Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS: How to Amend Our U.S. Constitution to Rescue Democracy For All Citizens
    THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS: How to Amend Our U.S. Constitution to Rescue Democracy For All Citizens
    THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS: How to Amend Our U.S. Constitution to Rescue Democracy For All Citizens
    Ebook173 pages1 hour

    THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS: How to Amend Our U.S. Constitution to Rescue Democracy For All Citizens

    By Rick Hubbard

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Our democracy is in trouble and we the people know it. Our U.S. political system is completely distorted as it’s currently financed and structured. Problems with the way we select our political leaders have been on full display in the 2016 Presidential election.

    Once elected, Washington politicians are not equally and properly repr

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherConcerned Citizens Press
    Release dateOct 29, 2016
    ISBN9780998331614
    THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS: How to Amend Our U.S. Constitution to Rescue Democracy For All Citizens
    Author

    Rick Hubbard

    Rick Hubbard is a native Vermonter, retired attorney and former economic consultant, now living in South Burlington where he writes and is an activist for reforming our democracy to better serve all citizens. Rick has a BA degree from the University of Vermont, an MBA degree from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business, and a JD degree from Georgetown University Law School. He's a long time advocate for democracy reform who in the 1970s helped co-organize Common Cause/Vermont and subsequently, in the early 1980s, was twice elected to the national governing board of Common Cause. In 1999 and 2000 Rick, inspired by 89-year-old "Granny D's" 18-month walk across the entire United States to highlight the need for campaign finance reform, walked with her for a week in Kentucky. Subsequently Rick walked some 450 miles around three sides of Vermont to similarly advocate through interviews with more than 50 radio, newspaper and television discussions and stories as they covered his journey. He subsequently qualified across all party lines to raise these and other issues in the 2000 U.S. Senate race against Jim Jeffords. More recently he has joined other activists to support of efforts by Lawrence Lessig and The New Hampshire Rebellion to encourage New Hampshire voters to ask 2016 Presidential primary candidates the question: "What specific reforms will you advance to end the corrupting influence of big money in politics?" As part of these efforts Rick has: • Walked the length of New Hampshire, 185 miles, in January of 2014 with other NHR supporters in memory of "Granny D's" walk across the USA in 1999/2000 for Democracy Reform. • Walked New Hampshire again in January of 2015, 150 miles, from Dixville Notch to Concord (New Hampshire's capitol) as part of 4 marches from different corners of New Hampshire to all meet at the Concord state Capital in support of Democracy Reform. Rick walked in support of Democracy Spring's massive 140-mile march from Philadelphia's Liberty Bell to our Capitol in Washington D.C. from April 2-15, 2016 to demand that Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice. Once there, he was one of over 1,200 citizens peacefully arrested on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in protest that our Federal political system no longer properly represents its citizens.

    Related to THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS

    Related ebooks

    Politics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      THE DEMOCRACY AMENDMENTS - Rick Hubbard

      Preface

      Our democracy is in trouble and we the people know it. Our U.S. political system is completely distorted as it’s currently financed and structured. Problems with the way we select our political leaders have been on full display in the 2016 Presidential election.

      Once elected, Washington politicians are not equally and properly representing our broad citizen interests, since they regularly tip outcomes of law, policy, and regulation toward the interests of wealthy and influential campaign donors.

      These actions regularly move large amounts of money out of our pockets and into theirs, distort and often delay action on matters important to our welfare, and undermine the very purpose of citizen representation our founding fathers worked to provide for us in our Constitution. This adversely affects the vast majority of us, regardless of whether we are conservative, moderate, liberal, or of some other ideology.

      Amending our Constitution to achieve needed reforms is the paramount public policy issue of our time. Congress has refused to effectively act for decades. Thus it’s up to us — we the people — to initiate constitutional amendments to repair it.

      But first we must decide how to best accomplish reform. Will we really fix the problem, or as most current amendment proposals would do, just fix a part, in a way that would not resolve the underlying real problem?

      This book sets a high bar for discussion of all Amendment proposals. In it, I propose the wording and reasoning for a comprehensive 28th Amendment to result in complete reform of the way we structure and finance our political system.

      If we citizens are going to get excited about reforming our democracy, let’s be bold and build a movement to fully and comprehensively amend our U.S. Constitution to regain full citizen control of our democracy. Together, we can accomplish this. Let’s do it!

