Discuss how we can hasten progress towards enlarging representation. There are two primary components to this: 1) educating others in order to gain the necessary public support; and, 2) ensuring implementation via a constitutional amendment or other legal means.
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d3teur
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:54 am
First Name: Martilias
Stance: Pro-Enlargement

3rd Chamber of Citizens

Post by d3teur »

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.
d3teur
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Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:54 am
First Name: Martilias
Stance: Pro-Enlargement

Re: 3rd Chamber of Citizens

Post by d3teur »

Discuss?
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JEQuidam
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First Name: Jeff
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Re: 3rd Chamber of Citizens

Post by JEQuidam »

Unfortunately, far too few people are even aware of the problem of oversized congressional districts and the oligarchy of 435, let alone the solution (as intended by "Article the first" of the Bill of Rights). With so few people who understand the problem or the solution, we are a long way from having the widespread support needed to even consider such an endeavor. In the meantime, we need a ground campaign to educate the public and obtain their support. Please encourage potential supporters to like Thirty-Thousand.org on Facebook and to download and read Taking Back Our Republic.
d3teur
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:54 am
First Name: Martilias
Stance: Pro-Enlargement

Re: 3rd Chamber of Citizens

Post by d3teur »

JEQuidam wrote:Unfortunately, far too few people are even aware of the problem of oversized congressional districts and the oligarchy of 435, let alone the solution (as intended by "Article the first" of the Bill of Rights). With so few people who understand the problem or the solution, we are a long way from having the widespread support needed to even consider such an endeavor. In the meantime, we need a ground campaign to educate the public and obtain their support. Please encourage potential supporters to like Thirty-Thousand.org on Facebook and to download and read Taking Back Our Republic.
The thing is, everyone I talk to supports the idea, or at least agrees that we've lost our representation... but the end of the conversation always boils down to "Well, how do we increase the number of representatives?" And then when I tell them we need to amend the constitution or get members of congress to put this fix in place, they laugh. I feel there's a general resignation in this country when it comes to fixing something at this scale, especially if the fix has to come from within the system.

But yes, in general, I agree that more people need to be aware. But I think our message needs to be more than "if you want to change things, tell others".
JudgeBrennan
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Re: 3rd Chamber of Citizens

Post by JudgeBrennan »

I don't know if I am doing this correctly, but here goes. The third chamber already exists. If you go to http://www.conventionusa.org you will see:
1) that we have 400 delegates, someone representing every state in the union.
2) that we have created 1,186 districts nationwide in which 6,166 delegates will be elected. The ratio of constituents to delegates is not less that 45,000 to one and not more than 55,000 to one. See http://www.convdist.blogspot.com
3} That we plan to conduct a live session in May of 2015 in Saint Louis.
4) That we are not waiting for Congress to call a convention.
5) That any registered voter can sign up as a delegate.
6) That where there are more delegates than allowed in a district, there will be an election on the Internet contemporaneous with the Congressional elections in November.
WMCraig
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Re: 3rd Chamber of Citizens (a different idea)

Post by WMCraig »

Alternative solution.
The biggest problem we have is that once a representative goes to Washington he is drawn into the social circles of the ruling elite. Expanding Congress will make bribing or seducing any one representative less cost effective but it will not solve two problems.
1. Concentrating power in one place makes corruption easier to implement, especially if it is out of sight.
2. A bigger congress means more money going to the bureaucracy.

So, as a free market kind of federalist I would suggest there is no reason, in the modern world that Congress should convene in Washington at all. The solution is to make each representative maintain and work from an office in their congressional district. They can conduct business over the internet, convene over the internet, and perform all their duties using the modern technology that large international corporations use.

There are many benefits to this, in addition to eliminating the biggest stumbling block to implementing the objectives, cost.
1. While it will be more expensive to have more representatives, and more offices, and more staff, that money will stay in the community where the taxes come from to support it.
2. The staff will be local, and will have to go home to their community at night. They won't be able to hide behind like minded ruling elites in crowds out of site and far from their constituents. There children will go to same schools, participate in the same sports leagues, they will attend the same houses of worship, be treated by the same medical system, and eat at the same restaurants. This is not to say there won't be any difference between wealthy government workers and the woman working behind the counter at the local convenience store, but there won't be a geographic distance that hides who they really are.
3. If you get upset at what they are doing going to Washington and protest is no easier for most Americans today then getting to London in the times of our founding. But any representative will be faced, daily, with people on the street outside the office who he or she represents. That proximity makes responsiveness much more likely.
4. The local paper, the local gossip, the local cab driver, the bus driver, the florist across the street, the delivery newspaper delivery boy, the counter clerk and serving staff in the local eateries will have direct immediate knowledge about anyone who visits, especially special interest lobbyists. Nothing will make corruption easier to monitor and hard to accomplish then this.
5. Assuming that lobbyists can get past the gauntlet of local busybodies trying to influence a signficant majority of 6000 legislators is already a problem. Spread them around so you have to visit them in their home district under the scrutiny of the voters and it becomes extremely expensive. Not that it can't happen, but the kind of influence will change. Lobbyists for change at the state level or below will find a better chance which at the very least means people from a bunch of other states on the other side of the country from you can't decide what kind of health care your state has to implement.

The idea is to resolve the problems in Washington, reduce the cost of government representation or at least keep the money close to it's source while eliminating the ever expanding bureaucracy in Washington while simultaneously increasing the number of representatives in line with the goals of this board.

As a new poster here, I am very interested in your thoughts. And suggestions on how best to discuss this idea
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