The Mental Ferment for Men (and Women) who Might Foment an American Revolution: Part Three

We really are facing a dangerous period of opportunity.  Could there be an American Revolution? If so how could it play out and what might its outcome be? I think that we have reached a point where more than few crises will slip out of control unless they are addressed in the relatively near future.  For me as an individual person the idea of seeking and pushing a particular form of constitutional transformation is well justified.  There is enough desperation in my circumstances and history to make me unquiet for a long period of time.

But Revolution is a strong prescription. There are varied levels of the dreaded opportunity our founding fathers called the “State of Nature”.  Remember they did not seek to overthrow the British government or dissolve their own colonies. They simply sought to exclude the British from the governance of the United States and to transform the quasi-state colonies into states. The Constitution they drafted allowed not only for amendments but also for a constitutional convention which would allow for the most low risk possible way to pass through a grave crisis. This would be sort of skirting along the borders of the dreaded state of nature. I think a serious and honest scholar of the period would have to conclude they would have hoped we would achieve many forms of political development we have avoided before undertaking many things we have undertaken. Now we reach the part of this essay which is the most risky and dangerous for the writer. In describing a proposed revolution one should be able to describe some set of relatively large and even shocking changes desired and possible under the new regime which are not possible under this regime. So, either in this section I will discuss what my ideal new America  would be like in terms of almost all its map and in terms of the Congress of the United States and the Electoral College.

I.  The Map and Congress: First Level of Revolutionary Change

However, I will get to those larger and more distinct looking changes much later than this sentence or paragraph.  I will start with those that most closely flow from my last comment. I will focus on the map and Congress. The new House of Representatives  should be made up of 800 seats and representatives exactly. The number of people in a district in a State would be constitutionally set at the variable A (apportionment number). The non states would have 53 seats not apportioned by population: The District of Columbia would have three such seats, a federation of all lands not in Constitutional Jurisdictions (which is what States, Territories and Possessions would be called together) would have two seats. The allotted State legislature representatives of all the Colored Districts in the States would hold an electoral conference every two years and select three of their own members to serve in the House of Representatives and have authority to expedite an election to fill their State legislative Seats. In addition each of the 14 Territories would have two seats serving the Territory as a whole regardless of population and its apportioned seats. Each  of the 17 Possessions would have one seat representing the Possession as a whole and its apportioned seats. Then all military bases of the United States militaries would be made into districts electing representatives. Military people would have two votes in this way– they would keep their home constitutional jurisdiction vote and gain additional representation in the Congress and Electoral College through their base-district votes. Each Territory district which is apportioned by population would serve 1.5 A people, each Possession district apportioned by population would serve   2 A people and each military jurisdiction.There would be 747 seats apportioned by the new council of Censors — as with the States now none ould include parts of more than one Constitutional Jurisdiction.

B. The United States Senate

After the Addition of the State of Puerto Rico there would be no new States added without a Constitutional amendment. There would also be the one additional Senator for each State elected by the State Legislature and serving a longer term.  That would bring the total number of US Senators to 153. These Senators would serve for all purposes of Law, Procedure, Equity and Normal Business. They would be the only ones allowed to vote when the Senate considered such matters. However, there would be a number of additional members  of high office and some elected by the Censors and Tribunes to serve in a Senatorial Constitutional  Assembly entitled to vote on the amendments to the Constitution. The current Congress of the United States numbers a bit under 550 and the new Congress would number a bit under 1000. This would be more in line with our revolutionary heritage. 

C. The New Constitutional Jurisdictions

The cost in lands would not fall on all States equally to create the new  Constitutional Jurisdictions and the Federal Government would be required to provide some lands of its own to the process.

Territories:

1.The Territoryof the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the North Eastern States

2.The Territoryof the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the South Eastern States

3.The Territory of the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the South Western States

4.The Territory of the Federated Aboriginal American Nations of the North Western States.

5.The Territory of the Kingdom of Hawaii

6.The Territory of American Samoa

7.The Territory of Guam

8.The Territory of the Aleut, Inuit and Eskimo Peoples of Alaska

9.The Territory of Creoles of Color of Louisiana

10.The Territory of the Creoles of Color of Puerto Rico

11.The Territoryof the Creoles of Color of the US Virgin Islands

12.The Federated Territory of the Mestizos of the Western Half of Spanish Borderlands

13.The Federated Territory of the Mestizos Eastern Half of the Spanish Borderlands

14. The Small Federal Territory of  token Micronesian, Filipino Other American Imperial Communities

Thus 28 not-by-population districts in the House.   

