America is in a crisis. Its people have awakened from their American Dream and found their government controlled by a plutocracy consisting of corporations and a wealthy elite. As people struggle to survive in a harsh economy and deteriorating environment, most feel powerless to do anything about it. Irrespective of the political party they support, and the promises made by candidates, voters have come to realize their elected representatives fail to act in their interest—once they are in office.
The American system of representative democracy has been corrupted, and it cannot be corrected by the existing electoral process. Voting is suppressed, campaign cash rules, and voters are manipulated and misled by the corporate media. At the heart of the crisis is the startling revelation that the authors of the Constitution failed to include a fundamental right to vote, having left the qualifications of voters and manner of voting entirely up to the states.
In law, for every wrong there must be a remedy, and effectuating the power of voters requires a creative cure. Presented by Transforming America: A Voter's Bill of Rights, the United States Voters' Rights Amendment (USVRA) not only creates an individual right to vote, but it addresses other critical electoral issues, including corporate personhood, campaign financing, lobbying and conflicts of interest by establishing the right to cast an effective vote.
The USVRA goes beyond reformation. It proposes holding a national policy referendum coincident with presidential elections on national paid holidays to allow the People to make their own policy and to write in the names of the federal representatives they choose to implement their policy. Ratification of the USVRA would transform the American government into an effective democratic republic oriented to the society which elects it.
Narrated by a seasoned trial lawyer and experienced policy analyst, Transforming America makes the case for transformation by telling the political story of the United States of America and its People, from its founding through the reality of today. Commencing with the Enlightenment and its influence on the intellectuals who conceived of a republic created with the consent of its People, the story relates how the People organized themselves into political parties and expanded their suffrage to achieve the American Dream.
The destruction of that Dream—along with the freedom that produced it—is traced to the extraordinary rise of corporate power and a resulting failure of both major political parties to produce a government that works for the benefit of the People.
Transformation of the government can only result from a mass, nonpartisan, nonviolent movement that has a rational purpose most people will support and identify with. The right to cast effective votes is such an issue. The power of the People to force a constitutional amendment lies in their undeniable authority to individually and collectively withdraw their consent to be governed, until such time as their right to vote is clearly established in the Constitution.
The founders of the United States possessed an extraordinary breadth of vision in creating a representative democracy. The People of today have to once again share big dreams about the way things ought to be, and to collaborate in renegotiating the contract with their government to ensure the benefit of their bargain.
Transforming America is a small, easily readable book that will make a big difference.
