A Second Constitutional Convention: Constitutional Reformation in the 21st Century

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is my feeling that we cannot do this job alone, or without a serious overhaul of what our country is.

Back before we had a Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation. From Wiki (I know, I know):

served as the de facto system of government used by the Congress (“the United States in Congress assembled”) until it became de jure by final ratification on March 1, 1781; at which point Congress became the Congress of the Confederation. The Articles set the rules for operations of the “United States” confederation. The confederation was capable of making war, negotiating diplomatic agreements, and resolving issues regarding the western territories. An important element of the Articles was that Article XIII stipulated that “their provisions shall be inviolably observed by every state” and “the Union shall be perpetual“.

But all of us know, and have lived under Our Constitution for nearly 225 years. The change was due to the looseness of the Confederations, lacked Taxing authority, the “1-vote per state flaw”, and the assumption of Debt payments that were being delayed by the individual states. In short, it lack the feel and philosophies of the current Constitution.

Again from Wiki:

On January 21, 1786, the Virginia Legislature, following James Madison’s recommendation, invited all the states to send delegates to Annapolis, Maryland to discuss ways to reduce these interstate conflicts. At what came to be known as the Annapolis Convention, the few state delegates in attendance endorsed a motion that called for all states to meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787 to discuss ways to improve the Articles of Confederation in a “Grand Convention.” Although the states’ representatives to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia were only authorized to amend the Articles, the representatives held secret, closed-door sessions and wrote a new constitution.

Which is now what I duly propose.

Our Constitution is in need of a revamp to deal with the realities and technology and pitfalls we currently face.

 A Second Constitutional Convention is needed to address problems both internal and external which can not be done by anyone person or currently elected body.

Various Excerpts from this draft:

#1: It will soon be 225 years since this monumental task was engaged in –
“to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general
Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity…” (Preamble to the United States Constitution.)
 
At many junctures in our nation’s history, we have corrected course via
internal and external threats to our nation’s Posterity.  Seven-five years
after New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the Law of the Land
(June 21, 1788), the Civil War waged.  The bloody battle at Gettysburg
set the stage for Abraham Lincoln to speak to the existence of our
Union: “ The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work [for] which they fought…”
(Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.)

#2:Now, as we move again toward the fourth act of our nation’s illustrious
history, we face threats across many fronts – internal and external – that
must be addressed.
 
In the past quarter century, much of what America has become is being
done without a rudder or leadership or a rule or spirit of a guiding hand.
Our President, Barack Obama, spoke to this dilemma in a recent White
House news conference, saying that America was similar to a gigantic
ship that is not, “easily course corrected,” and that it responds, “slowly
to the policies installed.”
   
The recent financial collapses have left Americans trillions of dollars
poorer. Two of the largest and most venerable companies, GM and
Chrysler, are in the process of bankruptcy. The health care system
continues to escalate in cost, while nearly 20% cannot pay for coverage,
and by 2017 nearly one in five dollars will be spent on the system’s
maintenance. Nearly $1.5 Trillion dollars have been pledged to buttress
an economic system in flux, and often, in frail circumstances.
 
Our National Debt has surpassed $10 Trillion dollars. If our Government
would save $1 Billion per day, every day, it would take 27 years and 145
days to eliminate the balance. However, if interest accrues at the same
rate on that $10 Trillion, the net effort would be a zero change to our
Debt. The Crisis is only acerbated by the prolonged Recession, which
requires more deficit spending to spur growth, yet a rationale is needed
to maintain Fiscal Responsibility in the decades to come, else, We will
see unimaginable debts, and harder economic choices, than has befallen
any generation of Americans before.
 
Current Households are getting by on less; with no way to accurately
predict the designs of their companies, or if they will exist in the future
global economy. Energy, Environment, Economics and Existence are
intertwined; with the ignoring of One, or more, to come with the brutal
Human price (at some point) in the response of (and to) the Others. Such
Human costs come today with daily personal aggravations and the brutal
destruction of the Middle Class and Middle America. Dependence has
become a way of life for many, many millions. 
 
The American competitive advantage of Education, Infrastructure and
Manufacturing has evaporated as developing and developed regimes are
exploiting weaknesses and offering American multinational corporations
access to cheap, unencumbered and pliant labor forces that can not or
will not stand up for better working conditions. The enormous profits are
kept; and America grows more complacent, and less able to catch up
when our dollars stay in the hands of never-friendly, duplicitous regimes,
who, reinvest by buying American assets with little regard for the
American people’s way of life. Thus, we are trapped in a cycle that has
to be reversed.
   
