Thank you, Publius.
The Utah Option would be an excellent tool for states to PUSH congress into taking safe borders, impeachment, and bold reforms seriously! That nuclear option could FORCE congress to actually take things seriously. Pulling the trigger could possibly backfire, but the mere threat could be enough.
We the People are SICK of wide open borders and of other scandalous outrages.
I’ve also been thinking of something else, and this works well in coordination with that. [Coming up.]
Either tomorrow or the next day I'll try to post another bold idea — a term-limited Committee of Common Sense [or ‘Penny Plan’ Committee if you prefer] that can mandate fair debates [no moderator, just a timer], unilaterally cut targeted spending by 1%, veto bad legislation, suggest repealing other legislation ...
[... catching breath ...]
... veto new treaties, participate in nomination competitions [such as supreme court justices and key executive branch officials], and suggest deeper cuts.
Combined with mandatory debates, even the committee's suggestions would be powerful axes to chop away at chunks of government waste and tyranny.
Note, all of that is ‘anti-power’ authority, an arrow that always points downward AGAINST centralized power. And the way they are elected is ‘anti-establishment’:
Another unique feature with this idea is the way this committee is elected. Two counties not adjacent to Washington DC are randomly selected to hold ‘county primaries’ instead of party-based primaries. Only people who spent most of their time actually living in those counties during the previous twelve months qualify, and only people who never worked [or who had an office] in or near Washington D.C.
[BTW, the excoriation hearings noted above can also deliberate restrictions of who could serve in any kind of political or judicial position.]
This is in the spirit of George Washington's desire to ‘not have’ political parties. This also is a ‘close and personal’ primary. Just as important, ambitious people who seek to be members of the Ruling Class concentrate in only a handful of counties, especially around D.C. [which is now the most expensive place in the US to live].
The FBI is allowed to carefully vet these primary candidates, and to avoid ticket splitting only a majority vote of all votes wins the county's primary [no party distinctions matter]. There might need to be some follow-up votes to weed out ‘longshot candidates’. The process will include mandatory town-hall-debate schedules.
Then there are only two candidates [one in each county] who run in an ANNUAL national election, each strictly restricted to campaign only in those two primary counties.
The mandatory campaign schedule should be grueling, and their non-family communications are automatically public online so that there is less time and opportunity for the Ruling Class to cozen the candidate.
During the campaign AND during service, the members of this committee have a constitutionally limited budget [could be incredibly small since they don't live near DC and could work from home], can accept volunteer assistance, and cannot set foot near Washington DC ... [... to help cloister them away from the corrosive beltway atmosphere.]
In fact, their paychecks and perks should be modest, not lures that attract people who are only ‘in it for the money’. But education for their children and health insurance could be generous since that is the kind of lure that would appeal to patriots.
Probably only three committee members [possibly five], term limited to one term — rotated so that there's only one committee election each year [probably the day after Tax Day] so that the nation can more easily focus on them.
[Of course the start-up special elections would be expedited.]
This idea will be posted in more detail tomorrow or the next, including every detail of just how counties are randomly selected.
Technical Side:
The first step is to deliberate. Then get the word out. And then ...
Legislatures from different states should INFORMALLY discuss excoriation and other possible amendments because conflicting amendment votes cause confusion. Also, once an amendment vote is made official by a state legislature, there’s a ‘ticking clock’ rule that can ‘expire’ an amendment.
BUT, all such rules can be suspended by congress if necessary.
A single state can make considerable headway starting off with informal web-conferencing discussions about what’s already public record [and inviting legislators from other states].
Would you like to be on this [once-a-day-at-most] counterrevolution ping?
Some of you were outraged by President Ebola-VISA and are aware that ‘the fix is in’. But these are powerful ideas.
This thread starts off with excoriation hearings by the states [with teeth via a constitutional amendment] and the Utah Option to give the states ‘nuclear option’ clout over congress.
Then there’s the anti-establishment ‘Penny Plan’ Committee idea on post 53.
[As for others I apologize for the confusion and won’t bug you again if you don’t ask. I wasn’t clear if you wanted to be on the ‘once-a-day-at-most ping list or not.]