Now we come to items that are a little less about restructuring government itself, and more about adding oil, replacing gaskets, and cleaning the air filters (to use near-obsolete analogies).
The Citizenship Amendment
All citizens of the United States and its Territories shall have the same rights, responsibilities, and liabilities under the law, regardless of position, wealth, religion, philosophy, age, gender, race, or any other recognizable differentiator.
Any person having resided in the United States or any of its Territories for at least 18 years, whether born there or not, and having lived outside the jurisdiction of the United States for no more than 1/4 of those 18 years, having paid taxes and reasonably been law-abiding aside from their immigration status, shall be a citizen and shall have the full rights of any citizen, and no person shall lose their citizenship or their rights of citizenship except by very narrow and clearly outlined CONSTITUTIONAL processes.
The right to vote shall not be infringed for any reason. The right of the citizenry to freely vote and to be polled, is the most important right of a democracy. Any person making allegations of fraud or irregularities regarding the polling processes without REASONABLE evidence, as judged by a court of law to be reasonable, shall lose their own citizenship and be expelled from the United States and all its Territories for life. In this regard, Free Speech requires reasonable evidence.
In a true Democracy, there can be no “special exceptions” to the “laws of the land.” There can be no, “I’m special, because I’m a Pink-Toed Herbivore,” and no, “I’m special because I won the High School popularity contest.” The law must apply EQUALLY to EVERYONE, and you don’t get to break the law with impunity just because you’re President, Senator, Representative or anyone else who thinks they have the right to dump on Democracy. There should be no “different classes” of citizenship.
No one should have special rights because, “My grandparents built this ant-hill!” We are ALL descendants of migrants, regardless of how many generations of our ancestors have or have not lived in any particular place. It’s reasonable to require that people meet certain requirements to become citizens of a democracy, but refusing citizenship after a person has assimilated into a democracy is simply, on its face, wrong. One could debate how long, or how much time, a person must live and participate in a democracy before they should have full rights of citizenship. If a government can’t be bothered to notice someone is in the country illegally within an 18 year period and/or can’t be bothered to do anything about it within that time, then the person should be granted full citizenship. Our laws generally have “statutes of limitation” (frequently 7 years), so that the government can’t harass and persecute people by digging into their distant past (usually, except for murder). The same should apply to immigrants who come to the country, work, pay taxes, and adopt our society as the place they belong. The length of time could be argued, but it certainly shouldn’t be any longer than 18 years.
In a true Democracy, the right to vote must be inviolable. That right depends upon a system that guarantees “free and fair elections.” Citizens must have faith and trust in that process, and it must be zealously guarded. If you have proof, or even REASONABLE evidence that might cast doubt that the system is being operated correctly, take it to court. But weakening the publics faith and trust in the electoral process without REASONABLE evidence should be inexcusable and one of the few reasons for a person to lose their citizenship and be expelled from the country, as that behavior is, in essence, attempted murder of the Democracy.
-Everett