Excellent write-up, Lela.

I am very glad that you are looking at the mechanisms in place. They are very important.

My applause for the Founding Fathers goes to their doing two things at the same time.

1/ They had to make control rather tight at the Federal level because twenty different political directions does not make one great nation.

2/ They had to ensure that political freedom was guaranteed for individuals, otherwise why bother.

So, we have a US Constitution that does both. It is very good craftsmanship.

However, they did not envision a two-party system. Something went wrong.

What happened was that powers gelled around the two parties and that is because the voting system in place for the Federal level got copied and pasted by the States and subsequently got copied and pasted for counties and cities.

What is absolutely correct for one level is absolutely in conflict with the Founding Fathers at the other levels.

The beauty?

They demand Proportional Voting at the local level. Today.
It is in the US Constitution.

The government cannot deny or disparage rights held by the People UNLESS exception is provided in the US Constitution itself.

That is the brilliant plan by the Founding Fathers. They wrote the exception into the US Constitution for how the Federal government should hold elections.

Nothing and no one else is given further exception.

The State, however, did get lots of freedoms in the US Constitution so we have quite a bit of loopholes; they can get away with holding elections the way they do. But if the People want, in majority, then the State elections can become based on a Proportional system, which would give us more control over our politicians.

For cities and counties, that is already a demand found in the Bill of Rights. No exceptions, no freedoms are given to counties or cities. The powers that are given to the People in the US Constitution should not be disparaged by any government for elections at the local level.

The Founding fFathers were brilliant. Now we need to step up to the plate and get what is rightfully ours.

'Democracy is Always Full-Color; in the US, it's Red and Blue'

https://fred-rick.medium.com/democracy-is-always-full-color-532cad433ed9