Why and How I am a Committed Radical (12th in a Series): First Executive Vice President — The Office and Election.
by Frank Wynerth Summers III on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 8:34pm ·
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This Note will be about the First Subsection the Section Three of Article Three in my Model Constitution. For those who want to see the Model Constitution I propose as a whole you can go to the following link:
This is in some ways one of the least radical portions of this model constitution. It shows that there would be a good bit of continuity in the Executive, but also that there will some significant reforms and transformations. This susbsection gives me a chance to discuss how reforms would work. It also gives me a chance to discuss why they would be necessary. This Constitution is proposed in large part because of the need for changing some deep-seated values and beliefs. Not the least of those problems is the kind of American Exceptionalism that is poisonous to our current international relations and to the future of our society. America is not succeeding splendidly in every possible way and by every possible measure and it seldom has and no society should require people to say such things just to run for office effectively.
I think America is actually rich in political, cultural and social resources. I myself vote regulary in all the complex electoral realites of Louisiana politics and their window and bridge to American political life. However, I think our political system like many other aspects of our society is in decline and is really threatened. It is not that our system in its inner purity is perfect or does not need improvement. But it is a real and vibrant system. It is unique to us and so is the new Constitution I propose. I remember a recent election and have notes about how it impressed me for good and ill.
On October 2, 2010 I voted in a typical Louisiana political election in which there was at least one October race that was an open primary and the two top vote-getters committed to runoffs in November if neither gets over fifty percent of the vote across the state there are usually many of these October races and we all vote in a few. Then some get majorites and the rest face another better informed election in November when the rest of the country votes by and large. That October the US Senate race had a separate primary already and will have narrowed the field to three by party — possibly there would be no majority and a rare Louisiana official would serve with a first-past-the-post plurality which most media calls a majority in other states. However, it was a walk for Republcan David Vitter over redistricted Congressman Melancon. Some officials ran unopposed and so and were almost crowned and anointed in the manner of modern Teutonic. Then there were a number of two person races where the competition had already been eliminated and where our voting machines must thus produce a majority as we do not have spoiled ballots or write-ins. In Louisiana we elected at the ballot our Lieutenant Governor, the appellate courts, the varied local races and the public service commissions. We also had many school board races that were big and important that day. Every school board I know of outside New Orleans is electing its leaders that Saturday.
We also have two constitutional amendments on the ballot. One was to place GOHSEP staff in the unclassified civil service category. Another is related to official scheduling of the legislative year. None of these issues were huge in my mind. I voted early and with less certainty as to how I should vote than usual. However, I was enthusiastic enough to recommend voting to many people I met at the football game my nephews played in on the morning of the election. In another recent election we elected members to a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education where the Governor appoints another portion of the same board after consulting with experts. The point is not that Louisiana politics is perfect or all one thing or another but it is improvable, rich and deeply tied to all sort of cultural and institutional realites it needsto be dealing with well. The national system is too much big television and small-minded sloganism. I think our current presidential elections are in trouble. I believe that both too much and too little are at stake at the same time. I look at the systems in many other countries and believe they are getting worse for reasons too technical to outline here. But briefly British and Commonwealth FPTP combined with modern multiple parties is a bad system for the democratic element but is bailed out by other segments of the system. In other countries apathy and hatred are increasingly the real contenders for power.
So, how do I see our system? I feel a certain amount of sympathy for Barack Obama in a system where no Socialist Party is really available, where federalism has weakened and dodged the raclal aspects of our federal tradition he was a man with limited options. He lost some dignity in rushing through the Senate to the White House but it is an easy choice to understand. He lost some dignity in learning Constitutional technique without absorbing its values even if only to better reject them But in the mix of misinformation that is the modern elite law school it is understandable. I am not only a conservative or only a liberal, I am coming at every question from a very unusual place. I have learned and must learn from Right and Left and Center.
But despite my catholicity an openness in many aspects of my thinking I consider myself to be one of the people most opposed to Barack Obama within the spectrum of legitimate politics. In addition, I committed to conservative opposition to Obam by and large when he was running for President. However, I don’t think that there is any doubt that we have reached the point where Conservatism can be looked at as something which has merited the term “crisis”. America is in a crisis and I believe that it will prove to be a very grave crisis. However, conservatism is in a far greater crisis. For argument’s sake let us say that the terms right and left, Democrat and Republican describe a real political dynamic which matters in this country. I would argue that on the right in this country we have lots of politicians who use the label “conservative” but actually we have a collection of Libertarians, Tax Avoiders, Moderate Neo-Fascists , Ultra-Reformed Protestant Theocrats, and Anglophile Antiquarians who collectively squeeze a weak and demoralized conservative group of Americans who hardly matter at all. I think that in the new regime there will be moresystems in jurisdictions, the back-up of the royal institutions and all of this will allow for formal organized factions in the Republican and Democrat Party and also allow for more functioning parties to emerge at least in reletively small but significant ways. Thus the GOP or its renamed successor could be a truly Conservative Party with organized factions that do what the relatively unfocused groups do badly now. The Democrat party could be a Liberal-left party with a real socialist, perhaps some leftist but extremely royalist faction, a Dixiecrat faction and others. In addition there would be parties to whom those factions could peddle their votes and win a race outright now and then. It is is not guaranteed that this will happen. But I believe that as the tyranny of democracy is renounced the democratic element will be able to emerge in purer and better fashion that satisfies more democratic legitimate needs.
