After Bush was re-elected in 2004, I came back from Miami, where I’d participated in election protection at a polling place, and in a fit of political outrage (compared to what I’m going through now, I should reduce the term “outrage” to “pique”) sat down to write founding documents for what I called New America. Which consisted of blue states and blue cities — anyone who wanted to join up, actually.
In order to effect this national trial separation — specifically not a divorce, not a civil war-instigating break-up — of blue from red, I wrote a document called Uncommon Sense: Your Invitation to New America. Or something like that. It consisted of a brand new Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights plus Amendments. In doing this, I adapted most of the language of the original documents, tweaking some laws and stuff I thought needed tweaking. (The Second Amendment, for one.)
It went pretty quickly. When I was done, I contemplated my work and found it…good but incomplete. So I wrote a whole bunch of new laws and rules and regulations, just for fun, to fill in the holes in our original governing rules.
The standouts, in my view, involved political campaigns and the funding thereof.
I have to remind myself — and you, if you choose to be so reminded — I wrote this before the Supreme Court’s monstrously dreadful Citizens United decision. (Oddly, though, I found I didn’t have to add much to this because I’d already incorporated big money PACS in my original version.)
Next: New Rules for Campaign Financing