Reform the rules of the congress to take away party control.

Currently the parties play out their games in the congress with each other, putting the interests of the party first and the interests of the nation on the back burner to be ignored indefinitely.  That isn’t going to change without amending the constitution to set some independent rules of operation for both houses. It wouldn’t take much, just setting terms and term limits for committee seats and secret ballots for selection to those seats.

Also, the parties should run their own primaries and campaigns. Tax dollars and public property and no public employee’s on-duty time should be spent on such activities. If we are to have public primaries, it should be open.  Candidates on the ballot should not expect to list party affiliation with their names on the ballot any more than they could expect any other private club memberships. And if we are to have two winners of the primaries listed on the ballot in the general election, again, party membership should be neither listed or relevant.  If that means we end up with two democrats, or two republicans or two independents or “third party” candidates and one or both of the major parties have no one on the ballot, so be it.  There is no constitutional guarantee to any private club, no legal “right” to be on the ballot.  The two major parties have operated with tax dollars for so long, they have many Americans convinced that the two parties are part of the system, that it’s a two party system and the primaries are public business. That’s not the case in reality.  We can fix it with having real primaries independent of the parties.  Of course, like any other private club, they are still free to do whatever they please in choosing to support political candidates, they can still invite the general public, including non paying members to “declare a party” and participate in their gathering, but they will have ti use their own money, their own property, their own officials, and it will be up to them to figure out a way, if they can, to prevent people who votes in other private clubs’ elections from also voting in theirs. It’s not the business of the government and taxpayers to monitor  the business of private clubs and enforce their rules. If the republicans, for example, don’t want democrats voting in their primary, then perhaps they should limit participation to dues paying card carrying members instead of opening it up to public participation.  And if someone is a dues paying member of both, then they should be allowed to vote in both anyway. If one of the private clubs doesn’t like it, they can always kick such members out of the club.  If the Rotary Club doesn’t want anyone who is also a Shriner, that’s up to them to decide.  It’s not the business of government to be involved in such private matters. Political parties are no different and shouldn’t have any more access to tax dollars, public property, and election officials.

We should amend the constitution to take power away from the political parties by removing the parties’ ability to set the rules of operation for the congress.  We got a good look at the problem when “Jumpin Jim” Jeffords changed parties and then because one man changed his party affiliation, the whole house was shuffled.  The leadership, the committee seats, the policies, all changed because the parties are in power instead of the people who elected people to represent them, not to represent a party.

My Plan to Fix the American Political System

Given that both wings of the two faced republicrat party have long since seized control of our government and ignored their sworn oath to the constitution and so ingrained their control to protect their positions, we cannot expect that they will ever surrender their power back to the people willingly. Therefore, it is up to us to bypass the congress and amend the constitution via Constitutional Convention to remove the power from political parties and ensure that they cannot re-infect our constitutional republic.

I offer the following amendments in hope that a call for convention may be called specifically to address these amendments. This is a rough draft, or course. I welcome commentary and discussion as to how to make them better while preserving the rights of the people and of the states and pushing the federal government back to it’s constitutional limits.

William R. James
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Congressional Employment Amendment
1) All members of the US congress and their staffs shall be employees of their respective states. Their pay, including all benefits, shall be provided and set by their state legislatures by whatever means decided by their states.
2) The operating budget of both houses of the US Congress shall be audited every year by an independent panel of 12, each appointed by one state governor each, the governors to choose shall be selected by lottery.

House of Representatives Operational Amendment
1) Any bill with more than 10 sponsors shall be submitted for vote by the full house within 60 days of submission to the speaker.
2) All votes in the House shall be recorded and public.
3) All committee seats shall be chosen by random drawing at the start of all sessions. committee chairs shall be chosen by the seats via secret ballot among those chosen.
4) No political party shall have any place or prominence or reference or be given any authority by members of the House of Representatives while doing business.
5) The first order of business of every session is to vote on the position of Speaker.

Repeal Amendment 17

Senate Operational Amendment
1) Any bill with more than 3 sponsors shall be voted on within 30 days.
2) All votes in the Senate shall be recorded and public.
3) All committee seats shall be chosen by random drawing at the start of all sessions. committee chairs shall be chosen by the seats via secret ballot among those chosen.
4) No political party shall have any place of prominence or reference or be given any authority by members of the Senate while during business.
5) The Vice President of the USA shall serve as the daily operational President of the Senate. In case of absentee of more than 10 days in any session, the position of Vice President shall be considered abandoned and the senate shall appoint an interim Vice President until a replacement is appointed by the president and approved by the a vote of the senate.

Executive Responsibility Amendment
1) The office of President and Vice President shall be two separate positions, each with their own position on the ballot.
2) The president may be impeached by a call by 3/4 of the governors of the states. In case of such, the impeachment shall be overseen by a court comprised of one appointee by each state executive with 50% plus one vote from their respective legislatures. A 3/4 vote shall remove from office the president. This does not alter the previous impeachment process.
3) Executive orders are to be limited to areas where the executive has specific constitutional authority.
4) The positions of the presidents’ cabinet are to be set by congress, with each position clearly defined with reference to it’s constitutional authority as relating to the executive branch.

Judicial Responsibility Amendment
1) Any Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States may be impeached by a call by 2/3 of the governors of the states. In case of such, the impeachment shall me overseen by a court comprised of one appointee by each state executive with 50% plus one vote from their respective legislatures.
2) No Supreme Court or federal justice shall be appointed for a single term longer than 18 years. The terms of existing judges shall expire on their 18th year, or within two years of this becoming law. whichever is greater. New appointment shall be set by the congress so that they are staggered in such a manner as to have an equal number as reasonably possible expire every 4th year for federal justices and every 2nd year for Supreme court justices.

Neutral Election Amendment
1) No public employee or public money shall be used to assist any political party in their endorsement process known as a “primary”. No public land, or property, or money shall be used by any political party for any purpose.
2) No endorsements shall appear on any political ballot within the USA.
3) States shall set standard rules for inclusion on ballots without regard to any or no political party affiliation.

State Nullification Amendment.
1) Any law passed by the congress of the United States and signed into law by the president, shall become null and void if rejected by two thirds of the states in which the law would otherwise apply.
2) The individual states reserve the right to opt out of any federal program and shall not be penalized for doing so.
3) No federal agency shall have any authority withing the borders of any state, other than on federal land, except such authority specifically granted to it by the state legislature and signed by the governor. Authority may be changed or terminated at will by a vote of two thirds of the state legislature and signiture of the governor.

US Sovereignty Amendment
1) No treaty shall surrender the sovereign rule of the the USA, any state, or the US constitution to any foreign power or any body or collection of foreign powers under any circumstances. No treaty with any foreign power shall supersede any individual US citizen’s rights under the US constitution.

US Citizenship Amendment
1) No one born within the borders of the United States shall be considered a citizen of the United States of America unless both parents are either US citizens or legally residing within the United states with at least one parent being a US citizen at the time of birth.
2) No one residing within the United States illegally shall be entitled to any services paid for by taxes paid by US citizens.

Food protection Amendment
1) Living things, if capable of producing seed, pollen, or offspring shall not be patented. All existing patents of living things which have been released into the wild are hereby null and void.
2) The right of the people to grow their own food shall not be infringed.
3) The right of the people to trade food shall not be infringed.

Interstate Commerce Amendment
1) Federal authority to regulate interstate commerce shall not extend to any party not participating directly in interstate commerce.
2) Federal authority to regulate interstate commerce shall be limited to regulation of interstate commerce and shall not considered authority over other aspects of any business or individual.