand for each Representative for the first two census
GROW GOVERNMENT? Some will say, “we do not want to grow our government, we need to shrink it!” The founders set up our Representatives with the power to do just that, “shrink government,” where necessary. Most government programs may originate in Washington, but their power structure and burden are spread through out the Nation, and cry for oversight and accountability. Four hundred thirty-five Representatives cannot come close to fulfilling the tasks today, that the Founders have given our Representatives to perform. We need to shrink our Congressional Districts to enlarge the House of Representatives, that we may properly police our Government. Remember our representatives need to have accountable-oversight for every civil officer, and every National program through out the 50 states. Our representatives have power to control where and how much money is spent, the level of taxation, accountability of all civil officers, and if and how large a government program needs to be! Let’s enlarge the House as needed, to bring control and balance to our National Government. Thomas Jefferson said “We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that ‘governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it.’” August the 8th 2011, makes it 100 years since Congress put a cap of 435 members on the House of Representatives. Since then the population of America has increased by over 200 Million people. Americans today have grownup being accustomed to the freeze in the House, and do not know what happened to the ‘power of the people’, the Founders spoke of so highly.
WHAT SIZE OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS SHOULD WE ESTABLISH, FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES?
The National Conference of State Legislatures has a web site where on they have posted the “2010 Partisan Composition of State Legislatures. ” On this web sight is listed the make up of the Senate and House for each State of the Union. For the most part, the individual State Legislatures have continued representing the people with a better ratio, in their State government, than the Federal Government has done in the House of Representatives.
Let us take the total of Representatives that each state has chosen through out the nation, and let’s use that number for the total members of the House of Representatives. That number is listed as 5,411 excluding Nebraska. Nebraska only has a Senate in their legislature, and the number of Senators representing their people is 49. Lets include them in the count and recognize 5,460 State elected Representatives, currently representing the people of the whole United States in their local state legislatures. This change would give an average congressional district size of 56,547 people, per Representative in the House.
Calculation:
U.S. 2010 Census of 308,745,538 divided by / the 2010 Composition of State Representatives and recommended number in the House of Representatives which is 5,460 gives us congressional districts of 56,547 people on average.
This is barely under what the founders rejected after the 1790 census as insufficient representation, but it is close to the representation we are used to at most state levels today, and a huge improvement over the current average representation of 709,760 people per Congressional District.
For many generations now, our national government has infringed on States’ rights, exerting an unbalanced power shift, with much growth and unwieldiness. Why should we put up with any less representation in the national government, than in our state government? Our American rights are constantly at risk with either government, and increasingly so with the Federal Government. Yet these are both “The People’s Governments”. How better to restore balance to the Federal Government than to restore the presence and power of “The People” through shrinking our Congressional Districts? Stay the course, and we will have a “President’s Government”!
Let’s make things right by enlarging our U.S. House of Representatives to the Sum of all State House Representatives, including Nebraska’s Senators. This enlargement of the House will provide the personnel necessary for proper government oversight throughout the Nation and exercise of the constitutional tools necessary to bring our National government back under the people’s control.
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