What is a Republic?

A Republic is a representative democracy where citizens elect representatives to pass legislation to govern the nation, establishing the rules of law. The people are the sovereign and their representatives should represent the people. In the great experiment of the United States, over the centuries, we have begun to drift from the original representative democracy to where the representatives more represent corporations and moneyed interests.

In the United States we also elect a President to execute the laws passed by our representatives. The President is NOT a representative of the people.

I submit some suggestions to improve the Republic.

1) Each Representative will represent no more than 100,000 citizens. The current constitution sets a lower limit of 30,000 citizens per representative, but no upper limit.

2) There will be 6 Senators elected from each state. Each Senatorial election will select the top three vote-getters on the ballot to be a Senator from that state, with 1/3 of the Senate being replaced every two years.

3) No Congress critter may serve consecutive terms in the same office, i.e. Representative or Senator. (If someone wanted to be a professional pol, they could go on a run of Rep, Sen, Rep, Sen, Rep, and serve 18 consecutive years in Congress.)

4) Federal Judicial appointments are not for life but will end after 20 years on the bench or when the Justice turns 70 years of age or by impeachment.

5) Every 24 years, the citizens will vote on whether to retain the current Constitution. A majority vote will retain the current Constitution. A Constitutional Convention will be called in the event of a failure to retain.

6) The Electoral College will be disbanded. The President and Vice-President will be elected by citizens in a direct election.

 

This was inspired by an episode of The Thomas Jefferson Hour.