Step one: Identify who is currently controlling the law-making branches of our state and federal governments.
People talk about red states and blue states to indicate which of the two major, political parties have majority control over the state's political functions, and, therefore, which party can skew the lawmaking process in their favor as well as which one has more influence on the outcome of all state and federal elections. So the answer to who is currently in control of our government is - our political parties.
Why this is a problem: Political parties can serve a useful purpose in a democratic government like ours by making citizens aware of the different options we can discuss for every issue we have. But when the parties cross the line and actively seek to control the government themselves, overriding citizens' constitutional rights to play an active role in the lawmaking process, they quickly become extremely divisive, start spreading baseless claims and propaganda, and end up in a state of near perpetual gridlock in congress because of their inability to make rational compromises. And those defects are contagious, quickly spreading through the general population. You have witnessed this yourself. People who believe they can't be brainwashed by propaganda are the easiest to brainwash because they won't believe it while it's happening to them. The bottom line is - our representatives are representing their own, often partisan, political opinions, instead of honestly working to find out what the majority of their constituents actually want so they can represent THEM.
Step two: Here's how we can fix this.
We notify all the representatives in our respective voting districts that we will no longer vote for or support them based on their own political beliefs and opinions. Instead, we will vote for candidates, and support those currently in office, based on what qualifications they have to actually be able represent their constituents instead of representing themselves, their party, or their major donors. The first qualification will be that they must pledge to set aside their own political beliefs in order to adequately represent the majority opinion of their constituents without bias. And we must hold them to that promise. There will be other qualifying factors we can discuss, such as experience, integrity etc., but that first one is the most important, assuming we elect people with an adequate level of competence for government positions. Keep in mind that the leadership skills we should be looking for in representatives are a little different from those we want in the people in the executive branches of our governments. Representatives should have the kind of authority we see in referees and arbitrators, not so much the kind we accept in bosses.
Why this can be effective: If enough of us give notice of these intentions to all of our representatives, we will certainly get their attention. Most representatives' lives revolve around getting elected and reelected, and they will recognize this as a serious threat to their electability if they refuse to take it seriously. Political parties will resist, of course, and dismiss this as nonsense. But if we persist, we can take government control out of the hands of political parties and give control back to the citizens of the United States, where it has always belonged. American citizens have always had the constitutional authority to hire and fire all of our lawmakers through the election process, giving citizens substantial control over the bills that are, eventually, written into law. All these years we have been electing lawmakers for the wrong reasons. We can change that now if we try.
Our role in this: Pardon me for using a politically unacceptable word here, but citizens have an "obligation" to accept and support the decision of the majority after a rational, honest discussion ends, and a vote has been taken. It's important that citizens also to know that reaching a compromise in American politics is a two-stage process. Stage one is carried out among citizens in the appropriate, local voting district. Stage-two is done in the state or federal congress and may require reconsideration at the local level.
People talk about red states and blue states to indicate which of the two major, political parties have majority control over the state's political functions, and, therefore, which party can skew the lawmaking process in their favor as well as which one has more influence on the outcome of all state and federal elections. So the answer to who is currently in control of our government is - our political parties.
Why this is a problem: Political parties can serve a useful purpose in a democratic government like ours by making citizens aware of the different options we can discuss for every issue we have. But when the parties cross the line and actively seek to control the government themselves, overriding citizens' constitutional rights to play an active role in the lawmaking process, they quickly become extremely divisive, start spreading baseless claims and propaganda, and end up in a state of near perpetual gridlock in congress because of their inability to make rational compromises. And those defects are contagious, quickly spreading through the general population. You have witnessed this yourself. People who believe they can't be brainwashed by propaganda are the easiest to brainwash because they won't believe it while it's happening to them. The bottom line is - our representatives are representing their own, often partisan, political opinions, instead of honestly working to find out what the majority of their constituents actually want so they can represent THEM.
Step two: Here's how we can fix this.
We notify all the representatives in our respective voting districts that we will no longer vote for or support them based on their own political beliefs and opinions. Instead, we will vote for candidates, and support those currently in office, based on what qualifications they have to actually be able represent their constituents instead of representing themselves, their party, or their major donors. The first qualification will be that they must pledge to set aside their own political beliefs in order to adequately represent the majority opinion of their constituents without bias. And we must hold them to that promise. There will be other qualifying factors we can discuss, such as experience, integrity etc., but that first one is the most important, assuming we elect people with an adequate level of competence for government positions. Keep in mind that the leadership skills we should be looking for in representatives are a little different from those we want in the people in the executive branches of our governments. Representatives should have the kind of authority we see in referees and arbitrators, not so much the kind we accept in bosses.
Why this can be effective: If enough of us give notice of these intentions to all of our representatives, we will certainly get their attention. Most representatives' lives revolve around getting elected and reelected, and they will recognize this as a serious threat to their electability if they refuse to take it seriously. Political parties will resist, of course, and dismiss this as nonsense. But if we persist, we can take government control out of the hands of political parties and give control back to the citizens of the United States, where it has always belonged. American citizens have always had the constitutional authority to hire and fire all of our lawmakers through the election process, giving citizens substantial control over the bills that are, eventually, written into law. All these years we have been electing lawmakers for the wrong reasons. We can change that now if we try.
Our role in this: Pardon me for using a politically unacceptable word here, but citizens have an "obligation" to accept and support the decision of the majority after a rational, honest discussion ends, and a vote has been taken. It's important that citizens also to know that reaching a compromise in American politics is a two-stage process. Stage one is carried out among citizens in the appropriate, local voting district. Stage-two is done in the state or federal congress and may require reconsideration at the local level.
