"These are my own conclusions on the state of our political system as it appears to me at present. My overall conclusion after twelve years of study is that we have a corrupt political system, which can be fixed by an informed electorate within a few years.

In the winter after the 1996 elections, in which political reforms made no apparent gains, I wrote a two-page synopsis on what I thought was wrong. In the years since I have constantly revised my written evaluation, pausing to publish, by copier, fifteen 100-copy sets of this pamphlet. Copies have gone to members of congress, minor party leaders, friends, and family. I imagine my words have seeped through and added to minor party political discourse, especially in the Reform Party where I had long been active.

My concern is our ineffective "democratic" republic. Why does it not work? Problems persist through generations of career politicians. Explanations from numerous and varied sources have all seemed insufficient. Reasonable demands of our citizens for change have not been met.

I imagine the reluctance to use available solutions is due directly to excessive human greed. Our monopoly "two-party system" is bought with huge political contributions. In exchange, the two parties keep power in the hands of a tiny wealthy elite. Elections are staged to divert attention from the underlying partisan struggle for power. Voters are left out. "Liberal" and "conservative" name-calling is used to divide the electorate. Selected controversial issues are used to divide voters into hostile voting blocks to win elections without a need to solve problems.

Many problems remain unresolved after decades of neglect. The same problems remain that have been the basis of all the false promises made by generations of career politicians. If you feel isolated and devalued by government, you have been correct for many years. Something is wrong.

On the positive side, enough voters going to the polls would have the power to make all the changes needed to solve persistent problems. Already 60 to 80% of our people know there are many problems not being addressed by the monopoly "two-party system." Now, we need to have 60 to 80% go to the polls and vote for candidates who will represent people, not corporations, unions, political parties, or any other special interest.

We need to elect people who will open politics to the competition of ideas on issues and open debate on workable solutions. A small proportion of elected offices, around 10%, occupied by moderate middle-of-the-road all-issue independent candidates or minor party candidates would make needed reforms possible.

I see reforms as long-term goals to obtain a sustainable society based upon "democratic" small "r" republican ideals. For instance, a constitutional amendment is needed to establish the principle that "money is not speech." The same is true to establish the principle that corporations are not "people" entitled to the benefits of the bill of rights and other rights of citizens under the constitution. We need to correct the late-1800s errors of the Supreme Court, which decrease and erode the sovereignty of American citizens. Corporations are not citizens, either good or bad.

With our constitution we forever removed the divine right of Kings from our lives and left that autocratic tyranny in the Old World. We have accurately located divine rights in the minds and hearts of our people, with protections in our Bill of Rights for freedom of religion and of speech.

The need now is to dispose of the autocratic tyranny of corporations linked with the two-party monopoly. Our unarmed revolution will occur by winning ballot access for independent voters and by winning representation with our votes. We must win a voter revolution to exercise democratic control over our undemocratic two-party monopoly."