I'm no lawyer, constitutional scholar, or political scientist. I don't expect people here are either. But those people exist. It's time to organize them and make a new constitution.

What're the first steps?

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[–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What you are looking for is a Constitutional Convention, which will be convened once 34 states call for one. While it is intended to propose amendments that can only become law if 38 states approve it, the rules of the convention are set by the delegates and there is nothing stopping them from ripping it all up and starting from scratch.

And I did the calculations once before, but I believe the 38 smallest states only have 44% of the population. If they live in the right zip codes, a minority of citizens can rip it all up and impose their will on the rest of the country.

And if this happens, why should the states that didn't vote for the change stick around?

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Yes I'm aware of the process. But I don't exactly trust those in power to write one that actually protects individual citizens right now - the vast majority of the political class is only in it for themselves. They'll happily reintroduce slavery if a billionaire offers them enough money to vote for it.

    So I think the better approach is to have the fixes written first - then advocate for it to receptive legislators while marketting it to the American public as a solution that addresses their actual problems. Several amendments were passed by states passing a law where they waited for consensus of 38 states.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It’s not the Constitution, it’s the way it’s being (or not being) implemented.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 10 months ago

    I tried hiring an attorney to create a 501 (c) 4 political advocacy organization but after calling 20 different attorneys in different states, I got zero bites when I was saying "Take my money!". It's apparently a very niche area of law and lawyers all specialize and won't do anything in areas they don't have experience. The only one that really seemed like they specialized in political advocacy groups was clearly a super right-wing bullshit group and they didn't respond to my inquiries.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Bruce Bueno de Mesquita had a great idea for any legislation change that could be abused to advance any specific political direction. Just have it come to pass in 20-40 years, when the careers of everyone involved are over.

    Obviously once you know this you can just openly discuss how any state should actually work without the risk of hurting your current objectives.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    I think step 1 would be identify and clearly define what went wrong with this one. Then you can take steps to address the failures.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Well the impeachment process is totally unworkable. And there aren't real consequences for elected officials who abuse their office. An amendment could potentially address those issues. That was originally what I was contacting attorneys for - advocating for a 28th amendment.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Well yeah, but that would be pretty far down on my list. We have a lot of issues that are much more foundational. We need to address money in politics. We need better ways of electing politicians so we don’t end up with a 2 party system.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)

    Hence why I think a change limited to an amendment may no longer be enough

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    You don't need to year down what's there. Those are still reforms.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    A term limit for the legislative and judicial branches would be nice. No supreme court justice for longer than, say, 24 years. Can't be reelected senator if you served in that capacity for a cumulative 20 years. Something like that.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, term limits are necessary. But I was thinking more along the lines of at-large legislators instead of tying them to districts, finding ways to encourage experts in various fields to join congress instead of it devolving into nothing but lawyers and real estate owners, anti-corruption language with enough teeth to scare away the riff-raff, mandating that literally all communications (verbal and written) of elected officials are recorded and public record no more than 30 days after the fact, etc etc.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Step one is to have a proposal. The fundamental problem is we relied on a system of checks and balances that no longer works. How do you address that? If one branch can’t police another, who else could possibly have that power?

    If you’re going to rip up the document and start over, you need to have a hope of something better

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago

    Well I'm a nobody without the background to do this better. My intent here is just to gather people who can do it well. I want to approach it in a way where those experts could work it out and compile a document that could supersede the current constitution while addressing the major issues that it couldn't conceive of since it is nearly 250 years old. As it is I'm still having trouble getting a lawyer that is able to work on a 501 (c) 4 political advocacy organization since it is such a small niche that very few attorneys are experienced in it.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    First you need to be in power to be able to demand a new constitution. The guy that's in the hot seat atm is not gonna work with you.

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