Suppose there is a basis for people in large numbers to group together against Obama’s policies. Some of those in these almost never discussed GOP groups that should be factions would join the center of the party or its renamed successor and would be trueConservatives if there really was a Conservative Movement for them to be part of effectively. There would be a reshuffling and some would join the emerging minor parties as well because their destructive behavior in 2008 comes from the fact that they fundamentally despise Conservatism.
While I am a committed radical I do practice conventional political participation. I voted for George Bush the first time and almost certainly would have voted for him the second time if I could have made it to Beijing’s American Embassy in time to vote. However, I missed that election. I voted for Mcain-Palin in the most recent election. I think I have voted for Mary Landrieu a Democrat every time. Through my life I have voted for a collection of Democrats, Republicans and Independents.
My odd and limited sympathy for Barack Obama comes into play once more as I reflect on my own political life and asociations in regard to his history. Like Obama (and a lot of other people) I have had to make the best choices I could at any given time and deserve to be judged by those choices but not by how I would behave in some fantastical world of choices and associations that did not exist. Like Obama and others I have some friends that do not clean up so well for the television cameras and critics as they might. By the time I was old enough to vote I had forged a lot of bonds and relationships which included fundamentalists, communists in other countries, resentful Moslems, white supremacists, black radicals and lots of other people who don’t fall into the neat safe categories that President mills like mid century Yale Law normally produce in quantity. If I were to have made a run at the US Presidency there would be people some folks would like as little as I like Rev. Wright and David Ayres. Despite all that colorful background I have lots of self-respect and more oddly yet, I think of myself as an authentic American Conservative who has taken some Saocialist ideas very much to heart. Arguably, I am one of the minority of American conservatives who could be optimistic abpout the Obama example of emerging from the complexities of the real political jungle of our streets and other streets. Instead of committimg myself to radical change I could commit to a conventional path in politics. I could reason that if such an oddly positioned person of such a background as Barack Obama can be President of the United States then maybe I could at least get elected parish assessor, city dog-catcher, county councilman, water-district representative or something else somewhere in the land of the free and the home of the brave. But we have run out of the sypathy and empathy I feel for Obama. Somehow I don’t think Obama’s election signifies anything nearly that hopeful for someone like me.
I dare to write a Model Constitution without ever having held public office. I am willing to advocate for big restructuring without ever having gotten a government paycheck. That is unless you include the kinds of paychecks given by fellowships and part-time job checks from school boards and universities which I have gotten in the past. I am able to say that I have won a few elections. I won a seat on Dorm Council in College, I was elected as Outstanding Graduate in my department , college and university for that particular commencement exercise at a different school. Then In China a few years ago I organized elections among my student for various class and subgroup offices. Then there are a couple of elections where I was elected to post that I can’t discuss here by groups that like their privacy. None of those races seem very much related to the Presidency or even a governorship however. In most of these races my political philosophy was not a central aspect of what people were electing me for or voting against. Many people hold office for other reasons than political philosophy. People vote for friends, members of their race or class, to keep seniority in a legislature or because they are personally opposed to the candidates opposition. But in the big leagues there are always some questions of political philosophy that become important. I would argue that Conservatism is usually not on the menu often Liberalism is not either. This Model Constitution makes room for Liberal and Conservative politics I feel If this were ratified it would impose a structure but leave a great deal more open to changing with political sway changing hands in hard fought elections. I think that a coherent expression ofmy views on American Conservative political philosophy would require at least one very long book. If someone hasn’t read any of the books which have helped to from my opinions then an article or two would not make the great sweep of ideas stand clear. Here I am drafting a constitutionin which Liberals, Libertarians and others can rightly see some of their own ideas and values reflected. But it is structure that would be changed and procedure. So how will it change as regards electing the ordinary executive.
There will be 949 Electors derived from the popular vote in Jurisdictions and Military Bases. The States will get three bonus electors assigned to their popular vote compared to the Territories and the Possessions. The members of the Bouletherion elect two more mebers by a nuanced and unique but mostly popular vote which is a kind of bonus like that for military bases which the Imperial Tribe will receive as a token for allowing the many representatives in the Imperial Conclave. The four representatives for the Colored Districts in the States will not be assigned by the popular election. The colored districts in the States will vote as citizens of the States and will be represented in the same way and at the same variance they are entitled to vote for the State Legislature members they elect. Gaining these 951 popularly elected delegates will clearly be important. However, there will be eighty-four Electors-for-Life with one each elected by each Jurisdiction and two elected by the Imperial Tribe. The Jurisdictions and the Military are entitled to assign their popularly elected lectors by any system they wish so long as the one that gets the most votes gets the most electors. Therefore it is possible some will assign them proportionaly. However, even if they are all winner-take-all pluralitarian systems the parties and candidates are likely to want to show respect for the electors for life and to keep their goodwill. That will greatly change the nature of the total elction process. Because of the royal monarchs the society will be able to afford to wait for the Conclave of the Electoral College to determine who is the First-Executive Vice President. Ideas and ideals will be better defined I believe.
