12/29/2006
One of the basic problems with the issue of immigration is the degree to which there has been enormous media distortion-and fundamental differences in the composition of congress compared to a cross section of the American Public. Some VDARE.COM readers are a bit suspicious of democracy. However, when it comes to the immigration issue, it isn’t democracy that is the problem, but the nature of the particular groups that get extra representation in the present system.Unlike most of my VDARE.COM colleagues, I am neither a conservative nor a Republican. That gives me a certain freedom explore how immigration reform can be handled in ways that have been missed by the conservative republicans who have largely focused on this issue in recent years.
We have a practical example of an attempt to radically inprove democratic process near by my home in Washington state.
The citizens of British Columbia, Canada, explored changing their election process by appointing a "Citizens Assembly" of voters selected a random from the voter roles to explore options for electoral reform. The basic idea was to give a cross section of citizens a staff, and time to seriously explore a question. I was personally impressed that the system they supported was, STV, a system with substantial academic support-and the system of proportional representation which tends to put the least power into the hands of party leaders.
The basic approach of a Citizens' Assembly could be used for any issue. Why not appoint a Citizens Assembly to explore the immigration issue? The Corporate Stooges that make up the bulk of congress seem to have neither the ability nor the aptitude to really handle the issue.
The BC Citizens’s Assembly was government sponsored from its onset — and was a body that put an enormous amount of work into the one issue of electoral reform.
I would suggest that something less large and elaborate might be constructed using private funds — perhaps as a means to force the government into more substantial action.
The average American has simply never had access to the most basic of information on the issue of immigration. I think if the case of organizations like VDARE.COM, NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies were made to a cross section of the American public, it would get even more of a reception than it has gotten from congress to date.
Long run, I think substantial political reform along the lines the BC assembly recommended is necessary to present corporate oligarchy from becoming utterly repressive in the US. I would also suggest that such reform is an an important means for the VDARE.COM constituency to get immigration reform.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.