What if we wrote the constitution today

S

SmarterthanYou

rebel
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/12/what-if-we-wrote-constitution-today/170608/

Proposals from libertarian, conservative, and progressive scholars displayed a few striking differences—but also some profound similarities.

As the world’s oldest written constitution, the U.S. Constitution has been remarkably resilient. For more than 230 years, it has provided the foundation for America’s economic prosperity, political stability, and democratic debate. But during the past two centuries, changes in politics, technology, and values have led many to assume that if Americans set out to write a new Constitution today, the document would be quite different. To find out what a new Constitution might look like, my colleagues and I at the National Constitution Center recently asked three teams of scholars—conservative, progressive, and libertarian—to draft new Constitutions for the United States of America in 2020 from scratch.

The results surprised us. As expected, each of the three teams highlights different values: The team of conservatives emphasizes Madisonian deliberation; the progressives, democracy and equality; and the libertarians, unsurprisingly, liberty. But when the groups delivered their Constitutions—which are published here—all three proposed to reform the current Constitution rather than abolish it.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/12/what-if-we-wrote-constitution-today/170608/

Proposals from libertarian, conservative, and progressive scholars displayed a few striking differences—but also some profound similarities.

As the world’s oldest written constitution, the U.S. Constitution has been remarkably resilient. For more than 230 years, it has provided the foundation for America’s economic prosperity, political stability, and democratic debate. But during the past two centuries, changes in politics, technology, and values have led many to assume that if Americans set out to write a new Constitution today, the document would be quite different. To find out what a new Constitution might look like, my colleagues and I at the National Constitution Center recently asked three teams of scholars—conservative, progressive, and libertarian—to draft new Constitutions for the United States of America in 2020 from scratch.

The results surprised us. As expected, each of the three teams highlights different values: The team of conservatives emphasizes Madisonian deliberation; the progressives, democracy and equality; and the libertarians, unsurprisingly, liberty. But when the groups delivered their Constitutions—which are published here—all three proposed to reform the current Constitution rather than abolish it.
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Good read. I will read the actual constitutions later. Thanks
 
"All three teams agree on the need to limit presidential power, explicitly allow presidential impeachments for non-criminal behavior, and strengthen Congress’s oversight powers of the president. And, more specifically, the progressive and conservative teams converge on the need to elect the president by a national popular vote (the libertarians keep the Electoral College); to resurrect Congress’s ability to veto executive actions by majority vote; and to adopt 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices. "


These are all excellent. I would eliminate the 2nd Amendment.
 
So far, I read through the Progressive Constitution. Surprisingly, it's not as horrible as I expected it to be.

The authors spent a lot of time on impeachment and issues related to that. I suspect their TDS clouded their judgement on that subject. One note on this. Impeachment is now for anything Congress decides it is. For example, Supreme Court justices could be impeached for bad behavior (see Article III Section 1). Bad behavior? What? Congress doesn't like the way they decided a case?

One of the more glaring issues is how they framed terms of office.

Representatives in the House now serve for 4 years, not two and are all elected every four years in one shot. Senators are elected for 6 years in groups of a third of the Senate every two years. The President is elected for 4 years, and I assume at the same time as the House, but that isn't made entirely clear. Thus, we only have a election cycle every two years for a third of the Senate.
Supreme Court justices are appointed for 18 year terms.

Another change is the Senate is now 1 Senator per state plus 1 additional Senator per state for every 1/100th of the population that state has. So, some states like California would have 1 or 2 additional senators while most states would have just 1 total having well less than 1/100th of the population in them. This would make the Senate for all intents another House.

Legislative districts would be required to be set by "independent commission" that is "nonpartisan." I doubt that could actually be enforced in reality if not legality. How do you make such a commission nonpartisan?

In Section 8 Congress is given all but unlimited power to "investigate the workings of all branches of government." That's a sure way to a dictatorship...

The military is limited to two-years appropriations. Currently, only the Army is limited this way. The problem here is how does Congress fund say an aircraft carrier that takes 8 years to build? They can't appropriate money for 8 years, so they'd have to authorize this over four two year periods. It would only take one time where Congress decides to cancel funding in the middle of construction before they couldn't find anyone willing to do that sort of work. It's a potential disaster of a finance system.

Second Amendment. Predictably, Congress can pass "reasonable regulation" on firearms now.

Third Amendment. The government can now house troops in private homes during wartime.

Eighth Amendment. Both death and life sentences are outlawed as punishment.

Thirteenth Amendment, Section 2: Apportioning the number of people in a state includes all illegal aliens, foreign nationals, etc., but excludes "Indians not taxed."

Fourteenth Amendment Section 1: Anyone over the age of 18 who is a citizen is entitled to vote. Thus, the mentally insane and incompetent can vote, as can prisoners incarcerated or otherwise held.

Sixteenth Amendment: This one is kind of odd. It specifically addresses LGBTPDQRSTUV issues and abortion.

The 18th Amendment addresses term limits of the President to two 4 year terms. Supreme Court justices are appointed for 18 year terms. There are no term limits applied to Congress.

On the whole, they addressed a handful of Progressive issues that are what I'd call the most important to them. Getting rid of a President they don't like, gun control, taxation (Congress can now tax to it's heart's content), LGBT / women's issues, and making voting universal without much restriction. It's pretty much a shit version constitution.
 
I did make a mistake in the above.

The Senate proportioning of 1/100th of the population (eg., for every 1% of the population) that a state has they get one (1) additional Senator. Right now, California has about 12% of the population, so under this Progressive constitution, they'd get a total of 13 Senators. That does really, effectively, make the Senate just another House. What's the point in that?
 
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