by Jason Stotts
Here are some ideas I have to improve our government and reign in the rapidly expanding push towards tyranny. Comments are welcome.
Laws
1. Elaborate the bill of rights to protect US citizens against all levels of government; that is, incorporate these rights. Tyranny at any level is unacceptable.
2. A new law such that any legislator who proposes a law in contradiction to the Constitution or Bill of Rights shall be removed from office. Furthermore, said politician will be henceforth ineligible to run for any public office and his seat, in whatever legislature, will be forfeit for a period of 10 years, depriving his constituent of their representation and giving them further incentive to monitor their politicians. Such judgment shall be made by the Supreme Court corresponding to the level of the legislature, based on the formal objection by any politician or by a private citizen who would be harmed by the law.
3. Elaboration in the Bill of Rights that the function of government is to protect the rights of its citizenry and, as such, the government is a servant of the people. Thus, any power that is not absolutely necessary to ensure the lives and rights of its citizenry, and which is explicitly named, is retained by the people. (Make the 9th amendment more explicit.)
4. New law outlawing pressure groups and all attempts to sway a politician by means of money, goods, or other benefits. Such action, by any person, will be considered bribery and sedition, and shall be dealt with in the harshest possible way by the Judiciary. Any politician found to have accepted such benefits in order to sway his or her vote shall be guilty of Treason, a capital offense.
5. No law may be passed that selectively benefits any group or subset of citizens. All laws must be equally applicable to all citizens, since all citizens are equal before the law.
6. No person shall be enriched at the expense of another.
7. Taxes shall only be collected on property and sales, since it is necessary that the government has a hand in protecting property and enforcing contracts. No taxes upon a person or his income are permissible.
8. No law shall be passed that makes any action or speech a crime where there is no victim.
Politics
1. The voting record of all politicians must be made publically available. Further, said record must be displayed at each place of voting at each election, such that a politician’s constituents can see whether their representatives are being truthful.
2. The wage and benefits of all legislatures shall be indexed according to the average income and benefits of their constituents. Further, no legislature shall have the authority to raise or lower this amount.
3. Campaign promises by politicians shall be considered contracts with their constituents and failure to live up to this contract will result in ineligibility to ever again run for any public office.
Government and Economics
1. The government, at all levels, shall have no hand in economics, except to enforce laws protecting the rights of citizens engaged in economic activity.
2. The government shall consist of only those departments necessary to fulfill their role of protecting the rights and lives of its citizenry. All other functions are closed to it and must be fulfilled by private enterprise.
3. Neither money, nor aid, shall be given to a foreign country that is not an ally.
4. No money or aid may be given to any foreign country, except to allies in times of war, when the US is in debt to any foreign country.
5. No citizen shall pay a rate of tax higher than any other citizen, each shall contribute at the same rate and receive the same protection.
6. A class of residents shall be created to include all persons living in the country that are not US citizens and rights shall also be accorded to these persons, although not at the expense of the citizenry.
7. The government will not restrict trade in any way and shall act to ensure the sanctity of contracts.
Military
1. The US shall not enter into any military conflict unless her interests are threatened; that is, the United States will never initiate war with another country. This does not mean that the US will shy from first strike, but that the US has nothing to gain from engaging in military conquest and only the lives of its citizens to lose.
2. In any military engagement, the United States will act with the maximum amount of force available to it to end the engagement as quickly as possible and with a minimum loss of the lives of US Citizens, including its military personnel.
3. In any military engagement, the US shall accept no less than unconditional surrender of the foreign government and execution of all leaders instigating the violence.
4. No US Citizen or Soldier shall ever be put in harms way for the benefit of a non-US citizen.
Comments
2 responses to “On Changes to Effect a Better Government”
I’d like to add a few things.
First of all, I would modify the Necessary and Proper clause to say that Congress shall pass no law except what is absolutely necessary to implement and exercise powers explicitly conveyed by the US Constitution (it’s a con law thing).
Second, I would clarify the 1st amendment to say that Congress, or any arm or form of government in the US, is forbidden from, in any way, favoring or disfavoring any particular religious belief, or religious belief itself.
Third, I would make explicit that the rights to life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness are individual rights belonging to all US citizens, and violation of any such rights are actionable by an person against any person.
Fourth, Abolish any and all governmental immunity for any government employee, with the exception of military personnel engaged in military maneuvers or policemen in the normal, supervised course of their duties. Correlated, make any government employee (except the military/police exceptions) personally liable for any official action he or she may take that infringes any rights of any citizen.
Fifth, remove the bar to generalized grievances. Any and all citizens may sue any and all government employees, agencies, etc for the violation of any cognizable right.
Finally, a few critiques. I would say that your #4 under laws seems to be violating the rights to free speech and freedom of association. Maybe just re-work the wording, as you seem to be saying no bribing of legislators by any means. Also, capital punishment is not appropriate for such behavior, even though it may seem plausible at times. #6 under laws seems to be a little vague, as well. I’m not really sure what you’re getting at; maybe you mean abolish imminent domain?
And just an addition to government/econ, I would remove the coinage/weights & measures power of Congress, as well as the USPS, and a bunch of those little parts of Article 3.
Park,
You have some good suggestions too, maybe I’ll incorporate them when I revise this at some point in the future.
I think you’re right about Laws #4, I think I’ll reword it to be more clearly about bribery.
For Laws #6, I was thinking redistribution of wealth, but I can see now that was rather unclear.
I would think that removing the government’s influence in the economy would de facto remove the USPS, since it’s a economic monopoly. However, explicitly getting rid of it would probably be better.
~Jason