Posted on 04/29/2010 10:27:49 AM PDT by Maelstorm
“Oh please Texas needs 2 new Senators, badly.”
Why not shoot for the works and get 10 new ones instead?
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005511
I’m embarrassed that my Senator is John Cornyn
Everyone who cares about electing grassroots conservative Republicans should make their displeasure known to the NRSC.
Do some research on “Article the First.” If the Bill of Rights was ratified as the Founders intended, we would have over 6,000 Representatives in the House.
I wrote a term paper on this very thing, and it’s amazing how we came to the arbitrary 435 we’re at now.
Bump!
6,000 is way way too many
lol
How many do you think would be independents? I would think a lot.
Doesn’t matter! Even Madison commented on this in the Federalist Papers saying that, at a maximum, each Representative should report to 50,000 citizens. Think about how much leverage we would have with our elected officials if they only had to be accountable to a small number of people.
My guess is that the government would be STARKLY different under this scenario, as gigantic bastions of liberalism would be reduced to a small handful of voices on the House floor.
Also, one of the answers bandied about when people ask how that would be possible would be that we would be separated into small districts (like the District of Columbia) where our Reps would meet and likely converse through modern telecommunications such as video chats and the like. This would be entirely possible, and since Constitutional Amendments never die, this article could be ratified in the next Convention if given enough push.
The left would be calling for at least half those seats to be proportional representation.
so does Ohio
Sounds interesting to me. Would they all get huge salaries, perks and large staffs?
As a Representative Republic more representation is required as the population increases. We shouldn't be gerrymandering districts, we should be adding seats every 10 years! Up until 1929, we were!
6,000 might be a bit much though. lol.
I could imagine some of the local districts becoming rotten boroughs where very few turn out.
I would support it if we can cut their salaries and perks and such. No pensions.
300 million people divided by 50,000 would give us 6,000 Representatives, give or take. That number would necessarily increase as time went on.
I wrote a story once where 10,000 families were colonists to a new world. Each recieved large land grants and a few acres in the only city for a house/shop. Once a year each sent a representative to an Assembly where they voted on proposals hashed out via their internet. Any family could send a proposal for Constitutional review where it would face a vote on whether it was Constitutional, if not it was tossed.
They would meet for 2-3 days in person and outside would be a carnival atmosphere.
In the story its kind of a libertarian-conservative world with an ultra limited government. Although it wasn’t even technically a government but a shareholders meeting.
I really relish in that thought! I would gladly attend every one of these carnivals as a sacred honor and duty to my family and my neighbors. I feel we would be a much different country culturally and politically if we adhered to the ideas that the Founders drafted.
Sadly, they were short by 2 states for ratification of Article the First.
It is proving out so far that Cornyn's political endorsements are the political kiss of death for the endorseees. Arlen Spectre, who one week later departed to the darkside. Charlie Crist's endorsement by JC followed Spectre's by about one week, now Crist is trying to join the darkside, and is being rebuffed by Rhambo. Now, on the Arizona immigration law, Cornyn is mumbling something about comprehensive immigration system or maybe he means amnesty? It's time to reconsider Cornyn's leadership in the RNC. He has apparently lost his way. And he started out so good, according to ACU.
I think such a system as you describe would end their pensions for sure, and I also think that a majority of them might not even be a member of a political party or a member of one of several of them. We would all know our Congressmembers. My suburb would have 4 under that scenario, that would be pretty cool.
We would definitely have been a different country.
I totally agree- maybe we can borrow Oklahoma's?
I would love to get more people on this bandwagon. Ever since I did the research, I’m excited at the prospects.
The Liberals in the late 20s and 30s instituted the law to peg our House at 435, an arbitrary number. Our Founders were smarter than that, but the Liberals at the time knew they couldn’t affect changes without slowing the representation.
Just think of how easy it would be for the common man to run for office if he only has to canvass a few dozen neighborhoods instead of entire metro areas!
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