A More Perfect Union

What’s a young and beautiful country like us (U.S.) doing with a decrepit constitution like the one we have? Isn’t it time to reconstitute the Constitution and what better time of the year? It is not a sacred text, Scalia to the contrary notwithstanding. The very prerogatives claimed by the Supreme Court are not specified, but asserted early on by John Marshall.

It was flawed then and 27 amendments later it is arguably more flawed. Of the 900 attempted amendments less than three percent made it through the arduous process. First the floundering fathers institutionalized slavery which took a century to fix and another century to enforce with true voting rights. In today’s world it stands as possibly the most undemocratic document among modern states. Washington and Jefferson recognized the need for change before the ink was dry; hence, the Bill of Rights. In fact Jefferson argued that a constitutional convention be convened every 20 years.

Much of the original document was designed to appease the small states so they wouldn’t be swallowed by the giants, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia. Now with two centuries of unimagined population growth, on both coasts, plus Texas and Illinois, we have a Senate which ranks lower than even the House of Lords, in disproportionate representation, since Blair dissolved the old peerage system. How does Wyoming with less than 500,000 people have the same two senators as California with 38 million? My math would give us 152 senators, not 2. Would somebody explain to me the justification of a bi-cameral legislature?

Since New York and California are firmly Blue and Texas is Red no candidate bothers to visit them except to raise money. The same is true for Delaware, the Dakotas and Vermont, which do not carry enough electoral votes to make it worth their resources. Therefore Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and other swing states get the bulk of attention.

The Electoral College is an anachronism. Even the notion of States is meaningless; a vestige of the 18th century. Is there any difference between Kansas and Nebraska in geography, history or custom? If we wish to apportion the country at all, let us have five or six regional districts similar to the federal court system. We need to have direct elections. That would, at least, have spared us George W. Bush. We are no model of republican-democracy for this modern world nor a nation dedicated to the prepositions Of, BY or For.

Why not elect the President for 6 years with no second term? I would also limit campaigns to six weeks without corporate money buying votes. The constitutional scholar, Sanford Levinson, suggests an 18-year term for Supreme Court justices. That way, one Justice would rotate out of office every two years and ensure a less ossified court and one subject to the scrutiny of the voters at least indirectly. It would also eliminate the present custom for a Justice to retire when the party of his persuasion is in office to replace him.

It can be argued that our current polarized landscape is the wrong time to consider broad changes. We could end up with something worse. The present document, flawed as it is, ensures either grid-lock or long deliberation, depending on one’s perspective. If , Do No Harm, is the best we can expect then let it be. On the other hand, I believe we can do better.

In spite of the emergence of a mindless herd of disaffected, called the Tea Party, we still need to put our belief and faith in the will of the majority with safeguards for the minority. To this end, the changes above are sorely needed. At the same time we must not become what J.K. Toole called, a Confederacy of Dunces. Campaigns of deceit backed with corporate funding subvert our democracy even more than our anachronistic Senate and judiciary. The upcoming election will, once again, become a plebiscite on the good sense of the American people.

Someday But Not Soon

I was talking to James Madison the other day and he agreed something went wrong with Washington. Yes, the influence of corporations, buying of votes etc.... Yes, the former imperial presidency. Yes, the conservative ideologues on the high court. But he put his finger on a problem more structural. It was enough to upset his constitution.

It's our anachronistic bicameral legislative branch; specifically the United States Senate. Madison recalled how it all came about; a concession to those tiny hunks of territory such as Delaware and Rhode Island which were really land grants from British royalty, just to get them to ratify the document.

Whereas the House of Representatives is directly apportioned to the population, the upper house reserves two seats for each state regardless of whether it has more cattle than humans or if it is smaller than a large crowd. James M. admitted that at the time the Senate was regarded as the “wealthiest and wisest” institution while the House was seen as more “passionate and fickle.” Not so and probably never was.

Why does Montana with a population less than a one million have the same two votes as California with its 37.5 million? This is the American version of the House Of Lords. Jimmie Madison agreed.

Consider this: The so-called Red States, comprised of the former Confederacy plus a few scattered others have elected forty senators. These 37 men and 3 women represent less than 30% of the population of this country.

Short as he is at 5 ft. 4 in, my new best friend, Jim, loomed over me, incensed. He was appalled to learn how thirty percent of the electorate, through the threat of filibuster, control the passage of all legislation. I had to explain to him how the rules of the Senate usurped his intentions.

He also rose to his feet upon learning that the average age in the Senate was 68 years (before Robert Byrd's death) while the national average comes in at 35. Furthermore we have seventeen women standing in for 51% of the general population. There are now three Hispanics, two Asians and one Black in the Senate. Hardly representative governance, the Senate looks more like an Old Boy's club than the demographics of the line at Costco or Target or the DMV or a Dodger game.

J.M. and I agreed that it was time to recall the entire senatorial body and make do with a single legislative branch. Let them do their work for five or six years so their primary job is not fund-raising. Let the majority rule. Let them take back their mandate of declaring war .....or nay. Let them advise & consent. It should be noted that there are 39 Black Congressmen and women which comprises nine percent of the entire body, very close to the national average,

Was he just being agreeable or did I convince him that the Senate was an ill-conceived body of the elite; an institution well-suited for a convocation of the privleged whose purpose was to push back against social progress?

The two of us then sat down over a jug of cheap wine and I told him my next modest proposal: Since we've done away with the Senate is there really any reason for all these states? Why are the Dakotas divided horizontally? What is the difference between Kansas and Nebraska or the Carolinas? Can we not consider dividing the 48 continental states into four or six regional sections? At this point he slipped under the table and I thought I heard him dialing his more radical friend, Tom Jefferson, who said something about refreshing our system periodically.