Dearly Beloved
Our beloved Constitution has flaws. Only a very few, but these few have cost the Nation dearly, and, unless corrected, will continue to do so. It is very possible that unless corrected, they will lead to the Nation’s demise. These flaws have been and are being taken advantage of by the worst among us, and used against the rest of us. The electoral college, that most undemocratic of bodies, has, in just sixteen years, seated two of our most incompetent presidents, both of whom have greatly damaged the nation. The Senators from states with less than one-million population have as much say in our nation’s affairs as do those from states with forty-million population. The structuring of the Senate has from our early days allowed abhorrents like Mitch McConnell to extort the nation and stuff the courts with right wing ideologues. Presently, we have a supreme Court majority that would use the Constitution to deny some of our citizens the right to vote. A Court that has recently interpreted the Constitution as allowing for gerrymandering and other forms of voter suppression. In the face of such flaws, the ratifying of amendments is nigh on to impossible. Amendments have not, can not correct these flaws. Not some but all native born and naturalized citizens must have equal rights in every way, and know full and equal representation. We know well of the difficulty of the bargaining, fault not those who bargained; but it is time to save all the good and great parts of our constitution and rid it of those few that paid paeanage to colonial governments, wealth, and slave holders in the barter for votes of ratification. Amendments can not adequately append modern concepts of personage and rights to the Constitution’s august body. There can be no full solution for these structural problems other than direct addressment of their cause. It is time to appoint a constitutional commission to list and correct these known flaws.
In Article. I. Section. 2. See also Amendments XIV and XV
In the first sentence of the third paragraph:
Strike all reference to the Numbers of free persons, those bound to service, Indians, and three-fifths of all other persons, and replace with – the total of Persons residing therein.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of the total of all Persons residing therein.
In Article. I. Section. 3. See Amendments XVII, and XXIII
Replace the first sentence with something akin:
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
Each State, including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, shall have at least two Senators
and any State with a population of more than three-million shall have an additional Senator for every additional one fifty-second (1/52) of the Nation’s population residing therein.
In Article. I. Section. 4.
The first sentence should be stricken in its entirety and replaced with something akin:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed by the Congress, and shall be the same for all States.
In Article. I. Section. 9.
The first sentence should be stricken in its entirety:
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
In Article. II. Section. 1. See Amendment XII
In Article. III. Section. 1.
The second sentence is to be changed to something akin to:
The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices as long as they are of good physical and mental health, of good Behaviour, and are less than seventy years of age. Terms in Office for the supreme Court shall not exceed eighteen years. The Judges of both the supreme and inferior courts shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
In Article. IV. Section. 2. See also Amendment XIII
The first sentence is to be stricken and changed to something akin:
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. All the Citizens of any State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities accorded to any and all citizens of the United States.
The third sentence should be stricken in its entirety:
No person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
Amendment XII. Replaced the procedure provided in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 by which the Electoral College originally functioned.
The Amendment is to be stricken in its entirety and changed to something akin:
In each State, the voting for President and Vice-President shall be concluded when all its Citizens’ votes have, in a manner, and within a time frame, prescribed by Congress, been cast and accurately tabulated. Each State shall certify the accuracy of its tally, then promptly forward this certified tally of votes to the Senate where all the certified State tallies will be combined to provide a National tally equal the sum of the State tallies. The accuracy of the combined tallies will be attested to by the full leadership of the Senate and the results made public. The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, and the person having the greatest number of votes for Vice-President shall be Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of votes cast; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President and the Vice-President.
The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;–The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;–the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. –] The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
Amendment XIII. A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.
The second clause of the first sentence of Section 1 shall be stricken in its entirety.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction
Amendment XIV. Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.
The first sentence of Section 2 shall end with a period following the word State in the second clause. The the remainder of the second clause of the first sentence shall be stricken. The second sentence shall be stricken in its entirety.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Amendment XVII. Article I, section 3, of the Constitution was modified by the 17th amendment.
The first sentence shall be replaced in entirety with something akin to:
Each State, including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, shall have at least two Senators
and any State with a population of more than three-million shall have an additional Senator for every additional one fifty-second (1/52) of the Nation’s population residing therein.
