Chris

I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Short term yes, we can volunteer and assist in campaigns and spread the word via social media or contribute monetarily. The conundrum is that all of this is being done within a nearly 240 year-old framework that remains largely unchanged with two senators per state, regardless of population, the Electoral College, and a House where there is only only one representative for every 750,000+ of population which puts each one further out of touch with individual constituents. The First Congress had one rep for each 60,000 in population. Why not increase the number of representatives to one for each 100,000 population which would hugely inflate the number of members to 3500 if we stay intact as one country? Having a truly local and nearby rep should, in theory, make each one more accountable to your voice. Having been around a bit and with my first small steps of active involvement while in high school with the 1972 McGovern campaign, I can say that subsequently we've always put hope for change in the future within the current structure. To some extent, we made some bits of progress with Carter, Obama, and Biden, but often wind up with partially effective half-measures. And, let's not forget that Republican Gerald Ford was pro-ERA and pro-choice on abortion. Even Nixon supported the ERA. In the early to mid-70s you had a cadre of moderate to liberal Republicans (mostly from the Northeast) which no longer exists. With population shifts changing ideologies regionally, that's why I suggest that we need to put our heads together to create a new entity commensurate to the European model economically and socially.

I propose that we need to examine the underlying causes as to how we find ourselves in this situation and in doing so, it's fairly clear that it's a culmination of a multitude of factors that date back to the establishment of this country. The authors of the Constitution obviously could not foresee the tremendous growth to the west coast and beyond as well as the technological advances that make the Second-Amendment obsolete along with the developments in transportation, medical science, industry, and communication among others. The growth in the number of states skews the power to the smaller ones in both the Senate and Electoral College. The separation of powers requires both self-discipline and independence from the other branches in order to fulfill the mission of a democratic republic. Fast forward to today and those walls of separation are largely broken when you have a Congress and a Supreme Court that capitulates to the whims of an authoritarian bordering on a full-blown dictator. THE LYIN' KING v. The United States may be the worst Supreme Court ruling in my lifetime, if not in the last 150 years because it exonerates any president for actions they take while in office, legal or not. With some 40% of the voters, a majority on the Court, and a gerrymandered majority in both houses firmly behind this unintended atrocity, I submit that a planned and civil separation may be the only viable solution. It's one of the only points I may find myself agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene on. Ignoring climate change and gun violence while censoring books and muzzling teachers in schools, and failing to act on income inequality and lack of healthcare while we fund a military to the tune of nearly $1 trillion, among others, is not rational nor viable. THE LYIN' KING's election is a manifestation of all of our prior and current shortcomings and a new nation, either fully independent or quasi independent of the current United States, likely needs to be formulated.