Been giving some thought to how best to solve our country's slide into self-induced oblivion. With that in mind, I posted this on Real Conservatives and other sites. What's your take?
Alternative to a Union on Life Support?
Bearing in mind that the founders were very careful not to include the word "perpetual" to describe the union of States the Constitution fashioned, and understanding that history dictates that no nation is immutable, then why not a purposeful re-organization of this system to better ensure its stability and adherence to republicanism and constitutional order?
What has been proposed in the past is the political break-up of the union into 4-5 Administrative Regions, each comprised of legislative representatives based upon the 1:30,000 ratio rule suggested by our founders. (Today's unmanageable ratio is 1:730,000), Each of those Regions would also elect a Regional Governor. Those Regions would be essentially self-governing except in those areas which have already been specifically delegated by the States to the general gov't. (Think Swiss cantons, the purist federal system existing in the world today.) And as the 1:30,000 ratio is exceeded, a Region is duly downsized by the creation of additional Regions as needed. What matters is the retention of a manageable ratio of reps-to-constituents, this to ensure a genuine representative republic.
In turn, these Regions would appoint an equal number of Regional "delegates" to the general government, the latter which would pretty much look like it does today, except that the national legislature would be unicameral. All three federal branches would remain, but the Regions would have considerably greater latitude in striking down/nullifying federal executive and judicial edicts as well as administrative regulations.
Short of this remedy, the ONLY peaceful founder-sanctioned remedy is recision/withdrawal/secession by the various States followed by the formation of various independent confederacies which may well opt for a close economic/political/military alliance among themselves. Populated by people with differing cultural outlooks, each confederacy would be republican in nature and would act in its own interest and with its own peculiar ideological biases incorporated into its manner of governing. Those citizens with a more traditional, conservative bias and those with a more utopian/socialist outlook would naturally gravitate toward like minded regions, a reordering which would reduce the current level of cultural/political/ideological turmoil, thus obviating the need for full-on secession.
Whichever remedy works best works for me. Either remedy would be lawful and go a long way to arresting our national suicide. But I hope one or the other occurs SOON!!! Expecting fleeting kumbaya moments of faux unity and the occasional short-lived tamping down of inflammatory rhetoric to solve the fundamental breakdown in constitutional order and the abysmally deep cultural/ideological divide existing today is nothing short of delusional.
