Senator Mike Gravel on Democracy

Dean Edwards, editor and news anchor for Democracy Watch News interviews, retired U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel, about his book, The Failure of Representative Government and the Solution: A Legislature of the People.  https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/789312-the-failure-of-representative-government-and-the-solution   https://mikegravel.com/   Senator Gravel explains on Youtube   https://youtu.be/0NajtA-oH-o    From his book's intro; "Like many political observers, I believe that our governmental institutions are in disarray and in many cases outright dysfunctional. As a result, our political constituencies are deeply and bitterly divided. This is the case of not just the United States' political system. It's a worldwide phenomenon affecting nations we call democracies—meaning governments where people vote to elect their political leaders."  People were denied sovereignty and direct democracy from the beginning of the U.S.A in order to protect the practice of Slavery.  In grammar school he was called the local communist because he pointed out the plight of the poor. He got into politics at age 15 and the recognition from elected officials inspired him to get involved in many electoral campaigns as a grunt. He spent some time in New York at the Society for St. Tammany.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall  An influential book for Mike was These Truths: A History of the United States https://smile.amazon.com/These-Truths-History-United-States/dp/B07FDL9QV9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26GL5Y34V36E2&dchild=1&keywords=these+truths+a+history+of+the+united+states&qid=1586489390&s=audible&sprefix=These+Truths%2Caps%2C249&sr=1-1  Another influential book for the young Mike Gravel was The Anatomy of Peace by Emery Reves  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Peace  In 1971, U.S. Senator Mike Gravel took advantage of congressional privilege to disclose the contents of the Pentagon Papers, that were then kept secret. https://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/16/former_senator_mike_gravel_on_putting   #DirectDemocracy,#UnitedStates,#Constitution,#CitizenLegislation,#Philadelphia2,#MikeGravel,#ConstitutionalReform, #ParticipatoryDemocracy   Duration 1:11:37 Send listener feedback to    [email protected]   Our production team https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rnPeRDB3JTrr80N_NlLmUM7nEzrRejw8-5qFYd45W5M/edit?usp=sharing