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
Amendment XXIII. See Article II, section 1, and Amendment XII
The second paragraph of Section 1 shall be replaced with something akin to:
Unless or until it becomes a State, in the district constituting the seat of Government, the voting for President and Vice-President shall be concluded when all its Citizens’ votes have, in a manner, and within a time frame, prescribed by Congress, been cast and accurately tabulated. The District, or State if it shall be a State, shall certify the accuracy of its tally, then promptly forward this certified tally of votes to the Senate where all the certified State tallies will be combined to provide a National tally equal the sum of the State tallies. The accuracy of the combined tallies will be attested to by the full leadership of the Senate and the results made public. The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, and the person having the greatest number of votes for Vice-President shall be Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of votes cast; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President and the Vice-President.
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Amendment XXIV.
The second clause of the first sentence of Section 1 shall be stricken.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
—
The changes proposed for Article. I. Section. 2, Amendments XIV and XV, … were intended to accord full and equal citizenship and personship to all native born and naturalized citizens.
The changes proposed for Article. I. Section. 3, and Amendments XVII, and XXIII were intended to rectify the problem of unfair representation in the Senate.
The changes proposed for Article. I. Section. 4 were intended to address the problem of voter suppression inherent the current system.
The changes proposed for Article. I. Section. 9. were for the purpose of striking the section from the constitution.
The changes proposed for Article. III. Section. 1 were meant to address the problem of having an unrepresentative, unresponsive, supreme Court and were also meant to be a part of the proposed changes to Article. I. Section. 3, and Amendments XVII and XXIII.
The proposed changes to Article. IV. Section. 2 and Amendment XIII were meant to accord full and equal citizenship to all citizens.
The changes proposed to Amendment XII, in conjunction with those proposed for Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, were intended to rid the Nation of the abominable electoral college.
The changes proposed for Amendment XIII were intended to make peonage illegal.
The changes proposed for Amendment XIV, and Article II, Section 1, were a part of ridding the Nation of the abominable electoral college.
Seems the anomaly of Corporations as Citizens is is a figment of the Supreme Court’s imagination. Who would have ever thought that originalists/textualists would be so inclined.
The proposed changes to Amendment XVII, and Article I, Section 3, were a part of making the Senate more representative.
The changes proposed to Amendment XXIII, and Article II Section 1, and Amendment XII were a part of ridding the nation of the abominable electoral college, and a petition for statehood for the District.
The proposed changes for Amendment XXIV, were a part of the ridding the nation of the abominable electoral college.
—
In 2000, Karl Rove wasn’t looking to win the popular vote; knew that he couldn’t. So, he went to the county level in states with a high electoral vote to voter ratio and won the electoral college, or, at least came close enough to hand it off to his best buds: Anton Scalia, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, et al. The electoral college is an anathema to democracy, an affront to fairness, and, a worsening disaster. In 2016, Donald Trump didn’t campaign for the majority vote, knew he couldn’t win it; so he went for the electoral college vote. Trump lost the 2016 election by three-million votes, yet won the electoral college, and the Presidency, by eighty-thousand votes. Unless the constitution is changed, in another 20 years, one-third of the population will determine who is President. Whatever the original intent, no matter how well intentioned, the electoral college is incompatible with modern day America; will destroy America as we have known it. One person, one vote. The whole world is watching.
Readers of history: Know of the haggling precedent ratification of the Constitution, of the Faustian bargains made; bargains that would lead the Nation into a devastating Civil War. Know of the maneuvering in the, then too, unrepresentative Senate that went on for decades in lead up to the Civil War. Today, as then, via the same unrepresentative Senate, the nation is being led backward and extorted by a regressive minority; headed toward disaster. Today, via this same, though even more so, unrepresentative Senate, less that forty percent of the population tyrannizes the rest of the Nation. Though perhaps well intended, the structuring of the Senate was a mistake. One that, more than once, has lead us into war, has kept us in wars for too long. One that, because they could, long denied the rights of personhood, citizenship, to million of American; and are still doing it. All through the years, the inequities in representation, along with seniority, have been used by Senate leadership to extort other States, and the Nation; they did so because they could. Mitch McConnell, during a recent debate, bragged of extorting $17.5 billion from populous blue States for Kentuckians; Kentucky is a State with less than 4.5 million population, or about 1.4% of the Nation’s population. Of late, he has been bragging about stuffing the Federal Courts, including the supreme Court, with right-wing judges, for lifetime appointments. Judges advanced by the likes of the, not in the least bit representative, right-wing Federalist Society and Heritage Society.
