Seattle, Hong Kong of America

Hong Kong used to enjoy a great deal of local autonomy from mainland China. It was a bastion of democracy (the rule of the people by the people). But Chinese imperialism would not tolerate that kind of freedom.

In America we take for granted that we live in a democracy. To some extent this is true. The people elect their representatives. But this is only one dimension of democracy. The other dimension is the right to introduce new ideas and change the system. Unfortunately ordinary people have no way of doing that on state and federal levels. The only place where we can introduce change is on the local level of our cities and towns. But even on that level, some organization is required. Disorganized people are condemned to being ruled and told what to do regardless of who they elect. The established system runs the show and claims for itself the exclusive right to do so. In our democracy there are a lot of autocratic controls that undermine our democratic freedoms.

If we let the national system control our local governments, we cannot say that we are free to govern ourselves. To a great extent, our cities and towns’ autonomy is limited like that of Hong Kong. The big difference is that the people of Hong Kong are aware of the imperialism of their national system, but the people of Seattle are not. In China, new laws had to be introduced to control Hong Kong. In America, there is no need for new laws. The existing system subordinates our cities and towns to its existing laws. It is true that our laws are less openly oppressive, but the fact remains that the freedom of our cities and towns to govern themselves is limited. Everything they do must comply with state and federal law. They are free to act provided they agree to wear a straightjacket that limits their moves. This is what we want to change. We need less uniformity and greater diversity. Let there be cities that collaborate with the Feds, and cities that don’t.

The Ninth Amendment gives the people a great deal of local autonomy from state and federal governments. But this is a complicated question. We’ll discuss it later together with the Tenth Amendment. Those two amendments were written by the same hand. They amend the Constitution by restricting the centralized powers if the federal government and expanding local powers.

A lesson in democracy

Democracy walks on two legs. The first one is the right to vote. The second leg is the right to introduce new initiatives that can produce meaningful change in the way our cities and towns are governed.

Instead of letting our elected officials run the show all by themselves, we must insist on our democratic rights to bypass our elected officials and tell them what to do in specific areas. Democracy calls for a form of collaboration between our elected officials and the people. In other words, we need elected officials who listen to us and work with us for the sake of introducing greater democracy in the way our cities and towns are governed. In short, we are in favor of greater local autonomy. All our cities and towns should enjoy this kind of autonomy from state and federal rule. Speaking of Seattle, let our city be the Hong Kong of America. We invite all our cities and towns to join our democratic movement.

Let’s empower ourselves

Acting under the influence of state and federal laws, our elected officials wrote the constitution of Seattle. That document is called the City Charter. Unfortunately that document is highly undemocratic even when it recognizes our right to introduce new initiatives. It requires some 22,000 and 33,000 signatures for the purpose of introducing new initiatives. Those numbers are far too high. They make it very difficult for ordinary people to introduce any change in the way our city is governed. Let’s empower ourselves by reducing those numbers to 4,000 and 6,000 signatures.

Other ideas

Let’s ask the City and King County to introduce an app through which we can gather signatures, register to vote and even vote. If banks can use apps securely, so can our local governments. Instead of making it harder to register and vote, let’s make it easier.

Another idea. Let’s limit the amount of money that can be spent on our local elections. Big money can easily corrupt our electoral system.

If we want to civilize the police, let’s civilize ourselves and civilize the laws that they enforce.

We are deeply divided and we must take this into account.

America has become a deeply divided country. This is a sign of decadence. Her empire is falling apart right here at home. Our political system is no longer sustainable. It can be summed up as “Winners take all, and losers can go to hell.” Under Trump, the Democrats were in hell. Under Beiden the Republicans are marginalized. This is uncivilized. The freedom to be different is an essential democratic freedom. The entire world is now represented in America. This is a formidable change. Whether we like it or not, we are the world. Now the world cannot be reduced to a two-party system or to being “one nation, indivisible, under God.”

Those who are still old-fashioned cannot forget the good old days when good white Christians ruled the country. Those days are gone. Today we must learn how to respect our insurmountable differences from the color of our skin to our cultural heritage, our religious traditions, our sexual orientation, and our political convictions.

We can no longer afford to be simple-minded and mean as in the past. The right to be different is an inherent democratic right. No Constitution and no law are above it.

Let’s rethink America by starting at the local level of our cities and towns.

We need a flexible political system that can respect our insurmountable differences and recognizes our right to be the way we are. What is unacceptable is the use of physical violence in order to prevail. We say “Yes” to revolution in the way we think, “No” to physical violence.

We are told that Jesus said to his disciples,

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as serpents and as gentle as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

Those who are powerless are like sheep governed by wolves. As sheep, we need to protect ourselves from wolves. This is so even in America. Sometimes our wolves are friendly, sometimes they are definitely unfriendly. In either case, we must be mature enough to act intelligently. Beware the friendly wolves that claim to protect us. And the wolves that we have to protect ourselves from are the impersonal system of power and its use of the law to control the people. Now the power system loves those who submit to it and hates those who challenge its authority. We propose to challenge its authority in the name of democracy, and by making sure we rely on the word, not on the sword. This is how doves can be shrewd enough to protect themselves from wolves.

Let’s stop being gullible like little children who put up with parental abuse because this is the right thing to do. Abuse must be exposed even when patriots are its victims. Those who give carte blanch to our political system are like children who continue to believe in Santa. They are like doves that do not have the maturity of snakes.

Democracy is the rule of the majority

This is a convenient way of deciding what to do. This does not mean that the majority is always right. We know of many cases where the majority is abusive. This is why we need strong human rights that will protect the rights of minorities.

We welcome everybody regardless of political affiliation, religious convictions or moral orientation. But there is no room for fanaticism and obscurantism in a democratic and enlightened society.

Our movement is educational. It invites everybody to think critically, not in order to destroy but in order to reform a political system that has become old and decadent.

Please join our Meetup group,

www.meetup.com/seattle-hong-kong-of-america

Visit our website, www.rethinkingamerica.net

Democracy is like a tool box

If we have the wright tools, we can use them successfully. If we don’t have the wright tools, our action will remain awkward and flimsy. Let’s fashion the tools that we need. This is our primary concern.

The tools that we need exist already. We don’t have to create anything from scratch. We have to re-discover them and learn how to use them.

We do not need to amend the Constitution in order to justify the autonomy of our cities and towns. The amendments that we need exist already. All we have to do is revive them. So far, the establishment that enjoys the exclusive power of interpreting the Constitution has decided that the Ninth and Tenth Amendments amend nothing. The time has come to contest this convenient way of marginalizing what is unacceptable to the federal government. But this action requires enlightened citizenry.

Would you like to become an enlightened citizen?

JosephCodsi@hotmail.com

ideas@rethinkingamerica.net