Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change, by Mike Gravel: on Government Reform
Mike Gravel:
Average Americans are precluded from decision-making process
"There's no such thing as citizens around here, much less citizen power," the boy seated next to me argued. "There's just people. The only citizen I know is the dude in the White House and, I guess, maybe the fat cats that get all the money. They're the
ones who call it their way. The rest of us, we got no say..""Look around you," I responded. "How do you think this academy got here? It wasn't government. A bunch of citizens joined with the Urban League to set up this academy."
That's what I wrote in 1971. But I could write it today. Sadly, the story is all too relevant 37 years later. In all that time, while many citizens have formed effective grassroots organizations to work on solving society's critical problems, the average
American citizen has been precluded from the decision-making process. There is something drastically lacking within the system. Real power rests in the hands of those who control government by way of their investments in politicians.
Source: Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change, by Mike Gravel, p. 3-4
Jan 24, 2008
Mike Gravel:
Voting just gives power to politicians; we need more
The only possibility of government reform is through empowerment of the people. This will permit the people to address those forces in society that have power to block a government responsive to their social, environmental and economic needs.
Unfortunately, the people haven't come to realize that their empowerment must take the form of lawmaking--the central power of government. Anything less continues their present mendicancy. However, this concept is "out of the box" for the average
citizen who is weaned on the concept that he controls government on Election Day. He hasn't reasoned that in the second or two that it takes for him to cast his vote, he gives his power away to politicians who tell him what he wants to hear to get his
vote.People will have to suffer a level of frustration and anger sufficient to reason their way out of this conundrum and reach for an "out of the box" solution to their own empowerment. They must realize that they are the solution, not their leaders.
Source: Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change, by Mike Gravel, p. 6
Jan 24, 2008
Mike Gravel:
Secrecy has gotten worse since Nixon presidency
36 years ago, I had just released the "Pentagon Papers" and my case was before the Supreme Court. I was unsure of the outcome. Nevertheless, I was optimistic, which characterizes my whole approach in the original "Citizen Power."
Bear in mind, I was at the beginning of my Senate career and had great confidence that changes could be brought about within representative government.
It was only at the end of my career when I left office that I was totally discouraged over the inability of representative government to address the problems that face us all.
The secrecy issue was terrible under Richard Nixon, and it has only become worse in succeeding Democratic and Republican administrations.
Source: Mandate for Change, by Mike Gravel, p. xvi-B
Jan 24, 2008
Mike Gravel:
National Initiative for Democracy: voters as participants
For over a decade, Senator Gravel has been engaged 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.
Senator Gravel's National Initiative for Democracy is the most fundamental proposal I have ever seen or read about by any candidate.
It has to challenge our willingness to engage in a deliberative electoral process where people are given a chance to interact with the candidates, to propose their own agendas, and to meet with them all over the country as they campaign.
There will be no more manipulation of the voters into spectators, and there will be no more simply viewing the electoral process as entertainment funded by commercial interests and beyond the range of effective political action on the part of the voters.
Source: Mandate for Change, foreword by Ralph Nader, p. x
Jan 24, 2008
Page last updated: Feb 15, 2019