It is in a great part due to the structure of the Senate, that reform through the Amendment process is highly improbable; that meaningful reform is impossible. Those States who benefit the most from the current structure can block any changes that threaten their interests. In 18th Century Colonial America, states with less than a million population were the norm, states with 50 million inconceivable; the two coexisting is simply impossible without changes to the Constitution. If nothing is done about the structure of the Senate, within 20 years, States with one-third of the Nation’s population will control the Nation via the Senate.
Today, due to an unrepresentative Senate and the even worse so electoral college, the Nation is saddled with a supreme Court with a majority made up of right-wing ideologues who are in no way representative of the population. A Court that, along with a Senate and President, is given to representing the wealthy. A court given to making it difficult for some Citizens to vote. A Court that doesn’t believe in inclusiveness. A Court that would use the Constitution as scripture to be interpreted so as to impose the will of the few on the many. No measure promoting the right to vote, healthcare, housing, employment, income, … can advance; while those measures restricting individual rights, that serve the interests of the wealthy, religious groups, finance, and business, get the green light. Hardly a Nation of the People. The Constitution’s flaws have, again, come home to roost.
Ken:
Some reading for you:
“Up to the year 1900 there were 16 filibusters. Between 2009 and 2010 there were 130 filibusters as Republicans blocked anything put forth by the Obama led Democrats. And today, “60 votes or a supermajority are required for just about everything to pass in the Senate” (Harry Reid).
A Senate procedure rule calling for a super majority never came to pass and it was frowned upon by the framers.”The framers debated requiring a supermajority to pass anything in Congress; but, the idea was rejected.”
– Alexander Hamilton attacked the idea of a supermajority Congress (Federal 22); “its real operation is to embarrass the administration, destroy the energy of government, and substitute the pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, corrupt junta, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.”Sound familiar?
– James Madison (Federal 58) denounced the concept; “In all cases where justice or the general good might require new laws to be passed, or active measures to be pursued, the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. No longer would the majority rule and the power would transfer to the minority.”
However, “‘prescribed in the Constitution are six instances in which Congress would require more than a majority vote: impeaching the president, expelling members, overriding a presidential veto of a bill or order, ratifying treaties and amending the Constitution.’ In Ezra Klein’s WP piece, Emmet Bondurant continues, ‘The Framers were aware of the established rule of construction, expressio unius est exclusio alterius, and by adopting these six exceptions to the principle of majority rule; they were excluding other exceptions.’ In the Bill of Rights, the Founders were careful to state that ‘the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.’”
As taken from here: “Will The Reign of Witches Pass?” This is how the House may be apportioned to again represent by population as the founders designed it to be.
Since the Constitution was essentially designed
to protect the rights of less populous states, who are in
the majority, it is quite unlikely that anything will be done
in the foreseeable future to redress such inequities.
Fred:
Not necessarily true. The House was designed to represent by population. It was stymied by the 1929 Reapportionment Act which can be changed rather easily by Congress. Even if we used Wyoming’s population as the measure for 1 representative, California would gain 13 more representatives in a realignment and the House would add an ~120 Representatives. Reign of Witches
Even if we did add the representatives, trump still would have won. It was the “anybody but trump or Clinton vote which threw the election.
Watched this last night; decided to publish:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/10/30/amanpour-richardson-ornstein-2020-democracy.cnn
There will be no constitutionals changes.
yes, there are problems with the Constitution… probably that it did not anticipate the rise of concentrated wealth powerful enough to override the will of the people … even allowing that the framers deliberately, and wisely, did NOT mean democracy to mean “one person one vote.”
the electoral college is not the problem. though the problem may be that people are prone to notice that the villian wore a red hat so they go out and lynch everyone wearing a red hat.