Our Rivals in this global Marketplace were once the bane of our
Existence, not for their economy, education, infrastructure, or political
ideas, but because they held Freedom in prison, and ignored their people
forthwith. They still do; but now supplant their peoples’ emerging
industriousness, and desires for a political voice, with the economic
strip mining of natural resources  – and the fact the resources are
indeed, limited, makes it more beneficial to ignore the struggling
population while amassing wealth for the selected few.
 
We are engage in a war. While we attempt to extricate ourselves from
one country, two close neighbors are in need of our Military. These costs
in lives and coin are greater than we seem able to justify or maintain.
And others regimes are revisiting the Cold War with nuclear ambitions
and threats. The Middle East is still as unstable as it has been for a
Millennia.
 
Our government has been severely taxed to function properly; as the
divide over social ills, economic philosophies, foreign policy and
domestic design have been a source of bitter feuding without significant
altering of the direction of the country.
 
 And no one man is able to reset the course alone.
 
The Problems are vast; multi-trillion in nature, and currently are
addressed with only piece-meal and hen-pecked legislation. Meager
victories are attainable – but never go to the root cause – and so, the
time is ripe for amending what it is to be under Constitutional Rule.
 
The Framers to Our Constitution and the Founding Fathers were not idle
people. No one accused Adams, Franklin, Jay, Jefferson, Madison,
Morris, Sherman or Washington of inaction or paralysis in an arena of
battle. They did not sit by and wait for things to happen. They made
things happen. They were builders; doers; dreamers; leaders; opinion
makers; philosophers; scholars and visionaries.

#3: Our Framers allowed for Amendments to make clearer, and
unambiguous, the language and rights ceded to the Individual, and the
Government. Each is dependent on the other; cooperation and
compromise is the hallmark result of our ebb and flow during bitter
conflicts and the paramount concerns over the other’s intrusions into
Rights the other has. The State remains Supreme; but only by the Graces
of those Ruled.
 
A 2011 – 2012 Constitutional Convention to address our Nation’s
problems would be a vast improvement on innovating the future of
America over the piece-meal, penny-wise, but pound-foolish approach
that much of our U.S. legislation attempts futilely. And its time for the
Common Man and the Elite Minds in various arenas to dutifully attempt
to pull together to create a more perfect Union to last another 225 years.

#4: Constitutional reformation is not a new idea.
 
In the mid-1980’s, James L. Sundquist from The Brookings Institution
wrote on the subject in Constitutional Reform and Effective Government
(1986). Then, no mention was ever made of the environment, climate
change (Global Warming), genetics, technology, the internet or
reproductive rights. Only in passing was the term energy policies or
abortion mentioned. 
 
Thus, the need for an updated discussion to determine what should be
the role of our Modern Government; and what are the Rights and
Responsibilities of each branch; and the operation as it is directed
toward the Individual; and is their a better way to solve our various
problems through better, leaner, and a more focused government.
 
If indeed, a quorum develops to execute a Convention – a supermajority
of 30 states, for example – then we can proceed to selection of leaders
to be sent, and the importance of equality of representation based on
expertise, and commonality, and flexibility of action.

#5: It is a hope that with a large contingent that a wide array of opinions can
be brought to bear on the problems. And that discussion in America’s
newspapers, online sites, blogs, podcasts, talk radio, and multimedia
platforms will engage Americans in a Civics discussion of unparallel
proportions in human history.
     
It is a desire to get the best each state has to offer in agriculture, art,
business, economics, education, engineering, legal, medical, political
science, natural science, and technology sectors, to name only a few.

#6: The biggest caveat to delegation representation is that the currently
sitting Congressional members of the United States cannot be apart of
this discussion. They have plenty to handle in the daily oversight and
operation of the Country. (They could testify or provide information on
drafting amendments.) They can resign their post to join the discussion,
but cannot be apart of these two bodies simultaneously.
 
The point of the delegation is not to just bring elite minds to the table
either. At least 10% of the representatives need to be lay community
leaders who represent urban, suburban and rural areas successfully, and
uniquely. Their intimate connection is as important as the ivory tower
scientist, or tempered-glass, high-rise, Wall Street-minded executive who
will be as much apart of the discussion as his State deems necessary.

