Preamble
Whereas the former constitution was established to explicitly quell democracy, and because the government of the United States no longer represents the people, we declare that the United States Government is illegitimate in its entirety and endeavor to replace it with a majoritarian democracy.
We, the people residing in the United States, wish to create a new union that shall establish a peaceful society and a governing structure that will deliver on the many promises of the Declaration of Independence. We invoke and establish procedures herein that codify the mechanism for ratification of this document. We do so with the full authority granted by The Declaration of Independence (formally titled The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America). This document’s preamble clearly gives the people authority to replace the government when it has failed to reflect the will of the governed.
This new union is born out of a desire to ensure equality among the residents of our country and to ensure that we never again fall under the rule of a despot, a would-be dictator, or any form of autocracy. We recognize that the fight for these principles is never-ending, but we establish this new constitution in the spirit of our previous founding documents, with the desire to create a more perfect union.
We recognize that this document will be imperfect like its predecessor. The intentions here are important and shall never be ignored by any court or any body interpreting its meaning. The spirit of the document includes a primary principle that all individuals who have any relationship with this country have full equality to one another. No one person shall be treated as having fewer rights than any other. This shall apply within and outside our borders, as we will establish in the articles of the document.
In the spirit of this rebirth of our nation, we declare that this document is the sole document that outlines how our republic shall function at its core. This is the new Constitution of the United States of America. We embrace it fully while recognizing that it will require amendment in the future in order to continue to improve our government. We move forward in earnest, and we hold fast together to always better our Union and to support one another faithfully.
The Right of the People to Self Governance
Legislation and Congress
The most important principle of this document is that the people are in power. Because direct democracy is too difficult for a large society, we re-establish the Congress to be the primary power through which the people execute their self-governance at the national level. There is one house in Congress, the House Of Representatives. Its purpose is to provide democratically equal representation in governance.
The Senate is purposely excluded. The purpose of the Congress is to represent the people, not the States. Each person must have equal representation in the republic, and it is the responsibility of the Congress and of the People to promote the general welfare. That is to say, it is our collective responsibility to make sure that every single one of us have what we need and that no one is left behind. This includes everyone from the most dense urban areas to the most remote rural areas, in any part of our beloved country, from Utqiaġvik, Alaska to Futiga, American Samoa; from Santa Rita, Guam to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. This entire country is beautiful, and the people form the tapestry that represents its majesty. It is time to include us all in our governance.
All legislative powers are granted to the people, and Congress is their primary actor. However, if Congress fails to act on behalf of the people, citizens may bring a voter initiative to pass legislation by popular vote. Citizens may also bring a referendum to invalidate a law passed by Congress. Congress may not ever override or otherwise alter legislation passed by popular vote. If it wishes to amend or alter such legislation, it must submit an initiative to the people for popular vote. The exception to this rule is that citizens may cede (by popular vote) the control of such legislation back to Congress. This is a necessary method of representative democracy in order to avoid the creep of direct democracy, such that the people do not wish to be involved in every matter.
Legislative votes inside Congress and issues submitted to the people must only have two options: Yes (make into law) and No (do not make into law). When the citizens bring an initiative or a referendum, Congress may not alter it or add any other options to the ballot that compete with it.
Laws shall only be enacted by either: 1) a majority of the members of Congress voting yes; or 2) a majority of votes cast for an initiative or referendum are “yes” votes.
Congress may organize itself in ways that enable it to efficiently perform its duties, delegating to various members, and even delegating other bodies to perform investigation and other necessary duties. However, it may not delegate its legislative powers except as described in this document.
Congress or the people are encouraged to create a second, deliberative house with equal representation and to select members from districts by lottery. However, the role of this house would be to collaborate with and advise Congress. Members of this deliberative body would have the same terms and districts as members of the House Of Representatives. This secondary body would not have the direct power of legislation, but it would have the power to submit an initiative or referendum directly to the people.
The power of the people to legislate shall not be usurped by any entity, including the courts. Common Law is not a thing. No law enacted by any government other than the United States applies to the United States, whether before its existence or not. British Common Law does not apply.
Legislative review belongs entirely to the people. If the Supreme Court wishes to invoke legislative review, it may refer it to Congress or the People. Upon referral to Congress, Congress may decide to take action or submit the review to the people. The same rules apply as to other legislation, including the right to override Congress.
