End re-election of 98% of Congressmen

The Federal Election Commission is a farce. There is clear evidence of collusion between the two "major" parties. Acting as a duopoly, or loosely speaking: a private country club with two members in full agreement not to allow the "riff-raff" into their club.

The FEC is also an "illusion." Comprised of three Democrats and three Republicans, the status quo is assured, and progress toward a more democratic electoral system stymied. Deliberately, and obviously, an even numbered committee assures frequent/routine tie votes and the use of the accepted device of saying, "it was their fault."

FEC reform should change the committee to seven members; one from each major party, and five Early American History scholars with no party affiliation.

They would know that John Adams said, ""There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, it to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."

They would be familiar with the formulation and content of The Federalist Papers. They would know that Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote the 85 essays to support of adoption of "The Constitution."

And they would know that after their collaboration, Hamilton and Madison had a falling out that ended in the creation of the Federalist Party and the Anti-Federalist Party.

Reviewing our history from that point forward, we who support this petition agree that it was an accident of history that Thomas Jefferson was in France at the time. He and Madison had often warned of "factionalism" and "parochialism." The Hamilton/Madison dispute would have been defused by the presence of Jefferson.

As a major benefit, the national interest would be preeminent; narrow interests less powerful, and we would have experienced a better and more just government. With a better government, we could expect a better society.

Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" begins with these words: "Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

"The Great Society" would be a reality. For it to be a government creation shows how off-track our idea of government had evolved under LBJ.

It was LBJ who signed off on Walter Heller's plan. A plan that abandoned "household accounting," brought "guns and butter" spending, ushered in deficit spending, and started us on the way to the mess we're in.

The national debt on December 31, 2008 is $10,555,981,517,731.36 and your share of the national debt is $34,550.28.