Nobody Gets Left Behind. Nobody.

In this essay, we trace the recurring pattern by which each new mass communications medium — from broadcast radio to social media — has been systematically weaponized to concentrate political power in the hands of a billionaire class, precipitating America's third constitutional crisis in two and a half centuries.

What follows is both a diagnosis and a prescription: a reading of history as prologue, FDR's Second Bill of Rights as the governing charter, and a concrete structural proposal — the Quad-Cameral Constitutional Republic — for the second constitutional convention the author believes is now unavoidable.

The last time the world introduced a new mass communications media (broadcast radio) we had revolutions and a world war. The result was a New Deal that changed the way government worked. 

But some in America don’t like that at all. They've worked tirelessly to break the American Dream of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and replace it with hatred, incarceration and the base pursuit of money, and they're on the path to success. The American system is about to fail for the third time.

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union failed and were repaired by the First Constitutional Convention which created our current form of government. The next failure was the Civil War, repaired by the New Deal and Civil Rights.

The Republic is failing again.

The American system is failing again. 

How do we fix it?

First, what has caused our problems?

The spread of instantaneous communications across the world (telegraph, telephone and radio) introduced a new way to distribute propaganda to a wider audience. And the ambitious took advantage of it to peddle lies and hatred and try to seize the power of the state.

The right wing and the billionaires have been colluding for decades to seize control of the American economy (in the 1920s they managed to seize half of the economy personally, a point we have just passed again this last year.) 

There was a visceral reaction to what this Class War caused (the Great Depression) that allowed the left and labor party to win veto proof majorities for the next sixteen years. They used these majorities to write the new laws that created the social safety net and installed the New Deal.

It’s not an accident that the place that invented radio and mass broadcasting (Italy) was the first to fall to fascism: Propaganda works. Mussolini and Hitler created this modern form of crony-capitalism or fascism that turns a democracy into a corrupt cult of personality.

 

These fascists were defeated and replaced by the Russian Empire in Europe and by the United States in Asia. Eventually the West brought democracy to parts of Asia and disassembled the Empire and freed Europe. A new Russian generation is once again attempting to spread totalitarianism throughout the world. It remains a government based on corruption, the worst form of government for the human thriving of anyone, except the billionaires. This Class War is a very bad idea. It rarely ends well for the rich. See history.

The next mass media introduced throughout the world was television. The United States finally enacted laws to enforce the 14th amendment (from 1866) and institute civil rights in the 1960s, almost certainly due to the deployment of television. Nobody could pretend systematic racism wasn’t extant throughout the United States, illegally and unconstitutionally. For decency’s sake, it had to end.

What was the next big change in mass media communications? CableTV. The fascists used this to bypass the stranglehold inhibiting propaganda the government had on the airwaves. CableTV was specifically allowed to steal over the air broadcasts and resell them without renumeration to the owners of the airwaves. The new propaganda channel spread fascism throughout our country again.  But television also ruined the ability to run blood splattered colonizing wars as too painful. Kent state, where four peaceful protestors were shot and killed by some young marines, was just too much to bear. People forget that the radical left was bombing infrastructure every week to make the point that they weren’t happy with the draft and they were willing to risk deaths to prove it. Too horrifying to watch, the draft was finally disbanded.

Instead of colonization we got quick invasions more suitable for TV: Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, and long drawn out soap operas: Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans. The current mass media are the social networks built by the techno-Lords, and again, the fascists are using it to spread propaganda. They’re trying to cause misery and bloodshed in Portland, LA, DC, Chicago and Minneapolis; in any city run by a Democratic mayor, any city with Democrats living there. Democratic constituents are now under direct and vocal threat and declared to be enemies of the state. 

The current system is not working, it does not protect our rights. It cannot protect our rights because of its structure. It is time to change this power structure. The power of the Congress and the Executive must be spread around to more centers of control. Gerrymandering must be impossible. Multiple parties must be inherent in the new system.  And we must embrace, support and implement the New Deal’s ideals as expressed in the Second Bill of Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights signed in 1945 by the World

FDR, our New Deal President, declared a Second Bill of Rights for all Americans and the world, rights essential to support Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Americans, and the world, must enjoy the right to:

1. Employment (The right to work.)

2. An adequate income for food, shelter and recreation (The right to work at a living wage.)

3. Farmers' rights to a fair income (The right to work at a living wage with fair markets.)

4. Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies (The right to work at a living wage with fair markets where manipulation and monopolies are eliminated.)

5. Decent housing (We protect the environment)

6. Adequate medical care (We protect the environment and people with universal healthcare)

7. Social security (We protect the environment and the people with universal healthcare and a safety net)

8. Education (We protect the environment, provide universal healthcare, a safety net and education for all.)

These are Americans' Second Bill of Rights that can easily be implemented by the richest country on this planet:

We all deserve the right to work at a living wage with fair markets where manipulation and monopolies are eliminated. 

And we pledge to protect the environment, provide universal healthcare, a safety net and education for all.

For a deeper examination of the constitutional foundations referenced here, see: The Declaration of Independence is the Foundation of Modern Ethics and The Power of Trump.

These are essentially the planks of the current Democratic party platform: The American Dream.

And it’s essential that this means for everyone. Everyone.  Nobody is to be left behind in the coming age of abundance. 

This is what our wealth can give us: abundance. This is not what the current system produces. The current system leaves everybody behind except for the billionaires.

No longer. This system must be changed.

We need a powerful reformation of this broken system, a final great awakening of the American spirit.

In the United States, in the current system, the only way out is civil war or a constitutional convention.

Which do we prefer?

A convention is required to build the new system that can accomplish the essential goal of humanity’s thriving by implementing America’s Second Bill of Rights.

We all do better when we all do better. It’s simple. 

But the work to make it come to pass is more than difficult. It seems impossible, until it’s not. 

The time is now. We must be prepared. What should we insist stays? What changes must occur? The system has been broken, this is how we fix it. We need to build it for the next millennium.

And here’s the plan: Nobody gets left behind.

First: Everyone must understand the current system has failed.

Second: Everyone must understand the alternatives.

Third: We use this knowledge to design a new, better system, together.

Fourth: We make it so.

Americans can no longer ignore what they have seen and felt deep in their souls. For Democracy to survive, the system must change once more. If we don’t change it, it will be changed for us and it will not end well.

We must take responsibility for our future. There is no excuse. We must change the system to bring back fairness for everyone.

America needs a second constitutional convention. There is no other way.

Nobody can be left behind.

And if you ask what you can do, as a first assignment on this journey: Learn the lessons of the Federalist Papers, written the last time we had a constitutional convention. They are timely, strategic, and relevant to today. They are fascinating. Do your homework.

Thanks for reading.

 -Dr. Mike