      Dedication

      Original photo credit John Parker

      This book is dedicated to a woman who’s particularly special to me. She symbolizes all the citizens in America who understand the importance of restoring our democracy, and with it the equality of citizen participation in our political system.

      Specifically, I speak of committed, persevering Doris Haddock of Dublin New Hampshire, known affectionately to many of us simply as Granny D, who died on March 9th, 2010 at age 100.

      I first heard of Granny D on Christmas Day of 1998 due to an odd coincidence. My life-partner Sally and I had driven to Redding, CT for an annual holiday gathering of her extended family. Twenty or so of us were gathered in the living room at Aunt Rosy’s house for drinks to be followed by Christmas dinner. I was talking to Joe, a young man recently married to Sally’s niece, when for some reason he began to tell me about his grandmother who had this crazy idea of walking across the entire United States to highlight the need to reform our democracy, and the family couldn’t talk her out of it.

      As I recall our conversation, the family had tried everything they could think of to discourage her. How will you accomplish this?, they asked. I’ll walk 10 miles a day, 6 days a week, she answered. How do you know you can walk 10 miles a day, 6 days a week? Prove it, they said. So out she went, walking 10 miles a day for 6 days. Where will you stay at night? they asked. I’ll sleep out overnight unless people I meet take me in, she said. Prove that you can camp out overnight, they said. So off she went with her sleeping bag and overnight gear, hiking 10 miles, sleeping overnight, and then returning home. Granny D simply jumped over every hurdle her family placed in her way.

      Not being able to discourage her, the family finally said okay, they’d support her!

      One week later on New Year’s Day, 1999, Granny D, then 88, began her walk across America from Pasadena, California to highlight the importance of reforming the way we finance our political process in order to strengthen our democracy and its representation of all citizens. Through her many television, newspaper and radio interviews and appearances, and also through her website, she reached hundreds of thousands of American citizens to raise awareness about how big campaign contributions from special interests adversely affect the vast majority of American citizens.

      Ignoring her bad back, arthritis, and emphysema, she completed the 3,200-mile trip in 14 months, shortly after her 90th birthday, arriving in Washington on February 29, 2000, to the tune of 2,200 supporters chanting, Go, Granny, Go! She brought with her petition signatures from thousands of American citizens demanding that Congress enact meaningful reform.

      Some two months later, Granny D and other supporters returned to Washington on April 21st where she and 31 others were arrested for demonstrating in the Capitol building. Subsequently, on Wednesday, May 24, 2000 she appeared in court in the District of Columbia to plead guilty to the charge.

      Below, are pertinent parts of her remarks before the Judge.

      "Your Honor, the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America’s Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall.’

      ‘The First Amendment to the Constitution, Your Honor, says that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, so I cannot imagine what legitimate law I could have broken.’

      ‘I was reading from the Declaration of Independence to make the point that we must declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election campaigns.’

      ‘And so I was reading these very words when my hands were pulled behind me and bound: "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 to abolish it.’

      ‘Your Honor, we would never seek to abolish our dear United States. But alter it? Yes. It is our constant intention that it should be a government of, by and for the people, not the special interests….’

      ‘Your Honor, to the business at hand: the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America’s Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall. But if it is a crime to read the Declaration of Independence in our great hall, then I am guilty."¹

      The judge, Chief Judge Hamilton of the DC federal district court, was silent after Doris made her statement. In sentencing, he said to Doris and the demonstrators:

      As you know, the strength of our great country lies in its Constitution and her laws and in her courts. But more fundamentally, the strength of our great country lies in the resolve of her citizens to stand up for what is right when the masses are silent. And, unfortunately, sometimes it becomes the lot of the few, sometimes like yourselves, to stand up for what’s right when the masses are silent, because not always does the law move so fast and so judiciously as to always be right. But given the resolve of the citizens of this great country, in time, however slowly, the law will catch up eventually.²

      Granny D inspired me, as she also did for so many others, to re-dedicate myself to do as much as possible to bring about comprehensive reform.

      Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Doris and many others of us, Congress has not effectively acted in the intervening 16 years. In fact the systemic corruption of our political process is worse than ever, and most members of Congress have little incentive to fix it, since it serves their interests in remaining in power, just as it serves the interests of the tiny fraction of the wealthiest amongst us to continue to finance their campaigns to keep them in power. The rest of us continue to be adversely affected from this, regardless of whether we are conservative, moderate, liberal or progressive.

      So if Congress won’t act, it’s up to us — we the people — to act. The framers

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1