When the United States was formed, it took one day to travel 20 miles by horseback. Today it takes 20 minutes on an interstate highway.  Using email and social media, communications can be almost instantaneous.  Since the Constitution is over 200 years old, many lawyers and judges have started to take liberties with their interpretation of what this document means.  The smart ones believe in what is written, the not so smart ones become activists and bend the hell out of their interpretation.  What this means is that the activists do not believe in the rule of law and in their hearts are anarchists.  The march towards anarchy is why we have so much conflict today.

Based on current presidential primaries and caucuses, it appears that the United States is in the middle of another political revolution. This revolution is due to the failure of all forms of government to do the job for which they were elected or appointed.  The political class has abused the system so badly that the American people are fed up with them and are embracing political change.  I suspect that using fingers and toes that I could count the number of honest and trustworthy politicians in office without running out of toes.

The American people are completely frustrated with lying politicians who promise the moon and deliver nothing. There is no accountability.  Despite the fact that the Constitution is excellent, it protects bad politicians by shielding them from retribution by allowing removal from office only by death, resignation, impeachment or another election.  For today’s gutless politicians, impeachment is out of the question because it might interfere with individual re-election efforts.  Of course, if all politicians served only one term, this issue would be mute.  All the politicians depend on the public’s short memory to forget their political mistakes and miscalculations between elections and therefore accountability is lost.  Without accountability, the politician or any government official can do as they please.  This is wrong.

When government ignores doing the right thing, then we must find a way for the public to make the needed changes. To do this, we need a new constitutional amendment.  When ordinary citizens can force government action, accountability comes to government.  With accountability, some of the constitutional amendments currently under consideration and the Convention of the States may be nice but probably not necessary.  A Convention of the States risks the wrong participants representing the states who could make changes to the current constitution that are not wanted, needed or desirable.   This new amendment would give the public a way to remove any government official including a newly elected President and repeal any law or judicial decision, but prohibit making any changes in how we currently amend our constitution.  Furthermore, the Accountability Amendment should be written in simple English and not with all the legal language.  Legal language invites lawsuits that benefit only the lawyers.

How would this new amendment work? All changes are initiated by a petition signed by 5% of the registered voters in the appropriate jurisdiction.  After the petition has been validated, an election date is set and the people vote.  Could this be costly?  Yes.  The cost will depend on how large the jurisdictional population of voters is.  As with most change, every government official and probably most political pundits will oppose this amendment for any number of reasons.  What the amendment does is bring accountability to government that is currently nonexistent.  Any time there is a serious issue that needs quick resolution, the voters could petition the government to hold an accountability election.  Government abuse of power and corruption are best handled by one of these elections.  The abuse of power must be stopped to return the country back to the rule of law.

Examples of how the amendment would work after a 5% accountability petition has been approved:

Recall United States Representative

The voters in the congressional district that elected the representative hold an election to

vote to keep or recall that person.

Recall United States Senator

The state’s voters decide to keep or recall the senator.

Recall a nationally elected official

The voters in all 50 states can petition, but the petition to initiate a recall election must be

signed by 5% of the registered voters in a minimum of 20 states. Twenty states are needed to

insure that two or three states don’t try to monopolize and control changes.

If the vote to recall passes, the official is immediately prohibited from issuing any official orders

and is removed from office.

Repeal a federal law and regulations

The voters in all 50 states can petition, but the petition to initiate a recall election must be signed by 5% of the registered voters in a minimum of 20 states. Once again twenty states are needed to insure that two or three states don’t try to monopolize and control changes.

Voters are not been elected to pass laws—only the legislative branch can do that. This amendment would empower the public to repeal any law and force the Congress and the President to either pass a revised law or decide to do nothing.  Voter fraud is a real danger here because the Department of “Justice” is against voter I.D. verification.

Repeal a federal court decision or remove a Supreme Court Justice

The jurisdiction and rules for change will be the same as those for repealing a federal law.

Remove any appointed federal official or non Supreme Court federal judge

The preferred method for removal is impeachment, but with political hacks and gutless politicians involved, what should be done many times does not get done. For these lesser officials and judges, only 5% of the registered voters in 10 states will be required to begin the process.

Remove any statewide government official, or overturn any statewide law, regulation or judicial decision

With 5% of the registered voters in the state signing a validated petition, the recall process is started.

Remove any local government official, or overturn any local law, regulation or judicial decision

With 5% of the registered voters in the local jurisdiction signing a validated petition, the recall process is started.

Since there are many doubts about the intention of all candidates in this year’s election, passage of this amendment could be critical in trying to keep the politicians honest. If they don’t keep their word, then recall them and elect someone new.  It will likely take a few recall elections before the politicians get the message that lying to their voters may require that they find a new job.

For too long, as this country has grown and its population has greatly increased, voter communication with our government officials has deteriorated. A political class has evolved with the attitude that the public are just dumb people who need to be told when, where and what to do.  That is simply not true and government’s attitude towards the public is a major source of conflict.  Hope and change has evolved into despair and anarchy.