#7: Without specific numbers, but using 538 representatives as a theoretical
base, approximately 12 committees (with further breakdown as they
deem necessary) to attempt to handle the intertwined policies and
desires of the People.  (A cross-functional committee would make 13
total.)
 
This is a process that should not be rushed; as it is a hope that in two
years the debate, analysis, counterarguments, ratification process and
establishment into law can be begin – assuming the discussion will last
to the 2012 Election cycle.   

#8: Possible Committees

  21st century Business & Economics

  Arts & Education Development

  Medicine, Science & Technology

  Engineering, Energy, Infrastructure & Climate Change

  Federal Budget Reform & Analysis

  Political Reform

  Efficiency & Effective Governmental Systems

  Legal Reform (Criminal & Civil)

  Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources

  Trade & Domestic Employment

  Security, Terrorism and Foreign Policy

  Disaster Management & Policy

  Unified Committee to Resolve Conflicting Amendments

#9: If, at the very least, this triggers an intelligent discussion, and the
search for information and analysis of the issues to put into play by the
hopeful Designers of the 21st Century Amendments to Our Hallowed
Constitution, then the work of a Convention should be called a success. 
 
Quality, not quantity, is the Experiment that is Good Governance. If we
should ignore this, then the problems will persist.
 
The impetus for a drastic alteration should be to suppress and eliminate
a much greater and fundamentally destructive dynamic: The internal and
external forces that are waging war against America. Some by accident;
some by design; but all are a linchpin to a catastrophic collapse in our
Freedoms and Choices as American Citizens.
 
Enduring change is done through the process of Law and Order. This
proposed convention for adapting the U.S. Constitution for the 21st
century is not about any singular argument, or advancement. It is about
trusting that We, The People, can respectfully and uniformly agree on the
Necessities of our Modern Life. It is about setting examples for a World
that is often amiss. That change and adaptation can happen quickly and
with great human benefits.
 
With Duty, Honor, Courage and Commitment, This Shall Be the Case.

Note: Minutes from the Original Constitutional Convention in 1787.

January 20, 2009: 2009 Faux Inaugural Address

 About 3 months ago I promised to write this little post. I had decided to forego it in light of the fact I was deciding to quit blogging for a spell. With my new energy [maybe a slightly manic spell] I put forth some effort to write like the old, dusty men who ran this country years ago. My apologies to them and their words of wisdom. Hopefully you can stand the preachiness and understand the subtle ways I dismiss certain ideas that have operated during the past few years. The [Block Text] in bold is not to be read.

[History of our Country’s Patriotism]
The time was mid-summer, 1776. A powerful nation stood as an insurmountable barrier to the prosperity and operation of a 170-year old colony of thirteen, then divided. The previous decade had seen tumultuous and dangerous circumstances rule the day. No one felt free; and the far away King did not listen. Crisis was assured.

The wisest course of action would have been to accept the situation as is: to not infuriate and throw off the mighty government that held sway; to give up in the darkest hours of a fledgling Nation under haphazard leadership; to deny the Dream of Peace, Prosperity and Freedom. But our Forefathers determined that it was a time to break those bonds and strike a new accord. To declare it could do better and should be free to design its future.

In our 232 years as a Nation hence, we the people have forged an everlasting union to the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence. That we shall evince an equitable design for all Man to see; to make Freedom our truest value; that a single Proclamation can change the Course of human events; and that all Men shall be Equal under God Almighty.

In those same 232 years, we have past through trying times and evolved through the world events and the ingenuity of Man, of America. That even in conflict, we reached for the same founding ideals, the same credos, the same hope to guide us to a better day and build upon the unshakeable foundation we shall never succumb, and never allow to be compromised.

We are the generation of settlers born out of Plymouth Rock. We are the Puritans and Lutherans. We are the merchants, the farmers, the toilers in the trades. We are the writers and founders of American Independence. We are the Natives of this land. We are the downtrodden and the dreamers. The Immigrants of Europe, Asia and Africa. We are the Gilded Age, the voices of tired laborers, wounded soldiers, Western prairie settlers and the caregivers in times of war, and of peace. We are survivors of Two World Wars. The people of the hardest times, The Great Depression. The Boomers who came after them. We also bore witness to a hidden war; we bare witness now to a nation still divided by color, creed and disproportionate prosperity since Vietnam. And we continue to forge ahead; through crises, and the completion of our inspired mission.

