President-Elect Donald Trump campaigned hard at the close of his campaign that he would "drain the swamp" in Washington DC.
In his Contract with the American Voter, Trump committed to embark immediately on a plan for restoring honesty and accountability, and bringing change to Washington. The Contract proposed six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC. These are:
★ FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.
★ SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).
★ THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.
★ FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
★ FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
★ SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
The above culmination in the 2016 Presidential election grew out of a remarkable eighteen months of Presidential campaigning by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump that vociferously charged that a corrupt Congress and broken political system were failing the American people.
There is good reason to think that the people should not just sit back and passively await what the Trump administration and the new Congress will do to address the problem of a corrupt Congress and broken political system.
Rather the people should keep themselves aroused by the momentous emotions stirred in the 2016 Presidential election and be proactive and pressure the Trump administration and the new Congress.
It is submitted that this must be done in a unified way by grassroots Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Such unity by grassroots Republicans, Democrats and independents may be impossible, but, without it, there is great risk that the Trump administration will morph into business as usual.
One should not rule out the Trump administration and the new Congress actually bringing about change that is generally found acceptable by the grassroots electorate.
If that does not happen, there are alternative paths for the people. These alternative paths have been pursued for several years. The paths include getting the states to call a constitutional convention to amend the constitution, and also getting state and local legislation and ordinances to end corruption at those levels of government and pushing up from there to Congress and the Federal government.
Work will continue on the foregoing alternative paths.
This blog attempted, with respect to the 2016 Congressional elections, to instigate a citizen effort to get candidates who were running for Congress in 2016 to make a public declaration that was intended to force Congress, before November 8, 2016, to pass reform legislation for the American people to consider in casting their votes on November 8th. This is set out at 2016 Congressional candidates Declarations. This effort had no success as regards the 2016 Congressional elections, and there was much diversion of effort towards the Sanders and Trump candidacies.
Work will continue on the foregoing alternative paths.
This blog attempted, with respect to the 2016 Congressional elections, to instigate a citizen effort to get candidates who were running for Congress in 2016 to make a public declaration that was intended to force Congress, before November 8, 2016, to pass reform legislation for the American people to consider in casting their votes on November 8th. This is set out at 2016 Congressional candidates Declarations. This effort had no success as regards the 2016 Congressional elections, and there was much diversion of effort towards the Sanders and Trump candidacies.
This blog will now shift to trying to pressure the Trump administration and the new Congress, with the threat of trying to elect a citizens' unity Congress in 2018 to enact change if the Trump administration and the new Congress are not responsive to the people's wishes.
"It is submitted that this must be done in a unified way by grassroots Republicans, Democrats and independents."
ReplyDeleteYes, Bob, this is the ONLY way we will get the major reforms we need. I believe we may be able to accomplish this by focusing our efforts on the major political parties rather than on individual legislators. Party leaders are the quarterbacks who make the policy calls, the players simply execute their roles in the play. Of course many plays are sent in from the sidelines by the (big donor) coaches.
Consider groups of well-dressed, prominent women & men from communities across the country walking into their county party headquarters, presenting a formal demand that a letter be send to both state and national headquarters demanding enactment of this legislation: (http://sarbanes.house.gov/sites/sarbanes.house.gov/files/FINAL_DemocracyHearing_MillerGoodlatte_04.21.16.pdf
The group announces that it is prepared to occupy the office until the demand is met. Arrests may occur. But new groups repeat the process once with a regular cadence until it becomes clear that the people have spoken. Of course, the original quote implies that such actions must happen on both sides of the isle. With the current level of bipartisan dissatisfaction, I believe it is possible.
In Alabama, I have made this posting http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2016/11/trumps-contract-with-american-voter.html
DeleteI have sent more than a hundred tweets to Republican and Democratic party organizations and their members, as well as to Alabama media organizations and persons, chambers of commerce and others.
There will be no change. Politics is about lining pockets that's why Trump ran to get out of debt. Furthermore there should be no one in government from the Jim Crown erase but you still have plenty from that era
ReplyDeleteLOL wow that's very uneducated Trump can buy and sell most people in politics if not all he ran to help America become what it once was number one superpower also number 1 in manufacturing and economics I believe giving Trump time through the transition also giving him one hundred days from January 20th 2017 it's only fair let's see what he gets done before making judgement calls after all we put up with a lame duck Junior senator Barack Obama who only through Obamacare on the American people and basically got nothing done he ran on you spoke of change I did not and do not support barracks policies although I give it time give Trump his time it's only fair he was elected by the people let him do what he said he would if he doesn't then would be the time for complaining name-calling whatever the American people see fit at this point I support Trump 100% And know all things campaign done can't be done never have been and never will Vince you must be a close-minded negative person still stuck in your loss of the election how could Donald Trump when to get out of debt when he used his own money throughout his campaign also has pledged he will take $1 a year. Don't think that will get anyone out of debt spending $100 million on the campaign getting paid back $4 for 4 years lol use your head mr. Vince if you have one I know you have no heart give the man due time we will see
ReplyDeleteLOL wow that's very uneducated Trump can buy and sell most people in politics if not all he ran to help America become what it once was number one superpower also number 1 in manufacturing and economics I believe giving Trump time through the transition also giving him one hundred days from January 20th 2017 it's only fair let's see what he gets done before making judgement calls after all we put up with a lame duck Junior senator Barack Obama who only through Obamacare on the American people and basically got nothing done he ran on you spoke of change I did not and do not support barracks policies although I give it time give Trump his time it's only fair he was elected by the people let him do what he said he would if he doesn't then would be the time for complaining name-calling whatever the American people see fit at this point I support Trump 100% And know all things campaign done can't be done never have been and never will Vince you must be a close-minded negative person still stuck in your loss of the election how could Donald Trump when to get out of debt when he used his own money throughout his campaign also has pledged he will take $1 a year. Don't think that will get anyone out of debt spending $100 million on the campaign getting paid back $4 for 4 years lol use your head mr. Vince if you have one I know you have no heart give the man due time we will see
ReplyDeleteBla bla bla bla bla. Donald Trump already has shown that he was never serious about his draining of the swamp promises because he has appointed the swamps most pernicious leeches to his team and all I see on the horizon is more of the same Wall Street (the real enemy not Washington which is just a pawn) Republican Wall Street slaves as his cabinet picks. He said what he could to get elected with a million contradictory and inconsistent statements and hundreds of thousands of Americans fell.tooth and nail.for this very well done emotional campaign. Now we will all.have to pay like never be for as a 3rd Republican dynasty steals.even more from Americans and hands it to Wall Street than Reagan and the Bushes did. Be prepared for long soup lines with no soup. You wanted a man like Herbert Hoover again? Well you got even worse.
ReplyDelete