It is hard to know how to react when, in the midst of a massive financial institution engineered crisis, our political system remains only responsive to large corporations.
The Federal Reserve can bailout Wall Street to the tune of over $2 trillion without any public input or oversight,
When the Supreme Court has granted corporations unlimited spending power during elections,
When the Senate requires a 60 vote supermajority to pass anything,
When corporate lobbyists are functioning as a large percentage of Congressional staff,
On days like these, it sure feels like our governmental system has become largely de-moored from the democratic process. And days like these are becoming more frequent.
The appropriate step right now might very well be for a Constitutional Convention, as outlined in Article V of the Constitution:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
We are living in a time when quite a few people, across the political spectrum, would be interested in such a convention. There is a potential for a real trans-partisan coalition on this one, even if people will disagree on the specific proposals to be made at the convention. Further, even the building threat of what might come out of such a convention could be enough to pressure Congress into real action.
Ever since Lieberman's backstab on the Medicare buy-in back in mid-December, I have been pretty depressed and cynical. Basically, it is because my theory of change collapsed. We got 60 people elected to the Senate, whipped and got 60 Senators on board with a public option tied to Medicare (actually, it was Medicare), and the whole thing collapsed anyway because of lies and corporate influence.
So, I am starting to think that maybe the system itself is the problem, and we need to fix that before there can be fixes through the electoral and legislation process.
Who is up for a Constitutional Convention? What amendments would you like to see come out of one?
There is a lot of discussion right now about how Senators from small states hold too much power compared to the percent of population they represent. There's a lot of truth to this. Alex MacGillis of The Washington Post wrote in an analysis column in their Sunday Outlook section, and David Sirota and Nathan Newman have done good pieces on the topic as well. The simple facts are that the key gang of six negotiating health care in the Senate Finance Committee represent less than 3% of the nation's population; that the 10 largest states are home to over half the country's population but represent only 20% of the Senate; the 21 smallest states together have less total population than California does.
It's good that people are raising these issues, and pointing out this unfairness. The plain fact of the matter, though, is that absent a constitutional convention suddenly being held, there is no changing this particular injustice. It would take 2/3 of the Senate, after all, to pass a constitutional amendment to restructure the Senate, and virtually all of the Senators from small states would vote against it. So we are stuck for now.
What we ought to be focused on instead are strategies that might work.
If you want a primer on the founding of the republic, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution reads like a novel and keeps a fast pace. Though it well portrays the tedium the delegates suffered as they sweltered through months of repetitive debates, it keeps a fresh storyline that's lightly bracketed by useful references.
Join us below to chat with author David O. Stewart from 1-3 pm this afternoon. See you in the comments!
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