It is true that about 10 states have a large
majority of the population, and also an
electoral vote majority, except that
while most are Blue, not enuf are,.
The electoral vote problem is mostly
exasperated by low-population Red
states and their ‘extra’ electoral votes
(from their Senators), per the Constitution.
@Coberly,
“…probably that it did not anticipate the rise of concentrated wealth powerful enough to override the will of the people…”
[Yeah, a bunch of old white rich dudes would have never though of that :<) ]
The fundamental problem for the framers was how to amicably divide political power between Northern bankers and proto-industrialists on the one hand and Southern slave-driving agriculturalists on the other hand until such time as the bankers and industrialists could rightly assume all of the political power. It seems like they solved their problem very well.
There have been proposals to drastically increase the
number of Representatives in Congress. The current
number (435) was set by legislation in 1929. One
proposal (below) is to add 495 members. The additional
seats would be apportioned by population, presumably so
that each Rep represents the same number of constituents.
Once the Dems control the entire Congress, they should get
right on this.
How to Fix the House of Representatives in One Easy, Radical Step
Time – Chris Wilson – October 15, 2018
… 435 seats … has been enshrined in law since 1929. The population of the country has more than tripled in the intervening century, making it impossible for each member of Congress to represent even roughly the same number of people.
That is why it is high time that the size of the House increase dramatically, which can be achieved with mere legislation, not a Constitutional amendment. Specifically, by my calculations, there ought to be 930 seats. Here’s why:
The 435 seats are reapportioned every 10 years after the decennial Census. As of 2010, every member of the House ought to represent approximately 708,000 people. But given the wide disparity in state populations, from Wyoming to California, there is no mathematical way to get anywhere close to this parity without somehow inventing fractional lawmakers. …
All the Constitution requires is that “each State shall have at Least one Representative” and that the remainder be divided “according to their respective Numbers,” a population figure that eventually came to represent everyone equally. Beyond that, it’s up to Congress to decide how to parcel themselves out to the 50 states. …
In the vein, from emptywheel:
Hmmm.
In a House of 930 Representatives
(instead of 435), CA would have about
120 members instead of 53, going from
about 12% of the total to about 13%.
CA would still have 2 Senators, as would Wyoming.
And NH, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. Two Each.
Are we sure the problem is under-representation in
the House, or over-representation in the Senate?
House Reign of Witches
yep. it was the guy with the red hat.
(you might want to check me on this. the original recipients of the electoral college benefit were not slave states
and while the old rich guys may not have sympathized overmuch with “the mob” they had enough differences among themselves to try to assure some protections to minorities, and even ordinary people.
i don’t think the problem of overwhelming wealth in the hands of a few were anticipated. and… i am no scholar… but it seems to have been andrew jackson to have first recognized the problem of concentrated wealth to a democracy.
doesn’t mean i approve of everything jackson did.
while the small states… still not overwhelmingly, or exclusively, “slave states… have electoral votes, and senate votes. disproportionate to their population, they do not, any of them, have the NUMBER of votes as a California or New York… or even Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Florida… which appear to be “slave states” by your reckoning.
i think the problem is that the Democrats are not serious either about “winning” or about representing the interests of the poor. but it’s always a charming sight to watch the Left chase the wrong rabbit.
Looking ahead; the senatorial representation and the electoral college cannot remain as is. Almost all the population is going to be in a dozen or so states. Without change, the remaining 30 or so with small populations would have power over the nation. I don’t think there is really a choice about it, other than how long to wait; or to let the nation come apart. CA, NY, TX, FL, .. will a some point say genug ist genug.
ken
you are assuming three things
first, that the problem we are having today is because of the electoral college / senate giving undue weight to small states.
second,that the people are all moving to the big states, leaving i suppose, 48 states with three electoral votes each, and two state with 250 or so electoral votes each. seems like we could handle that.
third, that the dems are too dumb to figure out how to win small state votes.
only one of those is likely to be true.
as for genuine, are you saying that germany has no problem with facism because they don’t have an electoral college?
