We need a new Constitution

[babylonsister]

We need a new Constitution

The nation has changed since 1787. The founding document has to catch up.
By Larry J. Sabato
October 10, 2007


The presidential candidates are offering prescriptions for everything from Iraq to healthcare, but listen closely. Their fixes are situational and incremental. Meanwhile, the underlying structural problems in American politics and government are systemic and prevent us from solving our most intractable challenges.

If we really want to make progress and achieve greater fairness as a society, it is time for elemental change. And we should start by looking at the Constitution, with the goal of holding a new Constitutional Convention.

Sound radical? If so, then the founders were radicals. They would be amazed and disappointed that after 220 years, the inheritors of their Constitution had not tried to adapt to new developments that the founders could never have anticipated in Philadelphia in 1787.

Thomas Jefferson, for example, insisted that "no society can make a perpetual Constitution. ... The Earth belongs always to the living generation. ... Every Constitution ... naturally expires at the end of 19 years" (the length of a generation in Jefferson's time).

The Constitution remains brilliant in its overall design and sound with respect to the Bill of Rights and the separation of powers. But there are numerous archaic provisions that inhibit constructive change and adaptation. These constitutional bits affect the daily life of the republic and every citizen in it. A few examples:

* Restoring the war powers balance. The framers split authority concerning matters of war-making between the president (commander in chief) and Congress (declaring war). Does anyone seriously believe that they would have approved of the executive department waging years-long wars without the explicit approval of the legislature? Yet the advantages accruing to any president -- the unitary nature of the office, the swift action that only he can take in a hair-trigger world, his dominance of the televised public forum -- have created an emperor as much as a president. The constitutional balance of shared war-making must be restored.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-sabato10oct10,0,4265634.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[PDJane]

1. The constitution is fine.

The interpretations aren't, necessarily. The unitary executive needs to be hauled off to the hague.

[Esra Star]

8. Jefferson said the document would need to change over time.

It is overdue.
The presidential system is irrevocably broken.

[againes654]

2. Well bushco has shredded the Constitution as we know it

so writing a new one should be easy.

[Taverner]

3. We just need a new government

The constitution is fine as it is

It's the government I have a problem with.

[RufusTFirefly]

4. I respect the intention but I find the suggestion very, very scary

Imagine if the Constitution were put "on the table" (unlike impeachment) in an era where there are Creationist museums, unapologetic torturers, and defiant signing statements. Now imagine all of this codified in a new Constitution.

[kimmerspixelated]

9. Great minds think alike!

My thoughts exactly! Dangerous territory for the neocons to get their grubby ,thick, sausage fingers on the constitution!

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Add me to your list. That's just what the neo-cons want: a new constitution (or none at all)

[TreasonousBastard]

12. And my thoughts-- a constitutional convention is usually...

dreamed up by rightwingers for their own agendas. Amending ther one we have will do just fine.

I wish we were better following the Constitution as it is written, and not fooling around with a new one.

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Hallelujah! We can finally add God and fetuses to the Constitution!

And add an Amendment to the Bill of Rights that prohibits flag burning, gay marriage, and drinking French wines.
Oh, won't it be grand?!

[Demeter]

5. The Constitution Needs Updating for Modern Times and Technology

But the bones of the original are good enough for the most part--just need some fleshing out, press a few more weights, etc.

And one of the parts that needs development is ENFORCEMENT.

[sallyseven]

11. No it doesn't need any touching at all.

Leave it alone and follow it closely. Amend it at your peril.

[liberal N proud]

6. I just want the one we had back. Fully restored

There is nothing wrong with what was written in 1776, it is a timeless document and it survived for 225 years when the bu$h regime waged war on it and shredded it with their criminal acts and legislation pushed through unchecked.

[RC]

7. It would be VERY dangerous to hold a constitution convention now.

The problem is not the Constitution, it is all the laws that neutralize or ignore the Constitution that must be dealt with.

What we need to do is make the Constitution the supreme law of the land again. Bring sanity back into the Government.

[Selatius]

14. No new Constitution without tacking on the old Bill of Rights to that new document.

Aside from issues such as mandating all federal elections be publicly funded, abolishing the electoral college, and making states choose federal representatives using something like proportional representation for the US House to break the two-party monopoly, I would not advance ahead on any reform if it doesn't also include reaffirming or even re-establishing the supremacy of the Bill of Rights.

[LiberalFighter]

15. Will it include sterilization of the whole Bush family or prohibition of any Bush family member

from ever holding any government elected or appointed position?

[Lex1775]

16. What the hell?? The Constitution HAS changed... see Amendments 11-27.