Amend the Constitution

A Pipe Dream?

 

When I was a kid, we played cowboys and Indians. We played kick the can, we played baseball and football in the backyard. Our problems and aspirations were those of kids. 

Now we deal with viruses and insurrection. Our problems are adult and manifold. Our aspirations are tempered by age, experience and, hopefully wisdom. 

Watching events unfold in Washington this week could almost make you cry and give up on the American dream. 

We are now testing whether any nation so dedicated and so conceived can long endure. We are called upon to be witnesses to the ongoing crisis. We are called upon to choose sides and decide where we go from here. 

How in the world did we get here? 

There is a school of thought that says this is all new and inevitable. This is wrong. The present crisis was easy to foresee. It may be easy to fix if we have the courage to use not only the Constitution we have, but also the one we need and deserve.

The short answer is that the Founding Fathers did not envision the advent of the modern world with its blurring of the difference between truth, fiction, lies and opinion. How could they? As a document the Constitution is a prisoner of its time. Fact is the only surprise is that it has lasted this and only been updated 16 times! I disregard the bill of rights which was added right away. An example : the bill leaves so much power in the hands of the citizen or the states, there is no way to successfully organise a coherent response to a public health emergency. Thus new records for deaths are being set daily. Whilst Rome burns a handcuffed government fiddles. Two amendments are self-cancelling ( 18 and 21) some are the result of the War (13, 14, 15) So, the amazing thing is the Constitution has only been meaningfully updated about ten times in over 200 years.  It is time for a fundamental re-think!

Would it be possible to update the Constitution for the modern age?

Regrettably it’s possible, but extremely unlikely.

The truth is that the party or faction in power is always less enamoured with such monumental change as when they are out of office.

I expect Joe Biden and the Democrats to remain true to form.  There are manifold problems already and no real impetus for Constitutional change.

This needs to change.

My prescription:  constitutional reform of the First Amendment to account for the radical change in the press; reform the second amendment to focus on the militia aspect as opposed to the individual's right to keep and bear arms; a new amendment to refocus the power of the state to regulate more aspects of individual rights - for example, making states responsible for ensuring equal opportunities and treatment under the law - but only for individuals or groups who subscribe to the principle of ensuring domestic tranquility.  A new amendment to guarantee the rights of the majority are protected against the subversion of the state to minority groups who claim to support the constitution, but only when it serves their self-identified purposes.