3rd Chamber of Citizens
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:43 am
Okay, so here's my idea.
1. We take the existing districts of representatives and carve them up into 30k - 50k citizen districts.
2. Within these districts, we hold elections for a representative of these districts, via mail.
3. This 3rd Chamber of Citizens then executes its role as a chamber of congress. Legislation can be written and provided to the actual US representative that encompasses these voluntary districts. These voluntary representatives become aware of actual legislation occurring on capitol hill, hold their own vote, and report to the actual representative the outcome of the vote. This could be viewed as advisement. Citizen Advisers.
What this does:
1. Sets a functioning precedent for a distributed chamber. The voluntary force would operate via telepresence, work through google docs, etc to achieve their ends.
2. Spreads awareness of the representation problem to citizens. The candidates for this voluntary chamber are obvious very interested in the well-being of their country, and as such will probably go door-to-door to get votes or to spread awareness of the voluntary chamber.
3. Creates the framework for transition. If this gets into place and functioning, people will accept that it is possible to run our country with a voting legislature of this size.
4. Creates the possibility for a 3rd chamber. Why not?
How to do it:
1. Obtain census information via FOIA to create new district maps. Become friends with people who know how to use that software where you can map out populations and what-have-you.
2. Do a kickstarter campaign to raise funds for snail mail voting effort.
3. Contact people in each 3rd chamber district and recruit potential candidates.
4. Set a vote date, give candidates enough time to campaign,
5. Vote
6. Let democracy run its course
Obviously a much more well-written document should be drafted upon the founding of this body. But I think the most powerful aspect of this is that it means we're serious. If your everyday person gets a knock on their door and has a conversation with a fellow citizen describing the problem and our current working solution, people will see that we can get our representation back. And when the real US representatives continuously get knocks on their doors from this "3rd Chamber of Citizens" they keep hearing their colleagues talk about, they'll know that things are changing.
Its walking the walk.
And *, who knows, while the direct outcome might not be an immediate change, another possibility is that the current US representatives become blindingly aware of our efforts, and eventually recruit us to assist in management of their fiefdoms. And then, well... then we're on the inside.
1. We take the existing districts of representatives and carve them up into 30k - 50k citizen districts.
2. Within these districts, we hold elections for a representative of these districts, via mail.
3. This 3rd Chamber of Citizens then executes its role as a chamber of congress. Legislation can be written and provided to the actual US representative that encompasses these voluntary districts. These voluntary representatives become aware of actual legislation occurring on capitol hill, hold their own vote, and report to the actual representative the outcome of the vote. This could be viewed as advisement. Citizen Advisers.
What this does:
1. Sets a functioning precedent for a distributed chamber. The voluntary force would operate via telepresence, work through google docs, etc to achieve their ends.
2. Spreads awareness of the representation problem to citizens. The candidates for this voluntary chamber are obvious very interested in the well-being of their country, and as such will probably go door-to-door to get votes or to spread awareness of the voluntary chamber.
3. Creates the framework for transition. If this gets into place and functioning, people will accept that it is possible to run our country with a voting legislature of this size.
4. Creates the possibility for a 3rd chamber. Why not?
How to do it:
1. Obtain census information via FOIA to create new district maps. Become friends with people who know how to use that software where you can map out populations and what-have-you.
2. Do a kickstarter campaign to raise funds for snail mail voting effort.
3. Contact people in each 3rd chamber district and recruit potential candidates.
4. Set a vote date, give candidates enough time to campaign,
5. Vote
6. Let democracy run its course
Obviously a much more well-written document should be drafted upon the founding of this body. But I think the most powerful aspect of this is that it means we're serious. If your everyday person gets a knock on their door and has a conversation with a fellow citizen describing the problem and our current working solution, people will see that we can get our representation back. And when the real US representatives continuously get knocks on their doors from this "3rd Chamber of Citizens" they keep hearing their colleagues talk about, they'll know that things are changing.
Its walking the walk.
And *, who knows, while the direct outcome might not be an immediate change, another possibility is that the current US representatives become blindingly aware of our efforts, and eventually recruit us to assist in management of their fiefdoms. And then, well... then we're on the inside.