Four Options

#8
As a citizen of the United States, do you feel represented by your federal Representative?

When the present can look to the old and find a way – a constitutional way – then an ongoing revolution can renew itself. We citizens of the United States are a rich people, but more than riches, we have some special words left to us by the likes of George Washington and James Madison. The words are in the ratified US Constitution and the unratified Article the first of the Bill of Rights.

There are three constitutional options concerning the right to representation in the House of Representatives. First, we could enforce the ratified representation ratio in the Constitution as it is: “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand.” Second, twenty-seven states could ratify Article the first of the Bill of Rights: these votes would complete the Bill of Rights, making Article the first the next amendment to our Constitution. Third, We the People could amend the Constitution with a new ratio: this would involve an act of Congress and ratification by thirty-eight states.

And I suppose there is a fourth option, the status quo: 435 Representatives for a nation of 300 million citizens.