Requiring super majorities introduces the tyranny of the minority, which disables the Right of the People. Therefore, all legislation must be passed by simple majority using the rules specified above. There shall be no exceptions to this.
Congress and the people have all other rights to legislation not enumerated here. No legislation requires specification of any justification under any clause in this document. The only requirement is that it does not violate the requirements under this document.
Elections and Representation
Because elected people in Congress are intended to represent their constituents, seats in Congress must have no more than 50,000 constituents. The purpose is to ensure that individuals have more access and more input to their representative’s work. Representatives work for their constituents, and Congress works for the collective people.
Legislation may specify how many signatures are required to put an issue on the ballot, but the number of required signatures may not exceed five percent of the number of votes cast in any of the last four general elections. Digital signatures must be accepted. The FEC must host and maintain a system that makes it easy to discover and sign petitions and that verifies the identity of the signer. Petitions and signatures are public knowledge and must be discoverable. All of this must be on a public internet website and accessible to all eligible voters.
The FEC is responsible for making a simple and free mechanism for putting an issue or person on the ballot. Again, signatures may be required, but no more than those specified above. For a representative to run for office, the requirement may not exceed 5% of the last vote for their seat of office.
Congress members shall hold terms of two years and have a term limit of no more than four terms, whether partial or full. Elections shall be held on every even year. Any person eligible to vote is eligible to run for Congress and any other elected office in any government within the US. Eligibility to run for any position requires the individual to be a resident of that position’s district.
Congress must assemble at least two hundred days in any given year. The Congress may set its own schedule, but it must convene regularly in order to attend to domestic and foreign matters. Congress has the right to compel attendance of its members. It has the right to create and delegate an enforcement body to enable its general processes. Congress may provide penalties for members who violate the law or the constitution or their oath of office. In order to prevent disenfranchisement of citizens, Congress may not expel members or prohibit their ability to vote except when they have violated the law or their oath of office.
A Census shall be held every ten years to count the number of all people living in the United States. These numbers shall be used to draw legislative districts for all elected officials in all levels of government. Immediately after this document is ratified, a new Census shall be held. After each census, districts shall be drawn within on year. The first election to the new Congress will be the first even year after redistricting.
In the event of a vacancy in any elected office, an emergency election shall be held for the district to find a replacement. This is the only time a special election may be held. The process should be expedient in order to facilitate the urgent replacement of the representative, but it must also allow sufficient time for members of the district to register and run for office.
Legislative districts shall be defined by an administrative body designated by legislation. This body must create districts based on community boundaries and, taking into account natural and historic artificial barriers, cultural and other bonding factors that bring people together in the same area, and any such obvious things that should bind a community together. State boundaries do not need to separate legislative districts for communities that connect across those boundaries. Drawing legislative districts is a difficult and extremely important task, and this body must take extra care to ensure they are balancing access to governance among the people equally and not diluting representation.
Gerrymandering is a violation of the Right of the People and is therefore treason against the democratic republic. A second administrative body delegated by legislation must be in charge of investigating ethics in elections. That body is responsible for investigating and bringing to justice any person or persons engaged in attempting to subvert democracy. This includes adding barriers to voting, suppressing access to vote in any way beyond what is explicitly allowed in this document, gerrymandering, accusing specific or general people of voter fraud when it is not real and provable, threatening governments to take business elsewhere unless special treatment is granted, or any other subversion of the Right of the People to govern themselves. These crimes are treason.
All levels of all governments must follow these same rules. The administrative body that draws districts will be responsible for maintaining those districts as well.
Election Timing and Process
The United States Postal Service has a long history of assisting localities with secure and accessible mail-in voting. Because of this history, all elections shall be facilitated by the United States Postal Service. Localities are responsible for working with the USPS to ensure equal access to and security in the voting process. Voting must be allowed by mail and in person, and the wait to vote in person may not exceed 30 minutes. Volunteers are encouraged to assist in the process in order to facilitate voting and maximize voter participation. Voting must also be allowed online, but only in a way that ensures with high confidence that only the voter can cast their ballot. For example, the voter’s mailed ballot could include a special security code that is unique to the ballot. The voter must be able to use that code to validate that their votes are correct and counted, but that code may not be tied back to that voter.
All elections processes must be designed to maximize voter participation. The process must give people confidence that they are in fact the governors and that they have access to the process. The spirit and letter of all process and regulation must align with these purposes.
