Figure 1
Excerpts from the
Declaration of Independence
July 4th, 1776
The Rally for Our Cause!
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another . . . 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, 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 . . . But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Are we not at such a crossroads in our country once again?
AND/OR
Now more than ever!
We need to be a
NATION OF INNOVATION!
THE STATUS QUO MUST GO!
COMPROMISE & CORRUPTION
BLOCK the very INNOVATION
WE NEED to solve our problems.
A conservative, smaller, reformed and innovative government.
THE BIG PROBLEM
The checks and balances our founding fathers envisioned and ratified in our constitution have been circumnavigated through corruption by BIG MONEY. It's time to reform a more perfect union. How? We need to get the money out of politics. Easier said than done you may say, especially when most politicians that get elected because they are able to raise more money than their opponents (thus resulting in greater ability to reach more people).
Leveling the Political Playing Field by Removing BIG Money's Monopoly Over Democracy
Are you tired of hearing about $2,500 - $25,000 private invitation only fundraising dinners being held by those running for congress, the senate or president? When this kind of money is enabled to be collected, the bottom 99% really have no part at any such banquet. Many American families have to live off $2500 per month or $25,000 per year. How could they possibly afford to attend such an event. This BIG money is used to reach voters through TV, radio, billboard and we ads. But should our leaders be elected on the basis of their capacity to raise or spend funds? We need not great pitchmen that make that make promises they never intend to keep or do not even have the ability to fulfill. We need problem solvers that get to the root of our BIG problems and support BIG solutions to solve these problems.
The bottom line is billionaires and corporations should not be able to exert virtually unlimited influence on elections or legislation. It is the very lack of a check and balance on such behavior that has corrupted our government and enabled wealth redistribution. All such leaves citizens with little voice and little choice on election day.
The Fair and Open Election Reform Act
1. REVERSE the 2010, US Supreme Court CITIZENS UNITED enabling SuperPACs to raise nearly unlimited money to support candidates of choice. Limit PACs to raise and spend no more than $10,000,000 per year towards any one candidate.
2. Make the maximum contribution the greater of 1% of prior year's net income of a citizen or corporation or $250 per citizen or corporation and to support any PAC (Political Action Committee) or candidate. Total contributions to be set at the greater of $2500/year or 2% of prior year's net income per citizen or corporation.
3. Eliminate the ability of corporations to spend any money lobbying congress or towards contributing towards any political campaign, PAC or candidate, with the exception of travel expenses.
4. Reduce total ad/marketing/operations aggregate spend in support of candidates to $1/total constituents/year/candidate for any given office.
5. Create OPEN PRIMARIES for US house and senate where any citizen easily run for any office they are eligible for via online signup. Make the cost limited to a $5-$50 fee.
6. Create and OPEN PRIMARY and US government election site where any candidate may create a 'Political Profile Page' from where they may run their campaign and raise funds from any US citizen.
7. Create cap on fundraising and spending for any political party to $10,000,000 per year.
8. Media organizations will be required to share about this central election site whenever any interview or story including mention of one or more candidates is published or aired.
9. Corporations, though considered people, are not citizens and do not have the right to vote, therefore they shall be striped of all ability to support any political candidate.
10. The media shall hold debates that feature the current top 5 candidates for office and make mention of the next five top candidates as listed currently ranked on the US government election site. Whenever the media reports about political candidates they must make mention of the US government site as the main resource for information about candidates and as the site where open primary elections are to be held.
11. Many politicians spend up to half their time in office towards campaigning and fundraising. We believe that this is way too much time talking and not enough time spent passing laws to solve our big problems they were elected to solve. Our public servants should be allowed to spend no more than 10% of their time in raising funds and formally campaigning for office.
12. A formalized online meeting request process would assure time equality to meet with representatives is essential to hearing the voice of all citizens. This should include both inbound and outbound meetings set with representatives and citizens. To accomplish and regulate this system, a single question asking citizens requesting meetings and meetings set outbound by representatives will be required to declare one of 7 - 10 gross income levels as reported on their tax return.
The equality ratio shall not exceed more than 2.5% in disparity of meetings between representatives and citizens in respect to income classification.
13. Fair and Open elections site to include ability for citizens to post suggested laws, civic problems in need of solving and solutions to problems. For each suggested law, problem or solution submitted citizens will be able to make comments and cast opinion poll of like or dislike. The site would also allow any citizen or organization to create polls. Rankings of polls page or suggested laws page will post all submissions (reviewed for four letter language) and give priority to each in order of the highest number of citizens polled or proposed law liked. Representatives should pay attention to the high ranking polls as a voice of the people is being expressed through such.
13. The Democratic and Republican parties should be broken up as they hold a monopoly on raising funds and matriculation of ideas being forwarded unto law that our country needs to prosper.
Additions, Suggested Expansions and Good, Better, Best
This view and vision for this site may and should be expanded to deter voter fraud and enable online voting and in physical world at voting booths for citizens whose identify has been positively identified to vote. As with all ideas presented here at CitizensReUnited, they are just that, ideas that present a rough draft of the idea. A good, better, best philosophy should be applied to all ideas presented. At some point the best ideas will God-willing become law.
Site founded by Randy Smith with the purpose of sparking REAL CHANGE thru REAL SOLUTIONS. All rights reserved, 2013.
Our Solutions
Fair and Open Elections Candidate Profile Page and Website
