A NEW COMMON SENSE
BEING A BLUEPRINT FOR
WE THE PEOPLE
TO RECLAIM OUR DEMOCRACY!
By:
An American
Published at:
Austin, Texas
__________
MMXV
Copyright © 2015 by: W. Thomas Gallier, Jr.
www.DIMEamendment.org
All rights reserved. No part of this pamphlet may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, the only exception being in the case of reviewers, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical or news articles.
Dedication:
This work is dedicated to the memory of two of our nation’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine and James Wilson.
Thomas Paine was an English immigrant who in early 1776 created what I believe to be the first example of using “social media” to effect significant positive change in our nation. Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, was produced and offered anonymously to printers throughout the colonies, at little or no cost or copyright protection, in order to make his easily understandable arguments for independence from England available to the people of America quickly, and at little or no cost. John Adams later wrote: “Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.”
James Wilson, a Scottish immigrant to the colonies, was a well-recognized expert in the law who was one of only six men to have signed both the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. In addition, Wilson served as one of the original six appointed members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Wilson was adamant that every American always remember that government is derived from the will of the People. In Wilson’s view, government answers to the people, and not the other way around! Though he lost his solitary argument during the constitutional convention, that members of the Senate should be elected by popular vote, his position was ultimately vindicated by passage of the 17th amendment to the Constitution, in 1912. Wilson’s beliefs on popular sovereignty helped shape the Constitution, and we are forever in his debt.
Together the thoughts, words and actions of these two great American patriots provide both the inspiration of and the philosophical underpinnings for the herein proposed Declaration of Independence from Money in Elections (D.I.M.E.) amendment to the United States Constitution.
Author’s Notes:
The cover and format of this pamphlet is designed to roughly approximate Paine’s enduring pamphlet, Common Sense, which was originally published in January of 1776, and, within a matter of four short months solidified support among American colonists for independence from Britain. By ratio of the number of copies printed to the total population in 1776, Common Sense was, and still remains, the most popular political document ever published in America.
It was Paine’s original intent to keep his authorship anonymous. He was even unhappy when one of the printers added to the cover: “Written by An Englishman.” While the desire for self-preservation was no doubt part of his reasoning, since the British would happily hang whoever wrote such a treasonous text, Paine felt strongly that the pamphlet’s authorship was unimportant, and potentially distracting from the more important message. In his final version, issued on February 14, 1776, Paine added: “Who the author of this production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the DOCTRINE ITSELF, not the MAN! Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, that he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.” In partial keeping with Paine’s philosophy, the author of A New Common Sense is simply identified on the cover as “An American.”
The author has written both this pamphlet and the proposed petition/constitutional amendment solely on his own, with no assistance (financial or otherwise) from any person, or any group. It is his hope that, like Paine’s, this pamphlet and its accompanying petition, may light a social media “fire” that will force America’s federal and state legislators to place the enclosed constitutional amendment before the American people, and allow us to vote, finally, to repair our hopelessly broken electoral system.
A New Common Sense
Addressed To The
People
Of the
United states of America
Subjects:
INTRODUCTION
I.ON the origin and design of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
II.ON Corporatocracy and Plutocracy.
III.Thoughts on the present state of American Electoral Affairs.
IV.ON the present ability of we the people of America to force constitutional change ON those who do not wish it.
CONCLUSION
A New Common Sense
Addressed to the Citizens of the
United States of America
Introduction:
The purpose of this pamphlet is to lay out, in clear and concise language, my case for amending our Constitution in such a way as to limit, once and for all, the excessive influence of special interest money on the process by which we fund and select candidates for elective public office.
I believe that America’s constitutional democracy is reaching a critical point, in which the People, observing the ability of moneyed special interests to drown out their voices and to elect what Mark Twain once acidly observed to be “the best government that money can buy,” are becoming increasingly cynical and disconnected from the democratic process. Election after election, the percentage of eligible American voters who bother to cast their vote in local, state and federal elections has steadily declined. It has been over forty years since more than 60% of eligible voters cast their ballots in a Presidential election, or more than 40% in a non-Presidential year federal election. Many local and state-wide elections now see turnouts as low as eight to ten percent.
All of this has been compounded by a series of Supreme Court rulings which have aided and abetted the transformation of our country from a democracy of, by and for the People, into a bastardized Plutocracy and Corporatocracy, of, by, and for the special interests.
This is not about liberals versus conservatives, or “Tea Partiers” versus “Occupy Wall Streeters.” It concerns whether or not unions, corporations, billionaires, and Wall Street financiers will decide who is to lead this country instead of the People, whose desires and needs are supposed to be paramount.
The purpose of our Constitution is not to give us something that is already considered a God given right; its purpose is to protect our God given rights from violation by the very government which it creates!
In essence, I believe that those God given rights so beautifully described in the Constitution’s Preamble are being trampled upon by the unholy influence of Big Money. As such, I believe that the time has come, as our Founders said that it would, for the People to issue a new Declaration of Independence. A revolution, if you will, but a non-violent revolution composed of millions of peaceful warriors who are willing to collectively take a stand against these undemocratic special interests, and, once and for all, reassert our right to decide who will lead us.
