Would you support the implementation of a legal mechanism whereby... [View All]

...the U.S. citizenry can, as a collective, invoke the right to take direct control of legislative matters/issues when they feel their Congress has failed them?

Yes, this same poll was conducted recently (5-9-07) and I've never run the same poll twice, much less in such a short time interval, but given the events of the last few days, I would really like to see if the DU community chooses to revisit this question in a different light or not.

Previous poll:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3257428

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The People's Crusade of Mike Gravel

http://www.counterpunch.org/nader05082007.html

--SNIP--

For over a decade, given the failures of elected politicians, Mike Gravel has been engaged in some extraordinary research and consultations with leading constitutional law experts about the need to enact another check to the faltering checks and balances--namely, the National Initiative for Democracy, a proposed law that empowers the people as lawmakers.

Before you roll your eyes over what you feel is an unworkable utopian scheme, go to http://nationalinitiative.us to read the detailed constitutional justification for the sovereign right of the people to directly alter their government and make laws.

Among other legal scholars, Yale Law School Professor, Akhil Reed Amar and legal author, Alan Hirsch, have argued that the Constitution recognizes the inalienable right of the American people to amend the Constitution directly through majority vote. What the Constitution does not do is spell out the procedures for such a sovereign right.

The right of the People to alter their government flows from the Declaration of Independence, the declared views of the founding fathers and the framers of the Constitution, its Preamble ("We the People of the United States.do ordain and establish this Constitution,"), Article VII and other provisions, including the Ninth and Tenth Amendments...