Sometimes, it is just fun to theorize and fantasize about how life could be made better. I suppose that is what goes on in various "think tanks" around the world. Since I am not likely to hold membership in any such entity, I will just perform my theoretical calisthenics on the internet. Here is a thought which I posted earlier today on the RedState.com website.
There exists in our revered government structures, a built-in congenital defect which has the lingering potential to bring down the country. It is much like the faulty heart valve, which lies in wait for years and years, ready to strike down the body when events and circumstances quietly align themselves. No individual property is particularly noteworthy, and thus; the components of the calamity are ignored, tolerated, and live on undetected.
Our political process, the quest for Party power and the never absent propensity to cater to loud constituencies has placed our system in a state of ventricular fibrillation. The body (the important business of this country) is quivering as disaster lurks not far in the distance. The minority party is consumed by anger, and an overriding quest for revenge. They are propped up by the constitutionally emboldened press, which is naturally schizophrenic in the interpretation of its own motivations and missions.
I am thinking that we need a fourth element of power. A constitutionally created arbiter that holds court in the realm of public opinion. It would be a mechanism which cannot be directly influenced by political activism, financial pandering, or ideological stacking. I am thinking that a national Supreme-Supreme Court may be in order, composed entirely of citizens that are selected by lottery, regardless of political or state boundaries. Service on this court shall be mandatory, much like a war-time draft.
This court will decide all issues that are currently at the whim of the political power centers in Congress. No more hearings in the House or Senate, designed to drag the opposition over the political coals. If there is reason to believe that a President or a "Power" in Congress, or the Judiciary has acted improperly, the matter must be referred to the Inquisition. Care must be taken, because those who sign their name to the referral will be subject to punishment if the referral is deemed to be politically motivated, and that determination will be made by the Inquisition with no appeal.
The process has devolved to the point where a virtual paralysis has seized the country. National security concerns are no longer paramount, and our elected officials are forever engaged in their next campaign, which begins the day after any given election has been completed. I am fed up with it, and the possibility that a court of common sense could bring sanity back to an otherwise well-constructed form of government is, in my opinion, worthy of consideration.
Does this sound outlandish, unworkable, or beyond the realm of feasibility? I suppose it does.
Copyright ©2006, Phil Harris
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