The Republic of the United States appears to have fallen. It is by almost any definition the exact opposite of what the Founders intended when they sat down together and thrashed out the Constitution for governing this new nation they were creating on our side of the Atlantic Ocean. Even the simplest and most obvious issues are turned into meaningless and endless debates and those guilty of violating both the spirit and intent of the Constitution always get away with it.
So, if you were had to sit down and write a new Constitution for the United States today, how would you do it? Would you make the passage of laws contingent on getting a 2/3rds majority vote? Would you set up unelected men and women with the power to overturn the laws voted on and approved by a 2/3rds legislature?
Would you permit bureaucrats to make any rules without the definitive action by the legislature to enact those specific rules into law?
Would anything like a draft be legal? Would it allow the same state to compel young women to have children if the legislature decided that was important and in the interests of the survival of the state?
Could states opt out and how would they pay for any infrastructure left behind? Would they? What if they said they didn't want it but charged the Federal government to come in and tear it down?
Could we go back to no income tax as the Founders wished and leave it to the government to raise revenues via tariffs and fees? Would a standing army or national police force be authorized or would it be forbidden?
I think it would be interesting to have a practice convention first before holding a real Constitutional Convention again. It might be interesting to see if it could be done along the lines of the Lunar Republic's from Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". People could propose clauses online and if the majority vote for them, they're in!
8 comments:
I wish someone would put this all over media, send to networks, congress, scotus and very court in the land. 60 Minutes if it wasn't commie crap. Make a meme. But then again nothing seems to matter.
"It is by almost any definition the exact opposite of what the Founders intended..." Agreed. I wouldn't re-write anything, just enforce the Constitution as written. What good would writing anything do when what is already in place is held meaningless?
To coin a phrase, "Borders, Language, Culture".
It may be an unpopular opinion but I think a Supreme Court with the same powers the current one has is important. As the Founders believed government powers should be limited and internally obstructed as much as possible. Co-operation among all of the branches of government should be as difficult as possible.
It wouldn't bee too hard to sit down and write a new Constitution for the United States. The first thing to do would be to get an editable copy of the Confederate States of America Constitution. It fixed quite a few issues that are present in the US Constitution. There were things like term limits and line item veto that was written in.
There is NOTHING wrong with the current Constitution. The problem is there areNO meaningful consequences for the people who ignore it. Any other such document would be ignored just as readily as the current one. The solution to our problems is NOT a new document. The solution is tar,feathers, rails, ropes and lamp posts.
The basis for revolution over the last 2 centuries has been the promise of a 'new' form of government and 'power to the people'. That's the ball that has to start rolling along before the public gets to hunt down and tar and feather the tyrants. It would be interesting to see if unlike our Founders, we simply repudiated the debts of the old government and left them on the floor. On the other hand, starting out a new government with fiat money and nothing of value to pin it to is a hard start and hasn't worked out all that well over the long term. It seems there is always an army or navy that the bankers can call in to extort their money from the 'new government.' On the gripping hand I don't think they'd fare to well against pirate submarines. ASW is a lost art that was very hard to start with and i used to play with hundreds of P-3s, SOSUS, FDS, ASWOCS and Fleet Numerical Centers and of course experienced ASW ships, crews and helos.
One suggestion;
Any decision by any court including the supreme court could be overturned by a simple majority vote of the governors of the several states (& commonwealths.)
Another, lifetime limits on federal service. This applies to both elective positions and civil service including the bureaucracies. This limit would apply to the total time you are in federal service including military, civilian (post office for example), juduicial and elective office such as congress.
Make campaign promises legally binding on pain of treason.
Jim-Bowb.
You bring to mind one of the things Heinlein used to write, never trust a reform politician because he can always be counted upon to geek if someone convinces him that it will be "good for the people." Yep they're out there and getting worse all the time given the crazies in the social justice and weather stupid fronts.
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