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One
concern of those who drafted the Constitution of the United States was that
representatives should not have such small constituencies that the office
would fail to attract able candidates.
Even so, Chairman of the Convention, George Washington, called for a
minimum constituency of 30,000 instead of the already approved 40,000. This was his only suggestion regarding
details of the Constitution and it was adopted. THE
FEDERALIST, No. 51 states that “dependence on the people is, no doubt, the
primary control on the government.” No. 52 adds “… it is particularly essential that ..” the representative “… have an
immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people.” Now, with
the congressional districts having average populations of about 690,000, i.e. more than the 524,160 minutes
in a year, we face a very different situation. All Representatives, of whatever origins,
become members of the upper class by virtue of their salaries and perks
alone. The long sessions, and the
increasing detail of their involvement in nearly all matters of government,
keep their minds and bodies within the confines of the “Beltway” most of the
time. National journalists, pollsters,
lobbyists, and congressional staff members, along with “earmarks,” get them
reelected. Meanwhile, it is literally
impossible for them to allot one minute of their time per year to each
constituent. Our
representatives should be much more numerous; they should spend most of their
working time in their districts; and they should have infrequent, but
authoritative votes on major public issues.
In order to add that to the Constitution, I suggest the
following: Proposed amendment |
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About
Ivan W. Parkins: Dr.
Parkins is a retired professor of Political Science from Central Michigan
University. He received his PhD from
the University of Chicago and is a graduate of the United States Naval
Academy. Dr. Parkins served as a naval
officer during WWII aboard the battleship Alabama. He is a recent widower with three
daughters, 3 grand children and 2 great grand children. Dr. Parkins has written extensively, having
authored 3 books and a newspaper opinion column for many years. |
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FACTS To Ponder: The First Amendment to our Constitution is not what
the First Congress proposed for that spot. Partisan divisions of Congress and the Presidency in
the second half of the twentieth century differed extremely from those in the
first half. Since 1930, no Republican President has enjoyed a
partisan congressional division as favorable as Clinton’s was in 1993-1994,
but all other Democrat Presidents have fared better than Clinton. If the average Representative were to spend 1000
hours per year meeting face-to-face with individual constituents, it would
not be possible to spend 10 seconds with each constituent. In just 5 weeks of 2006, Israel lost approximately
twice (as a percentage of its population) as many soldiers in Lebanon as our
military fatalities in five years of the “War on Terror”. Just the increase
of violent deaths domestically, among American youths in the 1960’s and
‘70’s, exceeded our combat fatalities in Vietnam. According to the World Health Organization’s
calculations of increased malaria deaths following the ban on DDT, that
policy has already been more deadly than Hitler’s “final solution”. The pension funds held by state and local
governments, and by corporations, for their employees exceed the “National
Debt”. None of the above is a secret, but none is
emphasized in the mass media. |
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Ivan Parkins |
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DISASSEMBLE THE HOUSE By Ivan W. Parkins PhD. |
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Excerpts
from: Perspectives For American Society The strength of democracy
lies not so much in any special capacity that it may have for discovering
truths or for making truths known as in its ability to detect and serve the
many views and interests of its citizens. |
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To order
Dr. Parkins book, Perspectives For
American Society Contact
info@americanpoliticalcommentary.com |
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©Ivan W. Parkins 2008, All articles, text, web pages property of
Ivan W. Parkins. Use of any material
requires permission of the author and can be obtained by contacting info@americanpoliticalcommentary.com |