Demand to Become More Universally Democratic Now!

Today is the day to advocate for an unapologetic Liberal movement that demands real change to create a Universal Liberalism in how we govern ourselves.

Oct 12, 2024

How did we get here?

The United States did not start with any form of a Liberal right to vote. The Founders wanted a Republic for sure. One they could control and operate on their own behalf. At the ratifying of the Constitution in 1787, only men with property of European descent, an overwhelmingly large majority of whom were of English descent, could vote in every state, and as such, only men with property of European descent could vote for Federal officeholders.

What constituted a man’s property in 1787? Well, it would include his wife, his kids and his slaves, along with whatever land he possessed or commercial merchant business he ran. The last two qualifications, land ownership or merchant, meant only around 2/3 of men in 1787 could vote. Put another there were not even 4 million Americans in 1787, and roughly 15%, or 600,000 of them were eligible to vote at the first election. And maybe 10% did. Meaning at best the first votes for the earliest Congresses were just 60,000 propertied men of European descent.

How did these propertied men cast their votes for Federal officeholders?

They cast their votes directly for the House of Representatives in every state starting in 1788/1789. Go Article 1, Section 2!

For the first Presidential election in 1788/89, in five states, the state government chose electors, denying even the male propertied class a vote for President and Vice President. Six other states chose electors through, in some way, having the people vote. Only two states(!!) had the population vote directly for electors for President in the first election. It wasn’t until 1864 (with the sole exception of newly-admitted Colorado in 1876), that electors in every state were chosen based on a popular election held on Election Day.

For the Senate, the state governments chose Senators directly for over 120 years. It was not until the 17th Amendment in 1913 that men could vote directly for Senators. Technically, Black men could vote having received the franchise to vote for the House and President in 1870, but they did so at their own risk to their lives. It would be another 7 years, until 1920, when women joined the men in the franchise and could finally vote for all three federal offices.

If the propertied men of 1787 had their way, the franchise would have never been extended. I mean, they could have guaranteed the right to vote to every citizen without qualification at the beginning of our Republic and they chose not to. They did not overlook anything. They did not make a mistake. They knew exactly what they were doing and for whom they were doing it.

The American story then, is one of a painfully slow progress to a Universal Liberal right to vote that also counts every single vote toward the Federal officeholders who represent us. Of course, today, we have direct election of Representatives and Senators, but we still indirectly elect the President by voting for electors from each state.

Where do we want to go?

We want to finish the progress to achieve what we all know is the just and right position for our republican form of representative democracy in 2024. We want every citizen to have an affirmative right to vote in every federal, state and local election, to vote directly for the President and Vice President as we already do for Representatives and Senators, and we want enough House districts, drawn without favor to the politicians, so that we the people are properly represented in our government.

The following eight policies will get us there.

Amend the Constitution to add an affirmative right to vote for every citizen 18 years and older. Implement this right by creating a national voter ID database that allows every citizen to vote in every federal, state and local election in their district of residency.
Amend the Constitution to outlaw gerrymandering. Draw House districts as close to squares as possible starting in the northeast corner of each state, and making the square box the size required to fit in the right amount of apportioned residents. Then draw the next box in the same fashion until all the residents of the state are apportioned equally in neat little boxes.

Apply these same district drawing rules to every office at the state and local levels.
By law, expand the size of the House from 435 seats, or 773,000 residents per representative, to 1,305 seats, or 257,000 residents per representative. Then reapportion Congress based on the above district drawing rules. You want even better representation, then expand the size of the House to 2,611 seats for 128,000 residents per reprepsentative.
Amend the Constitution to replace the Electoral College for electing the President and Vice President with a national popular vote.
Create federal, state and local laws to implement ranked choice voting in primary elections and general elections for every office.
1. In the Senate, abolish the 60-vote filibuster for all legislation. If this happens, the sclerotic Senate can return to the talking filibuster for each Senator.
2. For an even more democratic and representative government, amend the Constitution so that the Senate only has veto power over legislation from the House. Require 3/4 of the Senate to veto legislation passed by the House to stop the bill from reaching the President.
  
  The Senate would retain its power, along with the House, to override a Presidential veto.
Make Washington, D.C., a state via act of Congress, and amend the Constitution to allow the federal seat of government to be a state.
Make Puerto Rico a state, if after an official ballot, the people of Puerto Rico choose statehood.

We need to stop with the knob twisting that only serves to further entrench the 11,000 Oligarchs. Now is the time for imagination and big Liberal ideas that allow all 336 million of us to pursue our own happiness and to lead our lives as we see fit.