Our Action Plan
The Democracy Trifecta
Making a community, state, or nation a Perfect Democracy involves three components: perfecting direct democracy; perfecting “Representative Assemblies”; and an electorate in which a solid majority of politically active citizens are well educated, well informed, and respect the rights of others.
Majority rule is the essential element in both direct democracy and representative democracy. The supremacy of the legislative power is an essential element within both a direct democracy and a representative democracy. The difference between direct democracy and representative democracy is that, in a direct democracy, the people vote directly to make major political decisions, and in a representative democracy, the people vote indirectly through representatives. An equal vote is an essential element of a direct democracy and equal representation is an essential element of a representative democracy.
Majority rule, and equal vote and equal representation, and the supremacy of the legislative power, make a government a True Democracy and put the form of a Perfect Democracy in place. However, majority rule and True Democracy is no guarantee of good government. Which is why the third and final element – a well-educated and well-informed electorate with most, if not all, citizens having respect for the Rights of others - is so important.
Which Side Are You On?
Politics is a Team Sport and a Numbers Game
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party have long been considered the primary “teams” in our electoral and political systems. Although the assault on democracy is being led by Republicans in Congress and state governments and the few pro-democracy reforms that have been proposed have been introduced by Democrats, it is important to understand that there are a great many Republican voters and some Republicans holding public office who believe in democracy. There are some Democrats who don’t.
The “teams” in a referendum on democracy, properly defined and understood, are Champions of Democracy and the false friends and true enemies of democracy.
Our “winner-take-all” political system, with single member districts and plurality winners, focuses most of our attention on individual candidates in a head-to-head competition to win seats in legislatures or executive offices. Candidates routinely talk about issues of concern to voters in a manner that implies that, if they are elected, the legislation voters want enacted will be enacted. And yet regardless of what candidates win, very little, if any, legislation is ever enacted that effectively addresses voters’ concerns.
That is because politics in America is a numbers game. It takes 218 votes in the House and 51 votes in the Senate to enact legislation. As long as the Senate keeps the filibuster in place, 60 votes are necessary to pass legislation in most cases. If the president vetoes a bill, it takes 290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate to override the veto. It also takes 290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate to propose an amendment to the Constitution, which must then be ratified by a majority vote in three-fourths of the states (38 states). And there are enough members in both major parties who have been corrupted by the need to raise enormous amounts of money constantly to keep any legislation opposed by corporate interests or tax-averse billionaires from being enacted.
More and more of the money being raised and spent in our elections is “dark money” funneled through “Super PACs” that are legally prohibited from coordinating with candidates but routinely do so with impunity. Candidates know which Super PACs are spending money on their behalf and which megadonors are contributing the dark money. And those mega-donors have considerable influence with most legislators.
The corporatists and plutocrats who currently control nearly all the levers of power in America will not give up without a fight. They will spend a lot of money in support of the false friends and true enemies of democracy who hold office or are running for office, but we have them outnumbered. Super-PACs may routinely outspend us, but if we unite in support of democracy, we can outvote them.
Perfect Democracy is a 501(c)4 “Super-PAC” and we are raising as much money as possible so that we can counter the misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies the false friends and true enemies of democracy are sure to disseminate in their efforts to hold onto power. But Perfect Democracy is, at heart, a very different type of PAC – Politically Active Citizens. We are organizing pro-democracy citizens and organizations into a broad and inclusive grassroots movement, united in support of the reforms that will put the form of a perfect democracy in place, and in support of the Champions of Democracy who draft, introduce, and/or cosponsor the legislation needed to enact those reforms. When we unite in support of Champions of Democracy and the democratic ideals upon which our nation was founded, our pro-democracy movement will be "too big to fail".
Champions of Democracy
The Key Groups that make up the Pro-Democracy Movement
At the Federal Level
A Perfect Democracy Amendment must be our top priority.
George Mason, one of the delegates to the Federal Convention of 1787, pointed out to his fellow delegates that it should be possible to amend the Constitution “in an easy, regular, and Constitutional way” and that “It would be improper to require the consent of the National Legislature (Congress), because they may abuse their power.” Some of the most prominent of our nation's Founders agreed. But a majority of the delegates to the convention voted instead to put an anti-democratic amendment process in place, that is far from “easy”, with super-majority requirements included in both methods provided for in Article V for amending the Constitution.
There is no provision for referendums or the initiative in the Constitution of the United States.
A system of Proxies for Citizens in the U. S. House of Representatives could be implemented by a simple majority vote in the House of Representatives changing the rules of how the House conducts its business. It could be adopted more permanently (and more transparently) by simple legislation. It would not require a constitutional amendment.
Extending the use of proxies to the U. S. Senate would require a constitutional amendment because Article V of the Constitution of the United States includes a provision that "no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate".
There would be some benefit to implementing a system of Proxies for Citizens in the U. S. House of Representatives. It would instantly transform the House into the truly democratic institution it was intended to be. However, with the “check” on the will of the people provided by the Senate still in place, legislation desired by a majority of the people would likely still be blocked consistently.
Our top priority at the federal level, therefore, must be to add a provision for referendums and the initiative to Article V of the Constitution.
There are two methods of amending our Constitution provided for in Article V: Amendments can be proposed by two-thirds of the members of both the House and Senate or the legislatures of two-thirds of the states can call a convention for proposing amendments. Regardless of which method is used to propose amendments, proposed amendments must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Congress may designate either state legislatures or conventions in each state as the “Mode of Ratification”.
There are no details provided in the Constitution, or in any legislation that has been enacted since the Constitution was ratified, regarding how delegates to a Convention would be chosen or how the business of the Convention would be conducted. Absent legislation to provide those details and ensure that delegates to a convention would be chosen democratically, calling a convention to propose amendments risks triggering a constitutional crisis and a convention that could conceivably make America less democratic, rather than more democratic.
We are the Ultimate Rulers of Our Democracy
Enacting pro-democracy reforms will shift power to the people
To exercise our power as “the ultimate rulers of our democracy” we must first unite in support of democracy and in support of Champions of Democracy. We must elect candidates who support the legislation that makes up the Democracy Agenda to a majority of the seats in both houses of Congress and every state legislature. We must temporarily set aside our differences of opinion regarding the wedge issues that divide us (abortion, gun control, gay rights, immigration, taxes, and the proper role of government and make support for pro-democracy legislation our top priority in deciding which candidates to support.
To believe in democracy means to agree that major political decisions (what laws should be enacted, what rights should be secured and protected, and the form of the government) should be made by "the voters of this country"– not by politicians, or Supreme Court justices.
When we unite in support of the ideals upon which our nation was founded, we will find that we, the people, have the power to address the flaws in our political system and become more than a “full democracy”. We can Make America a Perfect Democracy.
There is a long list of critical problems that need to be addressed and issues that need to be resolved in America today. We argue angrily and endlessly about the same issues. We have become bitterly divided. There are solutions that have the support of a solid majority of Americans, but so far, those solutions have not been implemented because within our corrupted, dysfunctional, gridlocked political system, the will of the people does not matter.
Unless and until we make America a true democracy, very little, if any, of the legislation we want enacted will be enacted. Once we succeed in making America a true democracy, all the legislation that has the support of a majority of politically active citizens will be passed into law.
To make America a true democracy, we, the people, must unite – across party lines and despite ideological differences on the issues that divide us. Without abandoning our efforts on the issues we care about, we must make enacting the legislation included in the Democracy Agenda our top priority.