Quote:
Originally Posted by camaraderie
It takes 2/3 of the state legislatures to CALL for a convention and 3/4's of them to pass the amendments so I am little concerned about anything less than the will of the VAST majority of the people being passed. There are things we might all agree on though even between libs and conservatives
1. Term limits?
2. Line item veto for the President
3. An abortion amendment that would balance between the far ends of the pro and con arguments and remove that issue from future elections.
4. A requirement that any troops fighting abroad must receive a majority up or down vote by congress within 45 days.
5. The requirement that federal court appointees are automatically confirmed if not brought to a vote withing 60 days of being proposed.
Just to name a few things we might be able to find 75% of the state legislatures and the vast majority of people supporting if carefully written.
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I'll use number three as an example of the fecklessness of the constitutional amendment in most cases......were there a position that would balance between the far ends of the abortion issue we'd have already achieved it and thus, no amendment would be necessary. Attempting to resolve that matter, such that it goes away, will not be done by process-which is all an amendment really is-but by consensus. And that consensus, when it occurs, will be reflected in the polls. When the American opinion on the matter has coalesced around one position significantly it will be reflected in the electoral polls. And then we'll move towards it being more of a settled issue. The obstacle to such clear cut resolutions is that most issues are not 75/25 issues. They're more like 5:4 or 4:3 decisions. a decision but not a clear-cut mandate for a position.
The temptation to place ourselves in a more pure democracy, via the referendum and amendment processes, may seem desirable on the face of it but it ignores the fact that we're a representative democracy for a reason. We acknowledge that the popular consensus can, on occasion, be a very scary thing. Thus our strength is in our inefficiency at delivering the people's will! Our system has a, "wait'a minute" built right into it.
The ironic thing about all these issues listed is that most of them are a result of the "imperial presidency" which we've had since at least Nixon. Power not plausibly exercised is no power at all. The Congress prefers to cede power to gain political standing while also ceding it's constitutional prerogatives. Thus being able to carp about a war becomes actually more important than actually stopping that war.