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Section Three: The First Executive Vice President
Subsection One: The Office and Election
The executive Aministration and ordinary exercise of Executive Power shall be vested in a First Executive Vice President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Second Deputy Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:
Each Jurisdiction shall appoint a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State, Territory or Possession may be entitled in the Congress and these electors shall have been elected at a general and direct election bearing both the name of the First and Second Executive Vice Presidential Candidates and the names of the electors. The Military ditricts shall elect a slate of Free Military Electors in the same manner. The Imperial Tribe’s Bouletherion shall be recognized in the laws it establishes which shall govern how The Imperial Tribe shall also elect two electors in the time of the General election and have two members of the Boulethrion of Bouletherion Vice Presidential rank who are Electors- for-Life whatever privileges the Jurisdictional Electors-for-Life have under the Laws and Constitution shall belong equally to these two Bouletherion Electors for Life who shall also serve as Protocol directors for the Electors for Life. The Jurisdictions however shall in addition name according to Jurisdictional Law an Elector-for-Life who shall vote in each of these First Executive Vice-Presidential elections and in those of the Emperor at the Conclave, these must be named each year unless impeached by the State Legislature and convicted by the GRIHHA of High Crimes — they are elected when a vacancy occurs by reason of death or removal. No Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the Federal Government Portion of the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. Electors for Life may hold Jurisdcitional or Imperial Posts if permitted by their Jurisdiction. The electors shall all assemble within two weeks of the General Election and their proceeding shall be fully recorded and then kept secret for fifty years. On the First ballot only the Electors for Life shall be free and the others shall be robot-electors. They robots shall cast their vote by Jurisdictional caucus and the Electors for life will together cerify the their votes. Outside the Conclave, the President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. If there is some candidate with a full majority of more than half of all the votes that candidate will be First Executive Vice President. If not then a second ballot shall be announced and all those robot- electors dedicated to candidates ranked lower than fifth place or having fewer than five percent of the votes shall be free to change their vote. On the Second Ballot, the robots and freed electors shall cast their vote by Jurisdictional caucus and the Electors for life will together cerify the their votes. Outside the Conclave, the President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. If there is some candidate with a full majority of more than half of all the votes that candidate will be First Executive Vice President. If there is none then all the robots will be freed to vote as they choose and the entire sitting House of Representatives will be added to the electoral college and all military and other non-State Jurisdiction seats will be divided among the States with whom they are aforehand associated. Each Super State Caucus shall immediately choose by Ballot a candidate for President and all the votes that caucus are to be certified for that single candidate. Then the wholly free assmbly shall vote and their votes shall be added to those of the caucuses and this process will be repeated with the elimination of the lowest vote-getter on each round until the majority emerges and that majority candidate is First Executive Vice-President. The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors in a General Election, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States and Federal American Empire. No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of First Executive Vice-President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
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If you have the energy to discuss this with friends that would be great. But the basic point here in Subsection One: ” The Office and Election” of Section Three ” The First Executive Vice President” of Article Three ” The Executive and the Monarchy” is that for our system to work there must be an effective executive and more as well, and that while the Emperor and Empress will take some things to a new level and perform some vital roles the the First Executive Vice-President will exercise the ordinary political executive power entrusted to t him by the Emperor. This portion of the third section of this article introduces to us figure much like the current President of the republican Union who nonetheless has certain reforms in the nature and practice of both the election and the office itself. One of the specific changes is that the people in the Electoral College are called the Electoral College but the meeting at which they assemble to elect the First Executive Vice-President is to be called the Conclave or the Vice-Presidential Conclave. Another change is that like the current president who can only stand twice for election the FEVP will also be restricted that way but the constitution would function one who receivesa a pertial term throough detah of the FEVP to hold two full terms in addition so long as the portion he recieved did not exceed half of th unfulfilled term. The Electors-for Life who are a voice for a more sober approach are part of the other election in the executive as well the one that elects the Emperor and Supreme President which will be called the Imperial Conclave. Those changes are integral to the new system itself.
I have tagged a few FB friends and I will in some or all my notes. Any kind of political radicalism at any time is a risk for those associated with it and so I am keeping the tagging to a minimum and while a great deal of endorsement will be needed to effect these changes there is no indication that someone tagged in a note in this series is actually endorsing the note. As always I am willing to respond to posted comments, chat and private messages.
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