Answers to FAQ's

Who Needs All These Clowns?
Without the involvement or (at least the consent) of an informed citizenry, government is only a tyranny of some ruling elite. The rationale behind the design of our Constitutional republic and its democratic institutions held that the common people themselves were to be in control in their government and more aware of their own rights and responsibilities in the society. And while the Senate, the Executive, and the Judiciary are well designed to protect against impassioned and overzealous insurgence by a representative democracy that might from time to time fall prey to heated populism, the House of Representatives is the institution in which the voice of the common people was to be unencumbered by layers of party loyalties and huge constituencies. On the whole, it is designed to be OUR government. So, unless we would change the United States Constitution and formally adopt some kind of rule by The Central Committee, the current representative institutions should be employed in accord with what those who ratified the Constitution actually agreed upon. The number of representatives or, more accurately, the number of individual citizens forced to share one voting membership in our government is a measure of how near or far we are from being ruled by The Central Committee. We have come to the point in the growth of our nation where we must ask ourselves if representation actually exists or if the words "our democracy" are simply a convenient deception practiced by our current, so called, "leaders". When we look at the reality we find that the number of voters in our congressional districts rival the population of some of the smaller nations of the world. We find that of all the first world nations, the united states ranks dead last in democratic governance. Not only do other first world nations recognize the validity of proportional representation, the number of voters that share a vote in the lower house of the legislatures in all of the other nations is significantly smaller. The next least democratic nation is Japan, which is at least 3 times more democratic than the United States. The following table was derived from the population and government structure information provided by the CIA Factbook and provides a rough estimate of the number of voters sharing one vote in the lower house of the each respective government:

Number of Voters Per Representative
(Constituency Size):


The Necessity of Adequate Representation
The answer to this question has many facets but none are more compelling than to observe that our nation was conceived in liberty with the notion that all are created equal and that the people are to have sufficietnt voice to peacefully control the excesses of aristocratic power that have historically prevaded all societies and cultures lacking such restraint. Left to thier own initiatives, the aristocracy will ever indulge in the pusuit of power, nation buliding, imperialism, and the preiminance of thier own caste The most beneficial characteristic of representative government is the protection afforded the common people from the encroachment of aristocratic nationalism, fascism, oligarchy, and plutocracy; protection from the oppressive force that can otherwise use government to advantage by sacrificing the well being of the average citizens. Our huge constituency sizes work to the advantage of well financed, special interest marketing campaigns. The purpose of such advertising is to prevent any realistic debate or challenge to current, entrenched orthodoxy. Unless an opposing person or viewpoint can secure the huge amounts of funding necessary to one way media (television) marketing, actual issues are simply buried under a blitz of advertising on behalf of the two candidates offered up by the two major parties. And since these candidates must both draw their funding from the same pool of financially well endowed then any real issues that might run counter to the well bing of the aristocratic minority will remain buried. So long as constituency size remains above the threshold at which grass roots efforts such as campaigning through local gatherings in which meaningful political debate and dialog can be employed, then the actual issues will never surface. In smaller constituencies people of good character and a true desire to represent their neighbors can actually present themselves to their neighbors and voice divergent opinions on issues WITHOUT any payment to the captains of one way mass media. Campaign funding becomes a much less important issue than actual communication with ones constituents. And it is this two way flow of information (the actual debate of issues) that informs and enlightens the voters and which allows them to choose representatives that more fully addresses their own concerns. Representatives that, while perhaps not creating additional legislation in the interest of nation building and the enforcement of aristocratic moral imperatives, will most certainly defend their constituents against inappropriate legislation that unduly compromises their well being.

Order In The House
The existence of speaker and chairpersons and committee members and the other organizational devices in the the House of Representatives are essential to the functioning of that body. Without such internal organization no group of individuals exceeding half a dozen would produce but a continuing disorder. And the committees and the general structure of the House would not be altered in any way by Constitutionally Appropriate Representation. Most if not all of the house members would retain their current stations in the House and we would see business as usual as regards the day to day mechanics of legislation. Any who have ever witnessed Cspan will immediately be impressed by the emptiness of the House chamber, and then perhaps wonder where all of those votes come from as they are tabulated on the screen. It seems that electronic voting, currently in place, will allow the larger membership to vote on legislation just as is currently the case. It takes no longer to count 5 or 6 thousand electronically registered votes than it does to count 435.

Accommodating Membership Size
With the exception of being a convenient gathering point for various social functions such as presidential appearances, the House Chamber has more or less been outdated by secure electronic voting, video conferencing, and even open television such as Cspan. With secure connections that are trivial in light of today's technology there is simply no reason to herd all of the House members into a room where they are easier targets for the special interests that inhabit the lobby. If the intent of the House of Representatives was the representation of special interests then this might be appropriate. But the members of the House are elected to represent us. And there is no compelling reason for the House membership to even office themselves inside the Beltway in Washington D.C.


Where Representatives Abide
Representatives that do not form the committee structures of the House would, in all probability, maintain their offices in the districts they represent. And why not? They can observe the presentations on the floor of the House Chamber and have instant access to the full text of any pending legislation. There is no reason why video conferencing should not be employed to allow them to address the assembly within the house and all of the members across the nation just as though they and the members were physically located in the House Chamber itself. All of these representatives are accountable to their constituencies and should be accessible to them. Any voter should be able to peacefully picket the office of his Representative and politely voice his opinion of existing legislation or pending legislation being considered by the membership of the House.

Why More Representatives Are Needed
The internal organization and structure of the House of Representatives provides for the ascendancy of individuals who possess a breadth of experience and perhaps a capacity for deliberation that ordinary members would normally lack. Efforts on the part of parties and special interests to place particular advocates into this hierarchy of power have always operated in the House and will doubtless continue. But the existence of many additional voting members of a less august and more common nature will check these cabals and intrigues. With the power to defeat legislation that is not in the common good held in the hands of a majority of the members who are more easily challenged and unseated, the power inherent in hierarchical and/or aristocratic designs is controlled so as to become ineffectual but for furthering the common good. Extended representation insures that, through their more accessible and more easily challenged representatives, the people will hold a negative on legislation produced by such "committees of deliberate and enlightened men".