Mike Gravel

Let the People Decide

President Bush is disdained by seven in ten Americans. That’s bad enough, but only one in five Americans believe Congress is doing a good job. Most of us believe our government is the best one money can buy, and that it benefits those who spend the most to buy it. We are right.

Campaign finance laws won’t fix the problem by limiting political speech. Busting the occasional crooked Senator or Representative isn’t making the underlying problem any better. Electing new crooks won’t repair government. Is there any hope for putting government back on the right track? Yes, we can put the people in charge. Although politicians always pay lip service to the people being sovereign, their actions speak louder than their words.

If the people were in charge, the drug wars would be ended, personal accounts for Social Security and medical savings would exist, the war in Iraq would be over, the income tax would end and other taxes would be lower.

But the people aren’t in charge and Congress isn’t about to pass any sort of National Initiative legislation that would put the people in charge. Why should they, since they know it will mean the end of their ability to pass out goodies to the people who buy influence?

The solution is to use the Bill of Rights to let the people decide! The First Amendment guarantees the people the right to petition their government to resolve grievances and to freely assemble – that’s exactly what an election is. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments reserve any power not delegated to the central government by the Constitution to the states and the people.

Using those rights the people can enact Legislation – a Constitutional Amendment and a Federal Statute as a package called the National Initiative – by a majority vote of the people eligible to vote in the United States. Once about sixty million of us vote in a fair election on a measure that has a Ratification provision similar to that used to ratify the United States Constitution, the National Initiative will become the law of the land.

The National Initiative creates the machinery to enable the people to act as a legislative body adding a fourth branch of government while leaving the first three in place, essentially adding a fourth check to our three existing checks and balances. You can vote today to empower yourself at www.ni4d.us Check it out.

I am running for President to draw attention to this way of solving the problems that have made our government dysfunctional, led to a stifling federal bureaucracy, oppressive taxes and foreign wars.

Whether you agree or disagree, you must admit that this is at minimum a creative way to break the partisan gridlock funded by special interests in search of special privilege.

Let the people decide!

November 29, 2007

Mike Gravel [send him mail] is a former Democratic U.S. Senator from Alaska, having served for two terms, from 1969 to 1981.