A Matter of Proportion

Our leaders say we aren’t great anymore. They’re right, and it's 112 years of politicians just like them that failed us. Our leaders can change it, but instead, they would rather blame one another—and you. What made America great was that Citizens had a voice—but since 1911, that voice has been slowly silenced.

Our government is a system of checks and balances—a representative system designed to allow power and people to communicate and govern each other. However, years of Supreme Court cases and bad legislation have removed checks, tilted power away from ordinary citizens, and left our leaders unaccountable. The result is a sphere of concentrated power that leaves out everyday citizens. We need to tilt it back. To do that, we need big change implemented in small ways.

Change starts from within. We must first hold ourselves accountable before we hold our leaders accountable. As citizens, we need to understand how power in our republic works. The power of our citizenry is concentrated in our republican government, which divides, separates, and balances that power. The divided power is then vested into representatives that citizens elect. If the representatives are failing us, if they are abusing their power or not worthy to hold it, then it’s our responsibility to exercise our rights and replace them with better leaders.

To make this change, we need to understand what to look for in a leader. A leader is honest and accountable. A leader is prepared; they read and listen. A leader teaches. They are patient and decisive. A leader is someone who has ideas. Leaders own their failures and share their successes. Most of all, a leader is someone who loves debate.

Once we hold ourselves accountable, the next step is to hold our leaders accountable. Our electioneering system is a game of cat and mouse—he said, she said. We need our politicians to stop the media hits, collecting our data, begging us for money, and spamming us with emails and text messages. We need them to let go of the microphone, get off the stage, come to our communities, and listen to us. Then, we need them to sit down in a room together—no media, no teleprompters, just people with a wealth of knowledge on the topic of governing, debating how to balance our Union’s divide. This should occur weekly during the campaign season. It should be recorded and easily available to citizens.

The debate that needs to take place is about the apportionment number of the House of Representatives. In 1911, it was capped at 435. Since then, Congress has neglected its responsibility of representation outlined in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. The representative-to-citizen ratio has grown from 1:30,000 at our founding to 1:220,000 in 1911 to roughly 1:756,000 today.

While the divide in our representation ratio has grown, so has the divide in our Union. The representatives are leading too large of groups. This makes communication and accountability difficult. Shrinking the groups will help the citizens hold the representatives accountable. Also, ensuring the citizen's voices aren’t ignored.

The first step to make our government more representative is to uncap the House, increasing the number of representatives over a 10-year period. During this time, Congress must work on a ratio and formula to handle the apportionment going forward. This new formula must be added to the Constitution through the amendment process. This protects future generations from being underrepresented.

This is a big change. By implementing the change slowly, we ease the burden. By holding ourselves and our leaders accountable, we build a foundation that can withstand the growth and change our government needs. By dividing the power in the House, we create more opportunities. By making the groups smaller, we make it easier for the representative to build a relationship with the community they lead. We lessen the divide between the powerful and the powerless. We The People need a right of representation; to get it, we need to elect memorable leaders who debate. If we want America to be great again, we need to change.