Possessions:

1.The Negro and African-American Possession in South Carolina

2.The Negro and African American Possession in Mississippi

3.The Negro and African American Possession in Florida

4.The Negro and African American Possession in Alabama

5.The Negro and African American Possession in Georgia

6.The Negro and African American Possession in Louisiana

7.The Negro and African American Possession in Texas

8.The Negro and African American Possession in Virginia

9.The Negro and African American Possession in Arkansas

10.The Negro and African American Possession in Tennessee

11.The Negro and African American Possession in North Carolina

12.The Negro and African American Possession in the US Virgin Islands

13.The Negro and African American Possession in Puerto Rico

14.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated Districts in Kentucky, Maryland and Oklahoma

15.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated Districts in the Union States of 1864

16.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated Districts of the Pacific States and Territories

17.The Negro and African American Possession of Federated States of the Greater South West

Thus 17 not-by-population districts in the House.

D. The Compact Zones

Each constitutional Jurisdiction shall yield a small zone of land to the direct governance of every compact it belongs to — no Compact Zone will be larger than four square miles and shall vary by the size of the Constitutional Jurisdiction.  There shall be major Compacts and minor compacts. Generally, the Major Compacts will receive larger zones.

The Major Compacts:

1.The Thirteen Colonies Compact

2.The Original Constitution Compact

3.The Compact of the Louisiana Purchase

4.The Compact of the Hartford Convention

5.The Compact of the Spanish Borderlands

6.The Compact of the Confederate States of America

7.The Compact of the Union States of the Civil War

8. The Compact of All Jurisdictions West of the Mississippi

9.The Compact of All Jurisdictions East of the Mississippi

10.The Compact of All States

11.The Compact of All Territories

12.The Compact of All Possessions 

Each Major Compact will receive a rebate of half of one percent of all federal taxes collected in every member jurisdiction as well as a half of one percent of all revenues raised by each jurisdiction. The Major Compacts shall also elect an elector for life who will sit and vote with other electors for the President and be seated in the Compact Council. The Compact Councils shall reserve most of the seats in their lower chamber for those elected from the Compact’s Roll of Kindreds. Every family association must belong to at least two Rolls of Kindreds and should contribute one percent of all its revenues to each Roll of Kindreds it belongs to up to four percent. After that if it elects to belong to more it shall simply divide four percent of its revenues equally among all Rolls. The Upper Chamber will be a Council of Nobles.  The Compacts will have the right to petition both the US Congress and their member legislatures. They shall each maintain a cavalry Honor Guard.

The Minor Compacts

The Minor Compacts will be institutions authorized and chartered by the United States Government to co-ordinate a basic set of long lasting concerns. Like the Major Compacts they will have independent constitutional funding but their governance will just be a set of uniquely chartered institutions not fully part of the federal grand plan for the society. I will not attempt to list them all but will give a few examples: the Compact of Louisiana, The Compact of Hawaii  and The Compact of Puerto Rico.

II. The Electoral College: Second Level of Revolutionary Change

A. The Election of the Chief Executive 

Every four years as today a person would be elected to many of the duties and roles of the current President of the United States. Each Jurisdiction would elect as many electors as it has members of its total Congressional caucus as today.   However, there would also be eighty-two Electors for life from the eighty-two Constitutional Jurisdictions and twelve  Electors for life from the Major Compacts.  These would be of less importance than ninety four new electors added to our five hundred because of the expansion of Congress and thus popularly chosen electors. The Electors for Life shall form a council with the only real direct oversight power over the Censors in drawing up the electoral districts. They shall meet to certify these districts on year before each Presidential Election. No one shall be declared President until the full electoral college shall have voted. Popular electors shall be bound as robots on the first vote but free to change their vote if there is no majority in the Electoral College on the First Ballot.

B. Other Elections

Should there be more than a single National Election ( today we have only the single Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket) then in these new elections the Electors for life would also participate as a primary organ of those elections.

In Part Four of this posting I will discuss the most radical outcomes of the proposed American Revolution. Outcomes more likely to be off-putting than any discussed so far in this essay.