Marches & Demonstrations Don’t Work. We Need a Better Way to Protest and Effect Change
Marches can’t fix our broken system. We need a new mechanism to take back our government.
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Pain is a signal that something is wrong with your body.
Stupid people mask the pain.
Smart people remove the cause of the pain.
Social Unrest Is A Societal Pain Signal
Constant, repeated riots, violence, civil unrest, demonstrations, massive poverty, pervasive disease, drug addiction, etc. are societal pain signals. They’re telling us that something is fundamentally wrong with the way our country is being operated.
Dumb people try to mask the societal pain by deploying troops, riot squads, curfews, roundups, arrests, etc. That might provide some short-term relief, but those tactics are just Novocain applied to a rotten tooth.
You don’t fix social problems with riots, marches and demonstrations. They may make you feel better, but they are just an anesthetic on a wound.
To really fix things we need to create an alternative mechanism, a new system that allows people who are unhappy with how they are being governed to
- Express their disapproval in a nonviolent fashion
- Express their demands for change in a nonviolent fashion
- Participate in securing change in a nonviolent fashion
Democracy Has Been Neutralized
In this country we used to do that through elections, but the democratic process has been corrupted by
- Party primaries controlled by insiders and ideologues
- Voter suppression
- Gerrymandering
- Filibusters
- Multiple layers of bureaucracy
- Court systems that take years or even decades to reach a decision
These tools are used by wealthy people, massive corporations, party insiders, powerful interest groups and true-believes as a means to retain power and thwart policies supported by a majority of citizens.
Today we are barred by these systemic roadblocks from securing legislation that a majority of citizens want. A large percentage of Americans increasingly see massive public protests as the only avenue they have left to express their anger over how they are being governed.
That outlet might be emotionally fulfilling, but it is practically wasteful, dangerous, costly, polarizing, and, worst of all, ineffective.
We need an effective alternative mechanism for citizens to
- Protest how those in power are running the government, and
- Effect change
Citizens Directly Taking Charge
Here are my proposals.
We start with a nonbinding internet vote conducted as follows.
- People would register to vote by filing an electronic thumbprint together with their voter information. Only registered voters could sign up. You would need a fingerprint reader attached to your computer or you would use the fingerprint reader on your phone to record your vote.
- At every level of government — city, country, state and federal — at least 3% or more of the citizens registered to vote in that jurisdiction could propose any measure they liked.
- If a given percentage, for example 15% to 20% ,of all registered voters in that jurisdiction agreed that the proposed measure should go on the ballot then that proposal would go on the ballot.
- A “yes” vote of a majority of registered voters would pass the measure.
Note that we’re not talking about a majority of the people who voted, but a majority of all of the people who were eligible to vote.
Initially, the votes would be advisory, meaning that they wouldn’t have the force of law. Eventually, the votes would be binding.
The basic rules would be that
- A minimum percentage of registered voters, perhaps 3%, would need to approve a proposal being added to the list of possible legislation.
- A material percentage of all registered voters, for example 15% or 20%, would need to approve putting that proposal on the general ballot
- Proposals would appear on the ballot no later than 15 days after they received the required percentage approval and they would remain on the ballot for between 15 days and 30 days.
- A majority of all registered voters would need to approve a measure for it to pass
- The same issue could not be put on the ballot more often than once every two years
- Non-binding voting would be internet-only with a fingerprint log in. Binding voting would be conducted both by in-person paper ballot and over the internet.
The scope of issues would be extremely wide.
For example, the voters could remove any elected or executive official such as a mayor, district attorney, chief of police, congressperson, U.S. Senator, governor, etc. at any time more than one year after the date that they took office.
Vacancies left by the removal of an official would be filled within three months by a similar 51% vote with a runoff of the top two candidates as necessary.
Specific single items of legislation could be adopted, e.g. the corporate tax rate could be increased or decreased; the minimum wage could be increased or decreased; etc.
Check out these two columns for more details on how this sort of system might work:
How We Got Stuck With Two Candidates We Don’t Like And How We Can Stop That From Happening Again
Things have to change:
- We need to get rid of party primaries in favor of a single primary with each voter getting to name a first choice and a second choice candidate.
- We need to get rid of the filibuster.
- We need to get rid of gerrymandering.
- We need to make it easy for every eligible voter to cast their ballot which means mail-in ballots, drop-off ballots, early voting, week-end voting, and enough polling places that no one has to wait in line to vote longer than thirty minutes.
Right now the system is biased in favor of party insiders, interest groups, rural voters, and upper-middle-class voters.
The more you grind people down, the more you disenfranchise them, the bigger the problems and the greater the level of social unrest you’re going to create and that’s what we’re doing right now.
— David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
