Our Challenge

It’s time to re-evaluate the structure and staffing for democratic decision-making in our country. Businesses call it reorganization. They don’t throw out the business. It takes the right structure with the right people in the right places to make the right decisions. We are arguing over issues that we can’t bring to a vote because we are entangled in rules we have created to fill the gaps in Hamilton’s Federalist Papers, at the very least. Five hundred and thirty-five senators and congressmen/women can no longer compromise. Their rules defeat the concept. Gerrymandering with computer assistance from special interest is making the concept of majority rule a mirage.

At this point we need questions, homework, and evaluation far more than opinion based on emotion and assumption. I recognize that this approach does not currently attract votes, and that all facts are opinions supported by various levels of measurement, evaluation, and conclusion. They can, and some have, changed over time. Opinions have led us into a tangle we must wait four years to address with half-hearted platform promises. They are then shelved after the election. Distraction, dissent, and obstruction abound.

We need a better way to bring individual issues to the table promptly for a decision, and a better way to fill and re-fill the seats of leadership with those who will be counted. Hiding opinion in a bundle of legislative issues and hoping it will ride on the coattails of more essential topics is not compromise. It is deception in its finest legislative form. Reorganization does not mean we change the business of democracy. It means we intend to improve its performance to match the written ideals we have yet to reach.