A New Constitution

Earlyish on in my residing on ATS I posted a thread (accidentally, as I was still unclear on how to post where I wanted to) in the Secret Societies forum, and it was never moved out of there... So I thought to post it in (hopefully) a better place, and also consolidate some of the posts I made in that thread.

It's all about a New Constitution:

I have been thinking about the whole "national security" blinder built in to our present system. And I thought about a democratic society that had access to any governmental doings and goings on. All they had to to was ask and the information had to be given.

They could decide from informed positions, and if war came to be needed, the evidence would be indisputable.

But I think the society would not need to go to war because, if it was Americans as a whole directing this ship of a country, we would move with compassion. The money spent in war would be spent helping those who need it.

Katrina. Man, we'd have been all over Katrina. In a heartbeat. And we were when we saw we couldn't rely on the "government" who had promised us they would be on these sorts of things. Much relief effort poured out.

So I was thinking of an Amendment...

What are your thoughts about this idea. They will enlighten me.

Any other changes you might suggest?

An amendment is not a new constitution.

The Federal Government DOES have a legitimate need to keep SOME things secret. However, they have abused this privilege.

Originally posted by sir_chancealot
An amendment is not a new constitution.

The Federal Government DOES have a legitimate need to keep SOME things secret. However, they have abused this privilege.

Well, yes, I realize that. I could not find the thread where I wrote down a number of changes I thought were needed, and I jumped the gun in posting this, having been distracted in the middle... Please forgive me.

As for the Federal Government needing secrecy, I will tell you this:

That any democratic government that allows secrets from its constituents is one government ripe to be taken over.

If we are to be the governors, we need to have the information. Period.

I started a thread on this matter earlier this year. Got a few inputs. It can be found here

reply to post by Wolf321


Thank you for that, Wolf. I admit, it was a distracting day and your call for a new Constitution was better formed than mine.

Here are some things *I* think we should include:

All elected Federal representatives must have on their person 24/7 (with potty breaks alone, maybe a bit of privacy for conjugal purposes...) cameras with audio, fed into a public access channel.

This would be their sacrifice for their country, ensuring that only those that really want to SERVE serve. It will allow us, the People, to verify that what is going on is in our best interest. It would eliminate secrecy, but then, secrecy is a democracy's weakness - any democracy that allows secrecy is open to corruption and downfall.

As was mentioned on your thread, I would absolutely state, in clear, unambiguous terms that NEVER may we have a currency run by private interests. We must issue our own currency.

We MUST operate only with funds collected. We, the People, are the sort that, should an emergency spring up, we will send our cash to help.

Taxes will be VOLUNTARY, and we may designate the exact program to which they go.

The pay of any congresscritter, or any other Federal elected official, may NEVER exceed the mean income of the People. This will motivate them to raise OUR standard of living!

Any organization representing themselves as bringers of news MUST allow any side wishing to have their say speak in equal time - we may choose to decline this option. Should deliberate fabrication take place, the organization will be disbanded and the involved members will be fined.

As I think of more, I will add them.

reply to post by Amaterasu

I think a great requirement for our elected members of Congress would be to require them to live in Government Housing and only have access to Medicaid/Medicare during their tenure. If they had to live the way the common people live maybe they would be more amiable to correcting some of the problems they helped to cause. As long as they continue to live way above everyone else they will stay out of touch with what America really needs.
Reddragon696

"taxes" in this country, [Cayman Islands] is in the form of import duties. Several things -- mostly those which we do not produce ourselves -- are duty-free. It's a pay-as-you-go tax, and it works. Don't want to pay? Don't buy stuff from other countries that is imported, just buy stuff from our own retailers who have already paid duties on them. It's clean, it's simple, and it's efficient. Sure, we have fees for various things, but there is no dreaded tax month, no analogue of April 15th.

Now, I'm thinking, could this work for the U.S.? There are literally TONS and TONS of things imported -- go visit Walmart and look for "Made in U.S.A.". How about oil? Auto parts? Ethanol from other countries? Duty it.

When we lived in the U.S., I was self-employed, on contract to the U.S. government. Taxes ate me alive. I made an excellent living, but the taxes descriminated against me as a small business. The nature of the work I did, the equipment was not deductable on a M.A.R.S. accellerated deduction, and I had to spend 120 hours every year for recertification that was ALSO not deductible. What a crock. Be part of the machine, then you can save.

well, that's my rant, and my suggestions. I think there should be more incentive to buy American if you live in the U.S. I think cheap rinky-dink goods should have the snot taxed/dutied out of them, especially toys from an Asian country that has a history of potentially toxic/harmful toys.

Hey dont sweat the details.. You gotta have faith that things will work out, and they will. Cooler heads will prevail.

Regards,

-map

Garrison Keelor comes to mind here.

'For the republicans for which it stands, one republic, under w, with ignorance and impunity for all'.

reply to post by argentus


I like this idea, but would rather see the People supporting the projects and programs they value, rather than have money wrested from them in an extortionist kinda way...

It is a better idea than that which we have now, though, I'll admit.

reply to post by jpm1602


Well... I think Garrison has a good perspective on how things are now. I'm trying to come up with solutions, however.

Another solution I propose is that any individual who gets, say, 10,000 petition sigs to run for Prez must be given equal face time in the media as any other who has done this. This will avert the tragedy we saw with Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, who were probably the best candidates from either of the mock parties. If they had had equal time, they might have won their respective nominations.

(I am imagining a Paul/Kucinich or Kucinich/Paul ticket... [sigh])

Originally posted by mapsurfer_
Hey dont sweat the details.. You gotta have faith that things will work out, and they will. Cooler heads will prevail.

Regards,

-map

Hmmmm. We must have faith that God (perhaps?) will hand us a viable document to handle the issues we see in this 21st century...?

Somehow, I am suspecting that if we don't help ourselves, neither will God.

It's not an issue of "cooler heads," but of who has the power. And if we don't take back the power, the power heads will prevail.