We have also found fellowship in our mutual belief in humanity. The cause of designing a new Nation. The dreams of our fathers and mothers. And the sacrifices of our sons and daughters made time and time again. This hearty experiment in Democracy, which has spread to the far reaches of the Earth, has been buttressed on the unfettered and unquenchable fire of liberty burning in the bellies of the American people. We are all responsible for its existence.

[Challenges of the past eight years]
As we take stock of our most recent events, the designs and desires of various masters, it is best to separate ourselves from that, and those, that have done us greatest harm by understanding our needs for Justice must not be at the price of our Principles. As President Kennedy intoned: “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.” [Amherst College, Oct. 26, 1963.]

Our nation’s power comes from an abiding strength in it, and the wise frugality of its use; but also the knowledge that the repository of our power is vast, and can be unleashed with rapidity. To garner Justice we will do whatever it takes without hesitation. In the use of such power we will employ that which will protect us, and keep us Free as our Forefathers rightfully designed. But the Poetry of America is to decree Our Rights are sacrosanct; untouchable by foreign and alien ideologies. We shall prevail over all enemies with our adamant poetry and our indomitable spirit. Our Security will be eyed clearly; under a will, resolute; and our Nation shall carry forth a strong message to all that would seek to do us harm. But our everlasting American spirit is promote Justice in our relationships; cultivate peace and harmony; and to seek out prosperous alliances iron bound in fairness.

[The present & future agenda]
Within the boundaries of this great Nation, lie incalculable resources and an innovative spirit yet untapped. America’s necessity always breeds American innovation. It runs in the blood of all of us. That is why in our present environmental and energy confinements there are opportunities to grow beyond the dogmas of the past, which lack the ability to confront the stormy present. That is why we will beat back our future’s most perilous foe, that of economic instability from scant energy sources, before the year 2020. Hindsight will see this day, this moment, as the point where America decided on the best course to free ourselves from a five-score dependence on fossil fuels. But it is that greatest resource of all, our ingenuity in the face of greatest peril, which will win the day.

We will also forge a new path to make it possible for all Americans to survive in the worst of unforeseen circumstances: that of ill health and debilitating hospital stays. Our government has often succeeded in giving a hand to those less fortunate in the worst of times. To create jobs; to revitalize the markets; to make a New Deal for Americans. It is time to do the same for the sick and unable to pay their medical bills. As we are all too aware, our personal health is at the foundation of our economic vitality. Nearly 20% of our economy is tied to deterioration of health. But with this enormous price, one-fifth of America cannot continue to achieve greater prosperity. It is vital that we address this shortcoming before my first term is out. Achieve a balanced solution that gives the best care at the lowest possible cost. And utilize again the best minds and opportunities to achieve universal healthcare in America.

More measures will be taken to secure our Nation’s future. We will not lock out those who desire access to the promise and prosperity of America, but we will not allow foreign passage to make a mockery of our laws. We will forcefully hold our sovereignty by the standards laid in the Constitution of the United States of America. We will hold clear and open discussions about the legitimate right to seek legal asylum in this great nation and remedy those that are here all ready under inauspicious terms.

We will reinvest in our educational systems; build better, and up-to-date transit systems; and make fair the tax laws and legal precedents of America, for all Americans. Yes we can reach for the stars and fill our breadbaskets. We can reconstitute an age of volunteerism, building infrastructure and homes and levies so they will not break. We shall make a promise to assist those in need and ask only they put their best foot forward. We can and shall help our Veterans who toiled bravely thousands of miles from their homes so that our streets and towns can remain prosperous and free.

[The greatness of America harnessed again]
We can do this all with the humble sacrifice and the forceful temerity that bore our Forefathers so well in their most trying times. It is the nature and depth of their sacrifice that brought us to this auspicious moment as the greatest Nation on the face of this Earth. A Nation that shall not perish with the undoubted sacrifices made by those that properly ask what they can do for this country in continuing to make it a Nation for the People, by the People and of the People.

God Bless America!

Ideas from Kennedy, FDR, Lincoln and Washington are included in the passages. Apologies for my butchering of them…

I took a Saturday Night and spent 4 hours composing this during TNT/TBS movies.