Reclaiming The American Democratic Impulse

Reclaiming the American Democratic Impulse Working class and middle class American citizens know that something has gone terribly wrong in the American society. They know that the U. S. government is not working on their behalf. Citizens have many unanswered questions about what is wrong, and not very clear ideas on how to fix the problems. Citizens want to know: Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? How did prized natural gas that had granted America's wishes of energy self-sufficiency, reduced pollution, and inexpensive electricity become almost overnight a pariah fuel whose extraction was a war against nature? Which lawmakers, which laws, which votes of the people declared natural gas development and pipelines near criminal? Since when did Americans create a government Ministry of Truth? When did we assume the FBI had the right to subvert the campaign of a candidate it disliked? When did the nation abruptly decide that theft is not a crime, assault not a felony? The root of the problems is that the centralized power of the Federal government became unthethered from the democratic consent of the governed. The agencies of government, and the agents of government, have become an independent power on their own, and citizens have no political mechanism to regain democratic authority over the government. We explain the history of how the centralized power of government originated in Madison's flawed constitution. Our solution for the problems is more democracy, not less. In other words we offer the strategy of Reclaiming the American Democratic Impulse.