General elections will be held every year on the fourth of July in order to encourage celebration and participation. No entity may prevent individuals from volunteering, celebrating, handing out food and drinks, or facilitating the voting process or the celebration. Harassment of voters is a violation of the principles of this document. This includes carrying guns openly near polling stations. There shall be no threat, real or perceived, to voters. Such threats are punishable by law.
Primary elections will be held early enough to tabulate the results and prepare for the general election. A small buffer may be allowed in case any unexpected problems arise. However, the primary election may not be more than six months before the general election.
All elections to choose representatives will use the process of rank-choice voting. In general election rank-choice voting, each voter ranks candidates by their preference. To tabulate the results, a first round adds up all the first choices. If no person gets more than 50% of the vote, the person with the smallest number of votes is eliminated from the round. Anyone who chose that person gets their choice moved down to their next ranked person. The next round continues in the same fashion until someone has more than 50% of the cast votes. In the event of an uncontested election, the election will still be held in order to support a write-in option.
The primary election will use a similar process, but instead of narrowing down to one candidate, it will narrow to four candidates. The process will be the same as the general, eliminating the candidate with the lowest number of votes in each round until four candidates remain. Those candidates will progress to the general election. If only four or fewer candidates are running, they will all progress to the general election.
The Administrative Branch
Administrative Purpose and Scope
The administrative branch has the function of carrying out and executing the laws. Where applicable, it also has the authority to create science-based regulations in order to protect the people and the republic.
Each department in the administrative branch shall have a board and a secretary who reports to the board. The board and secretary must be chosen from within the corresponding department (except where the department is being newly established and has no existing staff to choose from). The board must be made of five members, each holding alternating five-year terms. The board and secretary, along with other leadership within a department, will be elected by the employees of that department. The employees of each department shall be experts in their field, and the department shall strive to retain highly skilled people for as long as it can. These employees shall have voting power over the execution and direction of the department, as long as it meets the purpose of the department as outlined by legislation. The employees shall have the authority to vote for pay raises and labor conditions and submit them to Congress when they deem it appropriate to do so.
Secretaries and board members may be removed by either: a vote by the employees of the department; or a vote of Congress or the people to remove them for specific cause. The spirit of this governing structure is to keep departments as independent of temporary political sway as much as possible and to allow departments to focus on their mandated functions.
War Powers
Congress and the People are the Commander in Chief of the military. However, for practicality, the Secretary of War/Defense is the acting Commander in Chief. No act of war of any kind may happen without the explicit command of Congress. Acts of war include any use of the military for whatever reason, any police or military action inside another country, any request to call on any state’s National Guard, or any other action that the people would commonly think of as an act of war.
Any declared war or act of war must come with a set of guiding requirements, including: a narrow and specific desired end state; clear justification for the action; and review periods of no longer than six months for Congress to oversee the ongoing action.
Unauthorized war action is an act of treason, because it violates the right of the people to govern over the military. War actions must respect international treaties and laws as well as domestic laws. War must not be used for colonialism or imperialism of any kind. War must not be used for political or economic domination such as the kinds used during the Cold War and after it. War must be the last option, only taken when no other option is feasible.
In the event the nation is under attack through an act of war and Congress is unable to confer due to physical and technical limitations or mass destruction of the capitol, or any such real and immediate impediment, a designated military defense command chain shall be followed in order to defend the nation and to rebuild the ability for Congress to convene. Legislation shall specify this chain of responsibility, and it shall only apply during the period of emergency described above. Any attempt to use such an emergency to gain power or subvert the rule of the people in any way is treason.
Still More to Come
The following sections are currently being developed to outline a vision for a democracy truly owned and operated by the people, designed to finally realize the promises of the Declaration of Independence.
- Elections: Removing the influence of money to ensure representatives serve the people, not donors.
- Administrative Branch: Abolishing the presidency in favor of a system of experts who are accountable to Congress and the public.
- Judicial Branch: Transforming the courts from an adversarial system for the wealthy into a unified, fact-finding system with single-payer legal services for all, and ending the practice of bail.
- Bill of Rights: Establishing a foundation where the rights of the people are paramount, supported by free education at all levels and a guaranteed independent press.
Ultimately, these reforms aim to move beyond rhetoric and make “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” a tangible reality for every individual.