About this website
The work of making our government our own begins with some shared understandings:
- A shared understanding of the ideals upon which our nation was founded.
- A shared understanding of democracy.
- A shared understanding of the anti-democratic provisions embedded in our Constitution and the amendments that are needed to remove those anti-democratic provisions.
- And a shared understanding of the flaws in the manner in which we conduct elections and the reforms that are needed to correct those flaws.
This website is intended to foster these shared understandings and propose two foundational reforms that would make our government more democratic and make it easier to enact the additional reforms that are necessary to make America a true democracy. You will also find an overview of those additional reforms along with an Action Plan detailing exactly what we need to do to get these reforms enacted.
Our nation was founded on noble ideals
The Declaration of Independence
The clearest and most concise summary of the ideals upon which our nation was founded can be found in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all (people) are created equal, that (we) are endowed by (our) Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among (Us), deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson was clearly inspired by John Locke as he wrote the Declaration of Independence. The ideas espoused by Locke in his Second Treatise of Government make a compelling case that no government is legitimate unless it enjoys the consent of the governed, and that consent is rendered by majority rule.
The word "democracy is not mentioned anywhere in the Declaration of Independence (or our Constitution), but the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, in reflecting the ideas of John Locke - that we are all born with natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that we institute governments to secure and protect those rights, that governments derive their "just powers" from the "consent of the governed" and we retain the right to change our form of government - all point to democracy.
Democracy has a great many false friends who have worked very hard to create the illusion of democracy while avoiding a clear definition of democracy and rejecting majority rule. A clear definition of democracy and a shared of understanding of democracy is essential to working together to establish a true democracy.
Defining "democracy"
In his essay “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell makes the point that "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity". In that context, he addresses the difficulty of defining democracy:
In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic, we are praising it: consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning."
For anyone with sincere intentions, defining “democracy” is a simple matter. The word was formed from a combination of the Greek words “demos”, which means “the people” and “kratia”, which means “have power”. A democratic government, therefore, is one in which the people have power.
Working with a clear definition of democracy, judging whether a government is truly democratic is a simple matter. In a true democracy the will of a majority of the people determines public policies and what laws are passed.
Direct democracy in Athens
One of the best examples of direct democracy is also the earliest. The main democratic body in Athens was the assembly, which met from one to three times per month. All of the male citizens of Athens over the age of 18 had equal political rights, including freedom of speech, the right to address the assembly, and the right to vote. After each issue was discussed, a vote was taken by a show of hands with the majority determining the outcome. The decisions of the assembly were final – not subject to veto.
Representative democracy in America?
The primary flaw in Athenian democracy was the fact that the right to participate in governing was limited to male citizens. That flaw was shared by governments in America during the colonial period and in the early years of government under our Constitution. Amendments to our Constitution gradually expanded the right to vote and hold office but those rights have been, and are, continually under attack and other anti-democratic elements are still present in our version of democracy. The result has been a wide gap between the will of the people and the acts of Congress and most state legislatures.
In the "Democracy Index" (which is issued annually by The Economist) the United States is currently ranked as the 25th most democratic country in the world - in the upper range of the second tier in the index: "flawed democracies". We will reap considerable benefits, individually and as a nation, if we pass the legislation needed to make America a true democracy.
Any provisions within a Constitution or flaws in the manner in which elections are conducted that allow a minority to overrule the majority are, by definition, anti-democratic. There are numerous such flaws in the way we conduct elections and several such provisions within our Constitution.
Most of the 55 men who drafted our Constitution were not fond of democracy. They knew that the Declaration of Independence had stirred the passions of Americans with the promise of democracy, but they were determined to protect the wealthy from what one delegate referred to as "the turbulence of follies of democracy". many of the delegates chimed in with similar assessments of democracy.