A Better Way to Select our Representatives

Edward J. Dodson

[Reprinted from the Geonomist.com blog, 18 April, 2012]

Let's face it. The political system in the United States is inherently unjust. Well over half of us do not consider those holding elected office as our representatives. As a member of the Green Party here, this is certainly true for me. Our society has become dominated by the strange combination of corporatism and extremist ideology. Corporations have become expert at directing the debates over policy choices and channeling funds to compliant legislators. At the same time, the daily political rhetoric has become plagued by an assertion that the United States was founded by and for god-fearing people. The founding principle, they tell us, was not one of freedom from religion, only freedom of religion. Our politics has the look and sound and feel of televised evangelical theatrics. Keep the faith and send us a huge donation. We will pray for your salvation while we are on holiday at our private retreat in the Bahamas.

We have forgotten or ignored the fact that most of the leading figures of the founding generation were fearful of the potential destructive power organized religion, as proven by history. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Paine were all Deists, as were many others. They also feared the development of political factions into political parties with special status under law. These fears have all become reality. George Washington would be appalled. After all, Washington agreed to stand for election but did not conceive of having to campaign for office.

We can retrieve what is left of participatory democracy. We can do this by replacing the election of individuals to our legislatures with selection by lottery. Individuals willing to serve would take an examination to demonstrate they had a good grasp on the functions of government and the role of the legislator. The names of those who passed this examination would be placed into the lottery. When a vacancy occurred in the legislature, a person's name would be pulled from the lottery and that person would begin to serve a specified term in office, serving one term or until 51 percent of the registered eligible voters withdrew support and the person was recalled from office.

Absent the time now required of legislators to do fundraising and campaign for office, the persons selected for the legislature could devote all of their time to the peoples' business. Absent the influence of campaign contributions from powerful special interests, legislatures could debate and vote on public policies based on objective analysis of the common good.