Rewriting the Constitution

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Rewriting the Constitution

Any change to our governmental processes should retain as much of the good stuff as possible. It should be based on as much wisdom as possible, including “James Madison’s genius.” But it should also include innovations since James Madison, from other American scholars and from other nations’ experiences in government and civil society. It is good to admire the American founders. But it is foolish to think that nothing new has been learned since their day or that nothing better is possible today.

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The Constitution versus the "constitution"

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The Constitution versus the "constitution"

Reading the Constitution tells you how the United States is governed to about the same extent as reading a recipe tells you what food tastes like. The Constitution, from the very beginning, has been mute about important issues. And wherever the Constitution has not set clear and definite parameters, people in power have taken opportunity to work the nation’s practices to their advantage.

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The Five Constitutions

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The Five Constitutions

A citizen may refer to the Constitution and give a literal and accurate quotation from the document. Another may declare they have a constitutional right to something they just made up. Someone can say the Constitution does or doesn’t do or say something, and justify their statement by pointing to a court decision. People define the Constitution as broadly and vaguely as is convenient for their purposes.

So what should a well-informed citizen do?

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It's OK to Hate Politics

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It's OK to Hate Politics

Politics is the process of gaining power for yourself so you can do favors for yourself and your friends. Politics is driven by money and ego. Politics is about winning, and doing whatever it takes to win. A decent person might, perhaps, engage in politics. The winner of a political contest might, perhaps, use the power of the office to do good. They might wash the dirt of the campaign off their hands. But politics itself does not (and cannot) serve any common good or any moral principle.

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Cows in the Corn

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Cows in the Corn

Cows ought to stay in their pasture. Good fences are the best way of keeping them there. The farmer who makes excuses instead of keeping his fences up is a bad neighbor.

Politicians ought to respect citizens’ rights and provide good government for all. An effective constitution is the means of making them do that. The people who make excuses for an ineffectual constitution are bad citizens.

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435 is Too Many

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435 is Too Many

Today’s House of Representatives is a far cry from the republican ideal of the founders. It does not provide Americans with the kind of representation the founders intended. Each representative in the House is limited by the committee system and by partisanship and seniority and their calendar and a dozen other considerations. There are just too many people in the House.

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435 is Not Enough

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435 is Not Enough

The founders’ ideal of 30,000-to-one has faded in the rear-view mirror. The number of constituents each member of the House represents now varies from a little over 500,000 in Rhode Island to more than a million in Montana. Montanans have half the representation that Rhode Islanders have, and that’s not fair. But nobody anywhere in America gets the level of representation the founding fathers intended, and that is not fair, either.

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Constitutional Stupidity

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Constitutional Stupidity

Most of the time, American citizens think of the US Constitution as a positive. Even when they are complaining about the way things are, few would heap any of the blame on Constitution itself. It is common for serious commentators to say that all America really needs is to “get back to the Constitution.” Many of the nation’s most prominent and respected law professors and constitutional experts don’t agree. Those scholars and experts see very serious flaws in the Constitution.

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