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OUR UNALIENABLE AND SOVEREIGN RIGHT
A
hundred years prior to the establishment of our Constitution, an
enlightened movement of thought, shared by the great masses and
intellectuals alike, spread across Europe the seed of an idea, a
seed of thought. Skeptics
challenged the rule of the church over the state. Serfs challenged
the rule of nobles and landlords. Intellectuals challenged accepted
beliefs that fortified false arguments. Those false arguments allowed
an unequal distribution of power and wealth to be concentrated in
the hands of a minority, the church and the nobles. That
seed germinated into a strong plant. That plant bore the three flowers
of liberty, justice, and equality, which bloomed into ‘the
principles of the rights of man’. These principles may be
reduced to two:
First: Men and women are born free and remain free and equal in
rights. They are the masters of their persons. They may exercise
their physical and intellectual powers freely, provided they respect
the liberty of others. They may speak and write, work and invent,
acquire and possess. Everyone is equal before the law. Professions
and pubic offices are open to everyone regardless of birth.
Second:
The state is not an end in itself. Its reason for being is to
preserve the citizens’ enjoyment of their rights. The sovereign
is the citizenry, the people, which delegates authority to a responsible
government. If the state fails in its duty, the citizens will,
as its sovereign, alter that state to satisfy the Nation’s
need.
Prior
to the French Revolution, conditions in France were very bad. Hunger
was everywhere, and starvation was common. Discontent ruled. A foreign
war had bankrupted the French State. Due to these conditions, on
August 8, 1788, King Louis XVI summoned the three classes of France
to send deputies to a State-General at Versailles on May 1, 1789.
The three classes of France were the nobles, the clergy,
and the common people, known as the Third Estate. The parliament
in Paris declared that the rules governing the States-General would
be the same as the previous States-General in 1614. Those
rules gave 1/3 vote to each class; the Nobles, the Clergy, and the
Third Estate. Therefore, the nobles and the clergy, comprising 3%
of the population, held two thirds of the voting power, while the
Third Estate, with 97% of the population, owned only 1/3 of the
voting power. The 97% were always outvoted 2-1.
The
rules and laws of feudal France outlawed any change in this order.
This order violated the unalienable and sovereign right of the French
people. An idea to resolve this unequal distribution of power manifested
itself one day. The 97% would change the rules governing government and convene alone, together.
Of the 26 million people living in France at the time, 25 million
belonged to the Third Estate. The idea to convene together, separate
from the church and nobles representatives was brilliant. The 97%
declared themselves the Nation of France and formed the National
Legislative Assembly. Again, the
idea to convene together was brilliant. Actually convening together
and declaring that the Third Estate was the Nation of France, was
a symbol. That symbol united the French people under one cause. On
June 15, the Third Estate voted 491 to 89, and became the National
Assembly of France.
This legislation transformed an absolute monarchy
to a limited one; it ended the controlling power of the nobles and
clergy, and constituted politically the beginning of the French
Revolution.The
nation had asserted itself as a people. To survive it had changed
the rules governing government. It had used the power of a national
convention to give birth to the French Republic, and in doing so, had
dug the grave for European feudalism.
A
new feudalism has evolved here in America. It is composed of plutocrats,
of individual and corporate wealth. It is controlled by an entrenched
minority, intent solely on its own benefit, creating an unequal
distribution of power. It has achieved control of our federal government
and it is plundering our national treasury.
Nothing
is more dangerous than the influence of individual and corporate
interests on public affairs. The corruption of our Congress by individual
and corporate interests, a long progression of events, has substantively
altered the state; it has violated the principles of our society
and our social compact. Legislative
power belongs to the people, and must ultimately, belong to it
alone. Legislative power lies at the heart of the state; it is the
sovereign authority of its citizens. It is through this legislative
power that the citizenry can control the corruption of government
by individual and corporate interest. The universally recognized
method for a citizenry to institute its legislative will is a national
vote. Nothing
is more sacred than the unalienable and sovereign right of a people
to solve a national problem regarding their social compact, by the
simple act of a national vote. The process of engaging our communities in the planning for, and participation in a democratic national vote, will be the symbol that will unite all Americans under one cause. That cause is the convening of an ad hoc National Convention to legislate federal elections campaign finance reform law, the ratification of that legislation by special ad hoc state conventions, and the enactment of that legislation through a national popular vote.
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