21st Century Common Sense

Full realization of democracy in America is a work in progress. This book discusses 21st century challenges to our democracy and proposes fixes to meet those challenges.

Part I. Challenges: 1) Presidential Selection Challenge: Our Presidential selection process is way too long, overly complex, and undemocratic. 2) U.S. Senate Challenge: The Senate is not representative of the people. 3) Gerrymander Challenge: Both parties gerrymander to unfairly benefit themselves.

Part II. Fixes: 1) Adopt Ranked Choice Voting. 2) Restrain the two-party system. Mandate open primaries. 3) Empower Citizens to Amend the Constitution. 4) Shorten, simplify, and democratize the process of choosing Presidential candidates. 5) Provide for direct election of the President, eliminating the Electoral College. 6) Replace the Vice President with a new Chancellor of the Senate. 7) Reconstitute the US Senate as a representative body. 8) Mandate a rule-governed process for redistricting without human decisions.

Part III. A Revised Constitution: Replace the existing 1787 Constitution with a new Constitution II, incorporating all previous amendments and the fixes proposed in Part II. Part III also includes a procedure for ratification and transitioning to Constitution II.