My Experience At The Utah State Legislature: Part Four, Legislation

 Read Part One Here

Read Part Two Here

Read Part Three Here

(This resolution was passed onto the full House for debate with a favorable recommendation on February 13, 2012)  Rep. Galvez is leading the way to a sound monetary system for Utah.

Representative Brad J. Galvez proposes the following substitute bill: JOINT RESOLUTION ON MONETARY DECLARATION

2012 GENERAL SESSION STATE OF UTAH

Chief Sponsor: Brad J. Galvez

Senate Sponsor: ____________

LONG TITLE General Description:

This joint resolution of the Legislature expresses support for the legal and commercial framework necessary to establish and maintain well-functioning, sound monetary
systems.
Highlighted Provisions:

This resolution:

  • expresses support for the legal and commercial frameworks that are conducive to constitutional, well-functioning, monetary systems and that feature gold and silver coin as natural, sound, circulating money, protect against any impairment of financial contracts, and ensure the security and equal protection of the people’s monetary holdings.

Special Clauses:

None

Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah:

WHEREAS, the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness require, for their full enjoyment, the indispensable right to honorably acquire, use, hold, and transfer property;

WHEREAS, money, serving as a medium of exchange, a unit of measure, and a store of value, facilitates the free exercise of inherent property rights, both individually and collectively;

WHEREAS, natural money arises from reliable value stemming from a medium’s intrinsic uniformity, divisibility, durability, portability, desirability, and scarcity;

WHEREAS, sound money promotes the general welfare of society by maintaining stable purchasing power over extended periods of time;

WHEREAS, circulating money only functions when the exchange of one form of legal tender for another is proportional between denominations, free of taxation and of debilitating regulation;

WHEREAS, government should never compel payment in a form of money inconsistent with the intent of transacting parties, except with respect to amounts directly payable to government itself;

WHEREAS, the extent and composition of a person’s monetary holdings should never be subject to disclosure or search and seizure except upon strict adherence to the safeguards of due process; and

WHEREAS, for a check and balance on congressional monetary authority, states retain the constitutional right to make gold and silver coin a legal tender for payment of debts:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah expresses support for the legal and commercial frameworks that are conducive to constitutional, well-functioning, monetary systems which feature gold and silver coin as natural, sound, circulating money, protect against any impairment of financial contracts, and ensure the security and equal protection of the people’s monetary holdings.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the legislatures of all 49 other states, the Secretary of the United States Treasury, and to the members of Utah’s congressional delegation.

1st Sub. (Buff) H.J.R. 9 02-13-12 2:08 PM             HJR 9

Another bill I am working to support is HB 148 or TRANSFER OF PUBLIC LANDS ACT AND RELATED STUDY which is scheduled to go to committee on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 8am.  If you want to come and experience this committee be at the Capitol no later than 7:30am and give me a call from the Capitol steps and I will get you to the meeting. (435) 590 1661.

One bill I am not happy with is SB 63, which promotes a national popular vote.  Read below for my take on this.

Why James Madison is Against a National Popular Vote

Madison’s Rule: Use factions to protect majorities and minorities from each other

The same logic that governs our Presidential electoral system, applies to many sports—which Americans do, intuitively, understand.

In baseball’s World Series, for example, the team that scores the most runs overall is like a candidate who gets the most votes.  But to become champion, that team must win the most games.

In 1960, the New York Yankees scored more than twice as many total runs as the Pittsburgh Pirates yet the Yankees lost the series, four games to three. And nobody walked away saying it was unfair.

Runs must be grouped in a way that wins games, just as popular votes must be grouped in a way that wins states. In this case the concept of majority rules applies to the states not the individual citizens.

In sports, we accept that a true champion should be more consistent than the Yankees were in 1960.

A champion should be able to win at least some of the tough, close contests by every means available—bunting, stealing, brilliant pitching, dazzling plays in the field—and not just smack home runs against second-best pitchers.

A presidential candidate worthy of office, by the same logic, should have broad appeal across the whole nation, and not just play strongly on a single issue to isolated blocs of voters.

Experts, scholars, and deep thinkers can make errors on electoral reform, but nine-year-olds can explain to a Martian why the Yankees lost in 1960, and why it was right.

And both are based on the same underlying principle.

As Madison, the chief architect of the Electoral College explained in Federalist Paper 10, “a well-constructed Union” must, above all else, “break and control the violence of faction,” especially “the superior force of an … overbearing majority.” In any democracy, a majority’s power threatens minorities. It threatens their rights, their property, and sometimes their lives. A well-designed electoral system might include obstacles to thwart an overbearing majority. But direct, national voting has none.  The Madisonian system, by requiring candidates to win states on the way to winning the nation, has forced majorities to win the consent of minorities, checked the violence of factions, and held the country together.*

Interestingly, with a National Popular Vote, even though a majority of voters (generally a minority of eligible voters – less than 42%) could choose the president, it could do so with as little as 20% of the states.  Democracy is always promoted as the champion of the majority but in reality it almost always serves the minority.

