=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #348
—July 29, 1993—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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RALPH NADER’S DEMOCRACY TOOLBOX–PART 1
[For several years, Ralph Nader has been advocating a series of
changes intended to strengthen our democracy. February 1, 1992,
Nader presented “The Concord Principles: An Agenda for a New
Initiatory Democracy.” This week and next, we offer you the
Concord Principles, with commentary.]
WHEREAS, a selfish oligarchy has produced economic decline, the
debasement of politics, and the exclusion of citizens from the
strengthening of their democracy and political economy;
WHEREAS, this rule of the self-serving few over the nation’s
business and politics has concentrated power, money, greed, and
corruption far beyond the control or accountability of citizens;
WHEREAS, the political system, regardless of party, has
degenerated into a government of the power brokers, by the power
brokers, and for the power brokers that is an arrogant and
distant caricature of Jeffersonian democracy;
WHEREAS, Presidential campaigns have become narrow, shallow,
redundant, and frantic parades and horse races which candidates,
their monetary backers, and their handlers control unilaterally,
with the citizenry expected to be the bystanders and compliant
voters;
WHEREAS, a pervading sense of powerlessness, denial, and
revulsion is sweeping the nation’s citizens as they endure or
suffer from growing inequities, injustice, and loss of control
over their future and the future of their children; and
WHEREAS, we, the citizens of the United States, who are dedicated
to the reassertion of fundamental democratic principles and their
application to the practical, daily events in our nation, are
committed to beginning the work of shaping the substance of
Presidential campaigns and of engaging the candidates’ attention
to our citizen agenda during this 1992 election year;
NOW, THEREFORE, WE HEREBY present the ensuing Concord Principles:
FIRST, democracy is more than a bundle of rights on paper;
democracy must also embrace usable facilities that empower all
citizens
(a) to obtain timely, accurate information from their government;
(b) to communicate such information and their judgments to one
another through modern technology; and:
(c) to band together in civic associations as voters, taxpayers,
consumers, workers, shareholders, students and as whole human
beings in pursuit of a prosperous, just and free society.
SECOND, the separation of OWNERSHIP of major societal assets from
their CONTROL permits the concentration of power over such assets
in the hands of the few who control rather than in the hands of
the many who own. The owners of the public lands, pension funds,
savings accounts, and the public airwaves are the American
people, who have essentially little or no control over their
pooled assets or their commonwealth.
The American people should assume reasonable control over the
assets they have legally owned for many years so that their use
reflects citizen priorities for a prosperous America, mindful of
the needs and rights of present and future generations of
Americans to pursue happiness within benign environments.
THIRD, a growing and grave imbalance between the often converging
power of Big Business, Big Government and the citizens of this
country has seriously damaged our democracy and weakened our
ability to correct this imbalance. We lack the mechanisms of
civic power. We need a modern toolbox for redeeming our
democracy by strengthening our capacity for self-government and
self-reliance both as individuals and as a community of citizens.
Our 18th century democratic rights need retooling for the proper
exercise of our responsibilities as citizens in the 21st century.
FOURTH, the new democracy toolbox contains measures for
protecting voters from having their voting powers diluted,
over-run or nullified. These measures are:
(a) a binding none-of-the-above opinion on the ballot. [If “none
of the above” received the largest number of votes, this would
trigger a new election.]
(b) term limitations, 12 years and out;
(c) public financing of campaigns through well-promoted voluntary
taxpayer checkoffs on tax returns;
(d) easier voter registration and ballot access rules; [Congress
has since passed the so-called “motor voter” law to make voter
registration simpler and easier, but the bill has not yet come
out of conference committee, so the exact provisions remain
unknown.]
(e) state-level binding initiative, referendum, and recall
authority, and a non-binding national referendum procedure.
[“Initiative” gives citizens the right to propose legislation for
consideration by the voters, not waiting for a legislator to
propose it; “referendum” allows citizens to vote laws into effect
themselves, circumventing legislatures; “recall” allows citizens
to un-elect particular elected officials.] And:
(f) a repeal of the runaway White House/Congressional pay raises
back to 1988 levels.
