Constitutional Convention: Pick One Amendment
If we had a Constitutional Convention and you could only make one amendment, what would it be?
(You can either add something new or remove something old)
- 1. Repeal or modify the 2nd Amendment (gun rights)
- 2. Eliminate the Electoral College (replace with national popular vote)
- 3. End lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices (term limits or retirement age)
- 4. Overturn Citizens United / restrict corporate money in politics
- 5. Clarify or limit presidential pardon powers
- 6. Impose Congressional term limits
- 7. Explicit right to privacy / reproductive autonomy
- 8. Equal rights amendment (prohibiting sex-based discrimination)
- 9. Climate/environmental protection amendment
- 10. Balanced budget requirement (with exceptions for emergencies)
- 11. Automatic voter registration / right to vote guarantee
- 12. National popular referendum process (allow citizens to propose and vote on federal laws/amendments directly)
11 Replies
I refuse to be limited to one.
Modify 2nd Amendment.
Term limits for Supreme Court.
This is an easy one for me:
Repeal the 16th Amendment (Income Tax)*
Replace with a Geo-Tax and perhaps a modest federal sales tax.
Something like the so-called 'Fair Tax' proposed by Mike Huckabee when he campaigned for the GOP nomination in 2012(?)
* Maybe keep the income tax for folks earning over $1M annually.
I will take all of the above, please, sir.
1-7 and 10,11 and 12
If we have to pick one then Citizens United is probably the biggest hindrance to America having a real democracy so I'd go with that because in the long term it would probably give the greatest chance of having politicians who actually cared about what their constituents care about.
If we have to pick one then Citizens United is probably the biggest hindrance to America having a real democracy so I'd go with that because in the long term it would probably give the greatest chance of having politicians who actually cared about what their constituents care about.
If I could add one thing, it’d be to give the people both a veto and a mandate power. Unlike in 1776, with today’s tech it’s doable. A two-thirds majority could veto bailing out the banks or continuing a war, or mandate something like a universal basic income or student debt relief.
I think that would cover a lot of ground. Kind of serves how the House was intended to.
13. Age of consent
They all look good. I wouldn't want to be forced to choose one.
If I had to, it would be #9 related to climate and environmental protection. We're dead without that.
I'm not American, so my answer is not US-centric, but more a general answer.
If choosing is mandatory, then no other issue comes close importance to a climate/environmental protection amendment.
Constitutions world-wide are largely remnants from a time when population pressure, technology and knowledge about environmental exploitation wasn't yet at levels that made this relevant at such a fundamental regulatory level.
Thus environmental protections are victim to political tides and less stable regulations instead of being fundamental aspects of how we organize society. This is becoming increasingly problematic and has led us into peril.
6.