 These 10 states combined could elect the President of the United States

 

Sources:

*Math Against Tyranny, Will Hively, Discover Magazine, November 1996 ￿￿￿￿

http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html

 

One Response

  1. I still do not understand the electoral college that well. Where’s the best place to read about it?

Krislyn Elliott & Lauren Swanepoel

Krislyn Elliott and Lauren Swanepoel act more like sisters than moms as they take really slow walks through the woods together, looking at and taking pictures of every plant they see & wishing they could remember their names and uses more thoroughly. They also like concocting herbal teas, salves, tinctures and strange drinks.

Krislyn is from Utah and has loved learning about plants since an unusually cool high school biology teacher took his classes on neighborhood botany walks. She has always been fascinated and constantly amazed at the power and beauty of plants.

Lauren is from South Africa, she and her family emigrated to Utah almost 10 years ago. They have fallen in love with the area and know more about this state & the great places to explore here than most Utah natives.

We both feel strongly about taking care of our families with natural methods and the abundant medicine we have growing right around us. We are trying to learn as much as we can about our magical local plants and are looking forward to sharing some of our favorites with you.

William DeMille

Director of Georgic Develeopment

William DeMille is a lifelong vegetable farmer. He studied Horticulture and Agronomy at Northwest Missouri University, Maryville. He holds a certificate in aquaponic engineering and production from Cornell University, NY, and another from GrowHaus Aquaponics in Denver, CO. He also studied soil regeneration and is a graduate of Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web School. He is the Director of Georgic Development for The Center for American Legacy Studies.

William is a farm consultant establishing several agricultural startups since 2005 in Missouri, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada and he currently manages 2500 acres of grassland for the Ruby Mountain Foods Company.

His latest venture is a market gardening school called Georgic Revolution where he teaches a 17-week course onsite in Nevada covering soil health and vegetable production without the use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc. and where he operated a soil lab.

William lives with his wife Vernie in the snow capped mountains of Northern Nevada.

Lloyd Nelson

World Renown BD Expert

Lloyd Nelson has been practicing the art of Biodynamic (BD) Agriculture for over twenty years. He is a BD preparation maker, builder, artist, farmer, arborist, BD educator & consultant. He is co-founder of Biodynamic Source – a Colorado based non-profit specializing in high potency BD preparations – and he owns and operates a Biodynamic spray, fertilizer and consultation service. He has worked with small and large scale farms, vineyards, and orchards to transition to sustainable Biodynamic land management and Demeter BD Certification.

Vern Cox, PhD

Educator

Vern Cox is married to Joyce Christensen and they have 8 children. He has 3 earned degrees, a BA in psychology, and both a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy.

He has had a diverse and interesting career that started with the Bureau of Land Management, followed by a stint as a Learning Disabilities teacher, and finally a marriage and family therapist, working his way up to executive director of the High Country Counseling and Resource Centers that served two counties in Wyoming.

Dr. Cox served for several years on the board of a charter school. Dr. Cox remains heavily involved in his community and the home schooling movement.

He has extensive background in marriage and family counseling, having held a number of administrative positions during his first career. He holds a BA in Psychology and both a Masters and PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy. He lives with his wife and several married children on their multi-generation farm in Southern Utah.

Joseph Lofthouse

Educator

Joseph adopted the principles of landrace gardening in response to the harsh growing conditions in a high-altitude, short-season, desert garden. Instead of relying on expensive poisons, labor, and materials to coddle the plants, he encourages genetic diversity, cross-pollination, and survival of the fittest, allowing the plants to adapt themselves to the current and ever-changing ecosystem, thus simplifying gardening and seed saving. Joseph is the author of Landrace Gardening: Food Security Through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination. Joseph loves eating, farming, swimming, hot-springs, sunbathing, bird-watching, running, yoga, leggings, kilts, playing guitar, singing, and living habitually barefoot.

Dan Brooks

Educator

Dan Brooks was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. During his first career, he spent 20 years working in and managing high-end restaurants and golf courses including extensive banquet/special events services and ice sculptures.

For the past 23 years, Dan has been a successful entrepreneur and family business owner in Las Vegas. He and his wife have 4 children and 11 grandchildren. He serves as a trustee for The Center for American Legacy Studies.

Shanon Brooks, PhD

Director

Shanon Brooks is the director of The Center for American Legacy Studies, an institution dedicated to helping families embrace and incorporate the Five American Ideals; Georgics, Liber, Providence, Public Virtue, and Liberty into their lives and communities. America exists because of Americans. Americans are the beneficiaries of a peculiar culture and way of living.

Over the past 75 years, that culture and way of life have been lost. Restore that culture and Americans will rebuild America to once again be worthy of John Winthrop’s 1630 admonition, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.”

Brooks has been a leader in alternative higher education for over 30 years, and is the author of two books: AMERICAN: Killing the American Dream and A Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens.

Dr. Brooks is a veteran of military service in the United States Submarine Fleet and holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, a Master’s degree in education, and a Ph.D. in constitutional law.

He and his wife Julia reside on the 80-acre conference facility of The Center for American Legacy Studies.