FIFTH, the new democracy toolbox strengthens taxpayers who wish
to have a say in how their tax dollars are being used and how
their taxpayer assets are being protected. These objectives will
be advanced by according taxpayers full legal standing to
challenge the waste, fraud and abuse of tax monies and taxpayer
assets. Presently, the federal judiciary places nearly
insurmountable obstacles in front of taxpayers, thereby leaving
the task to the unlikely prospect of government officials taking
their own government to court.
Further, a facility for taxpayers banding together can be
established by a simple taxpayer checkoff on the 1040 tax return,
inviting taxpayers to join their national taxpayers association
which would be accountable to members on a one-member one-vote
standard.
Finally, obscure, overly complex, mystifying jargon pervading
federal tax, pension, election and other laws and procedures is a
barrier to taxpayer-citizen participation. The language of these
laws and procedures must be simplified and clarified as a matter
of national priority; otherwise, only special interests hiring
decoders will be able to participate while the general public is
shut out.
SIXTH, the new democracy toolbox strengthens consumers of both
business and government services by according them:
(a) computerized access in libraries and their own homes to a
full range of government information for which they have already
paid but are now unable to obtain, either inexpensively or at all;
(b) facilities in the form of periodic inserts, included in the
billing or other envelopes sent to them by companies that are
either legal monopolies (for example, electric, gas, telephone
bills) or are subsidized or subsidizable by the taxpayers (for
example, banks and savings and loans). These inserts invite
consumers to join their own state-wide consumer action groups to
act as a watchdog, to negotiate and to advocate for their
interests.
A model of this facility is the Illinois Citizen Utility Board
which has saved ratepayers over $3 billion since 1983 and filled
the consumer chair before utility commissions, legislative
hearings, and courtroom proceedings on many occasions.
This type of facility costs taxpayers nothing, costs the carrying
companies or government mailings nothing (the consumer group pays
for the insert and there is no extra postage) and is voluntary
for consumers to join. Had there been such bank consumer
associations with full-time staff in the 1970s, there would not
have been a trillion dollar bailout on the taxpayers’ back for
the S&L and commercial bank crimes, speculations, and
mismanagement debacle. These would have been dipped in the bud
at the community level by informed, organized consumer judgment.
So too would have costly and hazardous energy projects been
replaced by energy efficiency and renewable power systems; and
(c) Citizen consumers are the viewers and listeners of television
and radio. Federal law says that the public owns the public
airwaves which are now leased for free by the Federal
Communications Commission to television and radio companies. The
public, whose only option is to switch dials or turn off,
deserves its own Audience Network.
The Audience Network would enhance the communication and
mobilization process between people locally and nationally. The
owners of the airwaves deserve a return of their property for one
hour prime time and drive time on all licensed stations so that
their professional studios, producers, and reporters can program
what the audience believes is important to them and their
children. The proposal for Audience Network, funded by dues from
the audience-members and other NON-tax revenues, was the subject
of a Congressional hearing in 1991, chaired by Congressman Edward
Markey.
Similarly, in return for cable company monopoly and other powers,
cable subscribers should be able to join their own cable viewers
group through a periodic insert in their monthly cable billing
envelopes. Modern electronic communications can play a critical
role in anticipating and resolving costly national problems when
their owners gain regular usage, as a community intelligence, to
inform, alert, and mobilize democratic citizen initiatives.
Presently, these electronic broadcasting systems are
overwhelmingly used for entertainment, advertising and redundant
news, certainly not a fair reflection of what a serious society
needs to communicate in a complex age, locally, nationally, and
globally.
(d) Access to justice –to the courts, to government agencies,
and to legislatures –is available to organized, special
interests, and they widely use these remedies. In contrast, when
consumers are defrauded, injured, rendered sick by wrongdoers or
other perpetrators of their harm, they find costly dollar and
legal hurdles blocking their right of access. They also find
indentured politicians and their lobbying allies bent on closing
the doors further. Systems of justice are to be used
conveniently and efficiently by all the people in this country,
not just corporations and the wealthy. Otherwise, the citizen
shutout worsens. [Continued next week.]
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: ralph nader; concord principles; democracy;
wealth; power; initiative; referendum; recall; taxation; taxes;
elections; electoral process; right to know; access to
information; government information; monopolies; utilities;
utility regulation; consumers; audience network; radio;
television; tv; cable access; justice;