Written by Frank Li
What’s wrong with America? The Constitution! What’s wrong with the Constitution? It begins with “We, the people”, instead of “We, the intelligent people”! In other words, by inserting the word intelligent into the Constitution, we may have a chance to save America.
Is America in need of saving? Yes, desperately! Here are three recent news stories:
Together, they show two points:
American democracy does not work, any more!
Americans are diligently looking for solutions.
However, most proposals are solutions in the small, at best. Americans must understand this big picture: democracy (one person, one vote), as we practice it today, is hopelessly doomed!
1. Democracy is doomed!
Democracy, as we practice it today, is hopelessly doomed for three main reasons:
- Democracy is more than 2,500 years old, without a single example of lasting success!
- The U.S. was founded as a republic, with a Constitution written specifically to exclude democracy (one person, one vote). Additionally, our founding fathers explicitly warned us against democracy. Two examples:
- Democracy is even worse than communism in one major way: communism was at least new about 150 years ago. People tried it, without success. As a result, communism is now damned. Democracy is a proven failure for more than 2,500 years. Yet, people are still fooling around with it today, as if it were a new and good thing …
2. The U.S. Constitution
“We, the People”, so begins the U.S. Constitution. But who are “the People” referenced? To the founding fathers, “the People” included only certain rich white men as follows:
Voting: Women were not allowed to vote, nor were the minorities.
Serving: Only the rich were able to serve, because all the top political offices (e.g. Congress and the American Presidency) were unpaid! Yes, first you had to make it (i.e. being financially independent), then you served with honor for a few years, and finally you returned home after doing your duty to your country. No, serving was never meant to be a way of life – not even to make a living, let alone a career!
Obviously, both racial discrimination and gender discrimination are wrong! But only the rich can serve, unpaid? I like it! For more, read: America: Let The Rich Run The Country Like China Does!
Overall, America is so deeply in trouble that American democracy may not even outlast Soviet communism in longevity (Longevity: American Democracy vs. Soviet Communism). So let’s try to make it work by improving both aspects of voting and serving, shall we? Specifically, let’s insert the word “intelligent” in front of “people” in the U.S. Constitution, as shown below.
What, then, is intelligence?
3. What is intelligence?
Here is how Wikipedia defines it:
Intelligence – a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings-“catching on,” “making sense” of things, or “figuring out” what to do.[5]
4. Who are the intelligent people?
There are many ways to measure the intelligence of a human being. Here are three examples:
The IQ test.
Education.
Success in business, even without a college degree (e.g. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates).
As the “Land of Opportunity”, America allows intelligent people to succeed like in no other country on earth (Pyramid Theory I, Version 3)! So why don’t we simply apply America’s open secret of success to democracy as well?
5. Does democracy rely on the intelligent people to succeed?
Yes, minimally!
American democracy (one person, one vote) is far too extreme! It has never really worked! American democracy appears to have worked since its first day (i.e. Civil Rights Act of 1964) for one simple reason: America could afford it, thanks to America’s free enterprise system. America is deeply in trouble now for one simple reason: America can no longer afford democracy! For more, read: The Coming Demise of America …
A much more restricted version of democracy was experimented in ancient Greece, without success. Here is an excerpt from a book entitled The Crumbling Wall Against Tyranny (page 72):
The vote in Athens was limited to free male of thirty years of age … The citizens of Athens were famous for being highly educated, and some historians tell us that there was a property ownership requirement for voting as well.
Yet, democracy eventually failed in this small country/city called Greece/Athens! How, then, could American democracy, which is much more extreme when compared with ancient Greek democracy, possibly succeed in a vast country like the U.S.? No way, absolutely!
American democracy (one person, one vote) is far too extreme! It will never work! Nevertheless, many democracy advocators in America believe democracy can succeed if both the candidates and voters are intelligent (i.e. educated or informed, if political correctness matters to you). So let’s give it one more try, shall we?
Unfortunately, it’s hard to determine whether a person is intelligent. So let’s simply increase the minimum age for both voting and serving by following the example of ancient Greek democracy, shown earlier, as well as the adage: “older and wiser,” shall we?
5.1 Intelligent candidates
I have spelled out the requirements for the top political offices as follows:
The American Presidency:
We must limit it to one term (e.g. six years), without allowing the President to fool around, from the White House, throughout his first term for nothing but his own re-election.
We must raise the statutory requirements, such as the minimum age of 55 and having served as a state governor for one full term at least.
Congress: We must introduce strict term limits for Congress, in order to exclude career politicians, who are not the most intelligent Americans, by definition (America: from Public Schools to Government, What’s Wrong?).
Age matters! Experience matters! Leadership matters! For more, read my book: “Saving America, Chinese Style”.
5.2 Intelligent voters
How about simply making voting as important as drinking and/or driving? Specifically,
A voter ID must always be required, just like drinking or driving!
Raising the minimum voting age to 21, just like drinking!
More preferably, the minimum voting age should be raised to 40, thanks to Winston Churchill. For more, read: America: What Did Winston Churchill Mean?
Age matters! Intelligence matters! The minimum voting age matters a lot, sometimes decisively, to democracy. Generally speaking, Liberals want to move the minimum voting age down, while Conservatives want to move it up. Which direction is more intelligent and hence better for America? Hopefully you are old enough to tell!
For more on the voting age, read Voting age and Argentina considers lowering their voting age to 16.
6. Discussion
Democracy looks more and more like communism, exactly as Karl Marx predicted more than 150 years ago. It is therefore doomed, just like communism!
In my humble opinion, if communism was the biggest joke in the 20th century, democracy is the biggest joke in human history! Democracy, as we practice it today, has never really worked, and will never work!
To my fellow Americans who are still confused, here is an analogy: saying democracy (one person, one vote) has been working in the U.S. since its first day (i.e. Civil Rights Act of 1964) is like saying communism worked in China from 1949 to 1976. Totally false! Here is the plain truth: China survived in spite of communism! The U.S. thrived in the second half of the 20th century, in spite of democracy; and the U.S. has been deeply in trouble in the 21st century, because of democracy!
For more, read my book: “Saving America, Chinese Style”.
7. Closing
Democracy, as we practice it today, is hopelessly doomed! There may be a chance to make democracy work in the U.S. by replacing “people” with “intelligent people” in the U.S. Constitution!
Overall, I believe I have the best diagnosis for America, as well as the best solution. For more, read my book: “The GOP Bible for 2016”!
To become more intelligent (Okay, Okay, more informed) yourself, watch the following video (hot off the Internet): China Says U.S. Economy Is Fake And Nothing Backs The Dollar …