Steps to Create a More Democratic America

The United States likes to believe that since we are the first modern democracy, that we are the most democratic nation in the world. This is sadly far from the truth, we have a history of denying minority groups, especially African-Americans, the right to vote. Today we are only 25th on the global democracy index behind many nations that we helped create democracies in such as Japan, South Korea, and Germany. Our low ranking is due to our continued suppression of black, Hispanic, and low-income voters. Many states have enacted voter identification laws making it necessary that each voter show a form of identification when voting. But these identifications cost money and blacks and Hispanics disproportionately due not have any type of voter identification. These people cannot vote even though they are American citizens! Additionally, in Georgia and unfortunately in a couple other states, voters are getting purged from the voting rolls if their name or address on their voter registratio

Well it has been awhile. I believe that I now have a bit more free time so enjoy new posts on how to make a more democratic America.  2010, in a 5-4 partisan decision the Supreme Court rules the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 unconstitutional in the infamous case, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. Instantly, all corporations could donate to political campaigns without a limit. As every politician needs lots of money to fund their campaigns, many decided to incentivize the extremely wealthy corporations to donate them. Politicians did and unfortunately currently do this, by representing the interests of corporations and not the interests of the people or of the common man. This 2010 decision, forever known simply as Citizens United, has relegated the power of the people in our democracy. No longer are the interests of the majority being represented in Congress, corporations and the wealthy have become the only things that hold our politicians accountable. This

We the United States of America were founded in a rebellion against our imperial rulers. We preached representation and self-determination for all. Our founding fathers cried out against colonialism. Unfortunately today we are the colonial power. Though not as much as we once were, we still have colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Not to mention our nation's capital does not have representation in congress. Our most well-known colony is Puerto Rico which has seen the disastrous results of being our colony. Last year Hurricane Maria a devastating storm, destroyed the island leaving many people today over half a year later still without power and with much of their other infrastructure yet to be rebuilt. Congress did give some money to help out but nearly as much as they gave to the Houston area who experienced a less severe hurricane only a month before. Our congress and government does not care about Puerto Rico or any of our other territories because there is not political

The American Presidential Primaries. Over four moths of constant elections. In fact in 2016 the primary season lasted from the Iowa caucuses on February 1st to the Washington, DC primary on June 14th. Contests are often decided by the time of the late May to June primaries making citizens whose states primaries are in those late months, votes don't matter. The 2016 Democratic and Republican primaries were both considered very close but were still decided well before all primaries have taken place. Hillary Clinton became the presumptive Democratic nominee on June 6th with still six states and D.C. yet to vote. These states make up over 16% of the population of the United States. That means 16% of the countries vote did not matter in the 2016 Democratic primaries. In the Republican primaries nine states primaries took place after Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee on May 5th. These states are over 21% of the total American population. 21% of America's vote did not matter

Sorry for the long delay. But I'm back with my plans for Congressional Reform for the House of Representatives. In theory the concept of a body of representatives each representing a small district of about 700,000 people should work and be fully democratic. However, the current House is far from that. This is most notably do to gerrymandering or partisan redistricting. Creating the weirdest shape districts that divide local communities just so that the people in power stay in power. Google the Ohio 11th, Maryland 3rd, and Texas 35th districts. This is an undemocratic practice because it does not allow for political change in addition to not letting communities pick a representative for themselves. Gerrymandering also lets districts be divided racially which is unconstitutional according to the federal courts that made Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina change their districts in 2016. Another issue with the current House of Representatives is that it under represents the urban m

My plans to reform the structure of Congress are too big to fit in one post so they are getting divided into two posts. Part one is today while part two will be out next week. Congressional Reform Part 1 - The Senate The senate is a relic from a time before their was a national unity and a national identity. It was created to give state legislatures representatives in the federal government and to give the smaller states a say.  Today, we define ourselves as a country not the state nationalism people defined themselves as until the civil war. Plus, with the passage of the seventeenth amendment in 1913 senators were directly elected by citizens, not appointed by the state legislature. Therefore, the current senate does not serve a purpose anymore, it just lets smaller states have more of a say in the government. It is undemocratic to let this system continue. California with a population of 39 million is represented by the same amount of people as Wyoming, population 600 thousand. W

The first and most logical way to improve the structure of our government is the electoral college. How can it be that in two of the past five elections the so called winner has also lost the popular vote. This makes this a common occurrence, and with the demographic changes of the concentration of Democrats in cities and Republicans in rural areas make something like this very likely to happen again. The current system favors rural voters and therefore the Republican party as well by boosting the quality of votes from states with smaller populations. A vote in Wyoming is worth almost four time as much as a vote in California. This discriminates against urban voters and lets a minority set the national agenda. By this principle it can be argued that the United States of America is a minority rule country. However, setting a one vote per person method of electing our president would do quite the opposite and oppress the rural voter. We're too big of a country to have a system that w