Some Thoughts about Our Representative Form of Government
After the War of Independence, each state was allowed to maintain, under its Constitution, the method for selection or election of representatives which best suited their respective forms of government. The Constitution was modeled after the most common forms in existence in 1787. Thus, from that great document, we have some insight into what method was utilized most often.
If we look at the Constitution closely, there are provisions whose meanings have been lost. Article IV, Section 4, for example, provides that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,..." There was a limitation of thirty thousand people for each representative (Article I, Section 2, clause 3), and two senators were to represent each State (Article I, Section 3, clause 1), and each States interest. These three concepts have since been obscured by our controlled educational system. When one reads the words of the Founding Fathers, the significance of these matters becomes clear.
The Union was of the states. Each State was a country which had chosen to subordinate only certain aspects of its authority to federal powers. To protect the authority of the state in respect to the Union, the senators were selected by the respective state legislatures to protect the interest of the state (states rights). Although we have been led to believe that a state is merely a geographic entity in the country called the United States, we can see that, within the last decade, the Congress perceived the relationship in another way. In the Laws of the 100th Congress - 2nd Session, Public Law (P.L.) 100-702, 297 (b), it makes quite clear that as recently as 1988 each of the states was recognized by the federal government to be a "country". These countries, however, have been denied their proper representation by the ratification (if valid) of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913 (the same year we "acquired" the Federal Reserve Act and the "income tax" {Sixteenth} Amendment).
The representation of no than more thirty thousand people by a member of the House of Representatives has been modified by legislative acts, not by way of a Constitutional amendment (as required by the Constitution). At the present time there are over 400,000 people represented by each Representative. This is a result of the imposition of a limitation of 435 representatives, which violates the concept of the Founders. Instead, we have a system in which votes are bought (by entitlement programs and through massive advertising campaigns) without regard to the delegation of the interests of the constituents, as would be true if the thirty thousand limit were recognized.
If we look at these two issues with an insight into some of the concepts understood at the time of the War of Independence, we can find that there was good cause for these restrictions on government. The concept of government, as envisioned then, and which satisfies the primary criteria of "Republican Form", is based upon delegation. Each community would delegate representatives to the next higher sitting authority. This process is applied in each state, and those delegates became the state legislatures, which, in turn, delegate two senators to represent the interests of the state in the United States Senate.
The representatives were delegated by thirty thousand (small enough to allow personal knowledge of the delegate prior to selection, and not subject to "media" control). Perhaps another level in this process would allow representation at thirty thousand, and subsequent delegation at a state level which would accommodate the 435-member limitation.
Finally comes the Electoral college. This concept has been in place since the Constitution (Article II, Section 1, clause 1) was ratified, and was also based upon delegation. Each state selected delegates equal in number to the number of senators and representatives from that state. These "electors" were the delegates of the states who carried the wishes of their constituents to the process of selecting the President, who, as the executive, was not the leader, or the lawmaker, rather the administrator who would carry out the will of the people as directed by the Congress through their enactments. Now this "electoral college" is controlled by the primary parties (Democrats and Republicans), and has been removed as a part of our Republican Form of Government.
We have, since the time of the Founders, seen a gradual but persistent effort to replace the role of President with that of a monarch, with some limitations on power, which is surprisingly similar to what was then true in England. The arbitrary authority of President was not conceived to exist by the Founders, except in times of national emergency, and this only because of the expediency of timely decision making ability to deal with an emergency.
The leaders of those times were men who had earned their positions, and were appointed by the people. When they achieved that position of leadership, they subordinated themselves to the will of the people. The inherent authority of the people permeated the entire structure of government in those early days. The people spoke, and their delegates, or representatives listened.