February 12, 2025

It is February 12, 2025 as I begin this blog.  Over the past 25 years plus, the United States Congress has failed miserably at their solemn oath, which has led us to where we are today, our democracy under direct and conspiratorial threat from within:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

Despite huge changes in the makeup, population, and borders of the US, especially since the middle of the 1800's, Congress has asleep to these changes since about 1950:  

Year	Population	# of States	% Rural	Amendments Ratified During Century	Federal Minimum Wage
1800	5,308,483	16	94.9	4   (11 were ratified before 1800)	None
1900	76,212,168	45	40.4	8, the last 5 of which came before 1960	1938:  $ 0.25, increased 4 times before 1968, 4 more times in the 1970’s, 2 times in the 80’s, 4 times in the 90’s…
2000	281,421,538	50	21	0	just 3 times since, in 2007, 2008, and 2009
2024	340,110,988	50	20	0

These changes have had a dramatic impact on the Electoral College, which translates to major changes in the results of presential elections.  The concept of "one man, one vote" has been upended in several of the last presential elections.

The fact that there have been no new amendments in since 1992, is testament to Congress not doing their job, living up to their oath.  

Due to the believe by the Republican Party that they know all, so don't need any other viewpoints, they have very successfully skewed the rights of the individuals toward their party.  With an orchestrated effort, they have gerrymandered many Congressional districts.  

At the same time, in constructing a Congress that works only for their party, they have built a federal government that works largely and unfairly for them, and so purposely ignored the tools given Congress by the Founding Fathers to bring our nation into the 21st century.  The Founding Fathers knew they could not predict the far future of their new country, so they included a mechanism to change the founding document, the US Constitution, as needed.  To protect the Constitution from knee-jerk or whimsical changes, the mechanism to change it was set up to be challenging.

1. Fix the Electoral College.  I don't have a ready answer on how to do this, however we know there very capable minds that do.  The ripple effects of this would be huge.

2.  Index the federal minimum wage to inflation.  Again, I'm no expert on the details, however many of the problems our society faces today, from drug abuse to homelessness to crime and healthcare costs, would all be significantly addressed by making this a living wage and one that tracts inflation.  Everything else in our country rises with inflation, except this key, foundational measure.  

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