To accomplish this task, three things are needed. First, we must have a proposed constitutional amendment that we can force Congress to pass and send to the People, not state legislatures, for ultimate approval. Second, we need a mechanism that can force politicians to publicly express their support for the amendment, an
d a way to hold them accountable if they violate that oath of support at any time. And third, we need numbers; literally millions of Americans, across the political spectrum, to take a simple stand and say to any candidate/politician they can vote for: Support this amendment, or I will withhold my vote from you.
It’s just that simple, and it will work, if enough of us take the few minutes of time necessary to sign the petition supporting the amendment, contact every elected official in office, or running for an office for which we can vote, and then repeating the statement above. I’ll explain the rest in more detail now.
I.On the Origin and Design of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson’s words echoed out of Independence Hall:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
These timeless words reach out to us from the distant past and resonate even today. Governments are instituted by the People, Jefferson declares, and those same People can and should alter it whenever their needs justify it. He clearly recognized that the People will tolerate a lot of bad government, but when finally moved to act, will do so. Can there be any doubt that the People of our country, Republicans and Democrats alike, are completely disgusted by the caliber of leadership our current system of campaign finance law allows to take office? Can there be any doubt that the vast majority of the People have recognized that our elected representatives have completely failed to represent the public interest, and instead represent special interests?
Jefferson, Paine and other leaders of the American Revolution were clear on the fact that the rulers of England, both the King as well as the powerful interests who controlled Parliament, did not represent the needs of the American colonists. There were voices that counselled caution and compromise, but when England failed to respond in kind, the die was cast on July 4th, 1776.
Eleven years later, when the leaders of the now independent American states recognized that the Articles of Confederation were also failing to meet the needs of the People, they sent delegates back to Independence Hall to work out a system of negotiated amendments to correct the system’s failings. Instead, the delegates proposed completely scrapping the Articles, and proposed and created an entirely new Constitution. To be sure, there was resistance, and it took months of debate and argument before the proposed Constitution was officially accepted as our new system of governance. But it was finally accepted, and the United States of America, as we understand it today, came into being on the 17th day of September, in 1787.
From the beginning, James Wilson and other “Framers” of the document would insist that the primacy of the People over any government structure remain foremost in mind. Wilson and four other key legal experts were appointed to a Committee of Detail, and in July of 1787 they sat down together and hammered out most of what we recognize today. As a final step, the delegates appointed James Madison, and four other Framers to a Committee of Style, to form all of the agreed upon pieces into a logical and coherent final document. Everyone agreed that a Preamble was necessary to establish and justify what was essentially a new style of government, never before seen in the world. Perhaps their most significant accomplishment was the creation of this supremely elegant introduction.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
I believe that two things are most important to remember about the Preamble to our Constitution. First, the document makes clear in its first three words that “We the People” have created this new entity, called The United States of America. The states that composed the whole did not create it….the People created it. Second, and just as important, note that again they state clearly and unambiguously that the purpose of the People’s creation was not to “grant” our liberty, but to “secure” our liberty. No one can grant our liberty, it is ours by right. Government should only serve to ensure that our rights to liberty, safety, happiness and all the other natural rights that mankind possesses are protected.
But each of these seminal events in our nation’s history might possibly have led to failure, had not additional individuals written more directly to the common citizens of the pre-revolutionary colonies, and the post-revolutionary states. In the case of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine laid the groundwork for Jefferson by publishing, anonymously and for no profit, his pamphlet, Common Sense. Paine was among the first to call for a declaration of independence from the British Crown, and also the first to use the term “United States of America.” Across the colonies, printers rushed out copies of the pamphlet, which was discussed and argued over in homes, inns and taverns alike. In what was, for the time, plain, simple and direct language, Paine’s case for independence convinced most of the reluctant colonists, and solidified the public view that independence was the only course of action. Prior to Common Sense, opinions were varied and hesitant. Similarly, the newly drafted Constitution met a significant wall of resistance in many states, which was only overcome when a series of anonymously published pamphlets and articles began to appear. These letters and pamphlets, written predominantly by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, are now collectively referred to as “The Federalist Papers.” Like Paine in 1776, they also effectively spoke to the average citizen, and successfully argued how and why the proposed Constitution was worthy of passage by each individual State.
A key sticking point in achieving ratification of the new Constitution was the immediate passage of the first set of amendments, now collectively known as the Bill of Rights. These first ten amendments were ratified in 1791; three years after the Constitution was originally adopted and signed by 38 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. In the 224 years since the Bill of Rights was approved, 17 more Constitutional amendments have achieved ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states. In all but one case (the twenty-first amendment, which abolished Prohibition) these amendments were ratified by simple majority votes in the legislative bodies of each of the necessary number of states. The twenty-first amendment used the alternative approach, which the Constitution defines as requiring that each state call a convention to consider and vote for or against ratification (still requiring three-fourths of the state conventions voting for ratification).
II.On Corporatocracy and Plutocracy
In Common Sense, Thomas Paine identified what he called the “twin tyrannies” of monarchial tyranny (Autocracy) and aristocratic tyranny (Aristocracy). These two hereditary classes held England and its colonies in a stranglehold, in spite of the Magna Carta and the English Constitution. Paine’s contention was that no one was truly free while the King and wealthy aristocrats controlled most of the wealth and power in the kingdom. It was time, he argued, for America to throw off those tyrants, and create its own nation. A nation where each citizen was truly free.