Monday, September 25, 2006
Transition Plan
The following article by Carolina Cositore titled "A Transition Plan for the United States" appeared in the Opinion section of Prenza Latina.
A comment by Venezuelan writer Roberto Hernandez Montoya, in response to the US throwing millions of tax dollars into a plan to force its "transition to democracy in Cuba", to wit the US and the world would be better served by a transition to democracy in its own country "scratched behind my ears" as a friend would say, or really hit the nail on the head.
Since the United States under George W not only ignores international laws and agreements, but flouts its own Constitution, a transition to democracy there would be a very good idea indeed.
Of course since the US is a sovereign country, such a transition should not be forced from without, or engineered by a fifth column paid for by a third nation, but could be done by a nation of citizens fed up with the undemocratic way the country is being run.
Follows are a few suggestions for a draft transition plan:
First and foremost, the citizens of a free United States would have to get rid of the antiquated Electoral College that unfairly weighs votes by state and puts decisions in the hands of a few or, has happened, even one person.
Second, the two-party system has to go. Well, actually it is a one-party system with candidates usually from Yale"s Skull and Crossbones, but that"s beside the point. People in a free society need choices beginning at the neighborhood level. To do this would mean nominations from the ground up, not from a rich man´s primary system. Also limited but free and equal time campaigning on the issues is a must for a true democracy, and while we"re at it, let"s make elected officials answerable to their constituents, and give the latter power of recall.
Third, with elected officials accountable to the people, the United States might try improving its human rights record; the US is long overdue for an overhaul of its human rights to put it in spitting distance of other developed nations. Things like medical care for all, adequate food and nutrition for everyone, free child care, equally good free education, and a truly blind goddess of justice.
These suggestions are just for starters, I´m sure readers can come up with many, many more, such as control of runaway arms spending, energy conservation, and hands-on concern for the environment to name a few.
Now that I think of it, all of the above suggestions are presently practiced in Cuba.
So, there is an example out there. Implementation of such a plan for the US is in the hands of its still surviving self termed "innocents". May they figure out how to go about it before others further attempts at the task. The best we can do here on the Forum is remind them of the saw "... by any means necessary".
Finally the "rub." I could not agree more with the idea of a reorganization of government's role in the lives of its citizens. I am down with relocating major responsibility to more numerous locallized representation. As it now stands, it takes almost 7 people out of a hundred citizens to operate the US government on 44% of the national income without even considering the escalating national debt. And this is the government that is so incompetent to deal with or even care about every human rights program ever implimented! The suggested implimentation of improved and increased human rights programs can only swell the ranks of government dependent employment, even though much of its share of national income can be diverted from the giant slice the military claims and the mind control / propaganda / surveilance programs nobody claims. I just think the US is much too gigantic to even approach a true representative central government, and its size enables all kind of scoundrels to hide within, just as the black ops do today. It must become a bare bones skeleton of itself with the decisions made locally so that central representatives may be held accountable for every move. A government is not to be trusted to serve the people that must keep secrets from them.
If the human rights programs were coordinated centrally for adherence to a national standard and emergency assistance arrangements with local implimentation — great. Think globally, act locally.
I don't know how idealized my memory has made my recollections of a documentary I saw on Bali but I do remember something about all citizens taking a small part, maybe 4 hours a week, in doing government work in lieu of paying taxes. This interchangeablity precludes tendencies for experts to find profitable niches for less service than expected. I also remember the mention of the flexibility of their government in the case of their passing a law prohibiting further building with elevations taller than a coconut palm after seeing the monstrosity the first high rise they permitted was but before it was finished. Actual or not, that's good government if the term is not a natural, unavoidable oxymoron to begin with. Personally I believe humanity is potentially capable of living free of the nanny of government if it would just evolve past the teat.