Coberly,
I can agree with you about poor liberal rabbits, but the rest is mostly a matter of understanding the individual deals that were made to get ratification sign-off. Small states wanted the Senate and the electoral college to make them feel big. The Bill of Rights tacked on was a necessary evil rather than simply correcting an unintentional oversight by most of the Framers. They were just trying to prevent another revolutionary war and hold the colonies together that they might prevail against further European incursion.
Jackson was special. I do not have time to go into all of it this morning, but he was a big enough ass while still in uniform – not Custer big ass, but not Lee or Grant either or even Sherman, the other Jackson or Stewart. When it comes down to individuals in positions of power, even a little power while more is far worse, then never forget the words of Lord Acton “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men…”
In most slave states it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write. This prohibition followed in a long line of European tradition going back to before the Magna Carta. Ignorance among the masses is an age old bulwark protecting the upper classes boundary. They don’t want us fat or happy, just dumb.
” CA, NY, TX, FL, .. will a some point say genug ist genug.”
They can say whatever they want. What do you think they are going to do about it?
[..without resorting to spending time writing something myself….]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonian_democracy
…Philosophy
General principles
William S. Belko in 2015 summarizes “the core concepts underlying Jacksonian Democracy” as:
equal protection of the laws; an aversion to a moneyed aristocracy, exclusive privileges, and monopolies, and a predilection for the common man; majority rule; and the welfare of the community over the individual.[5]
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. argued in 1945 that Jacksonian democracy was built on the following:[6]
Expanded suffrage – The Jacksonians believed that voting rights should be extended to all white men. By the end of the 1820s, attitudes and state laws had shifted in favor of universal white male suffrage[7] and by 1856 all requirements to own property and nearly all requirements to pay taxes had been dropped.[8][9]
Manifest destiny – This was the belief that Americans had a destiny to settle the American West and to expand control from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and that the West should be settled by yeoman farmers. However, the Free Soil Jacksonians, notably Martin Van Buren, argued for limitations on slavery in the new areas to enable the poor white man to flourish—they split with the main party briefly in 1848. The Whigs generally opposed Manifest Destiny and expansion, saying the nation should build up its cities.[10]
Patronage – Also known as the spoils system, patronage was the policy of placing political supporters into appointed offices. Many Jacksonians held the view that rotating political appointees in and out of office was not only the right, but also the duty of winners in political contests. Patronage was theorized to be good because it would encourage political participation by the common man and because it would make a politician more accountable for poor government service by his appointees. Jacksonians also held that long tenure in the civil service was corrupting, so civil servants should be rotated out of office at regular intervals. However, patronage often led to the hiring of incompetent and sometimes corrupt officials due to the emphasis on party loyalty above any other qualifications.[11]
Strict constructionism – Like the Jeffersonians who strongly believed in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Jacksonians initially favored a federal government of limited powers. Jackson said that he would guard against “all encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty”. However, he was not a states’ rights extremist—indeed, the Nullification Crisis would find Jackson fighting against what he perceived as state encroachments on the proper sphere of federal influence. This position was one basis for the Jacksonians’ opposition to the Second Bank of the United States. As the Jacksonians consolidated power, they more often advocated expanding federal power, presidential power in particular.[12]
Laissez-faire – Complementing a strict construction of the Constitution, the Jacksonians generally favored a hands-off approach to the economy as opposed to the Whig program sponsoring modernization, railroads, banking and economic growth.[13][14] The chief spokesman amongst laissez-faire advocates was William Leggett of the Locofocos in New York City.[15][16]
Opposition to banking – In particular, the Jacksonians opposed government-granted monopolies to banks, especially the national bank, a central bank known as the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson said: “The bank is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” and he did so.[17] The Whigs, who strongly supported the Bank, were led by Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Nicholas Biddle, the bank chairman.[18] Jackson himself was opposed to all banks because he believed they were devices to cheat common people—he and many followers believed that only gold and silver should be used to back currency, rather than the integrity of a bank…
*
[Boy that really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.]
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/even-after-biden-win-obsolete-electoral-college-must-go
Ken:
Kill the 1929 Reapportionment Act. Either set a population number for Congressional Representatives or use the state with the least population to represent 1 Congressional Representative. California would have 13 more Congressional Representatives based upon Wyoming’s population.