Our "revered" constitution seems to have holes in it big enough to drive a truck

[dutch508]

Pantagruel (1,164 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214742782

Our "revered" constitution seems to have holes in it big enough to drive a truck through.

Jut a few issues:

Emoluments clause apparently undefined and unenforceable.

Electoral college has resulted in 2 of the last 3 presidencies going to the candidate with fewer popular votes. "Will of the people", nah.

Abuse of presidential pardon power, not a major problem until we get a POTUS who refuses to follow traditional norms of decency and uses pardons to obstruct justice.

The two Senators per state concept has resulted in obscene disproportionate representation. In fact , six senators from California, Texas, and New York represented the same number of people as the 62 senators from the smallest 31 states.

What will it take to fix this?

 

Yeehah (1,552 posts)

5. They will be fixed or the nation likely will fail

Allowing fundamental flaws in our democracy to exist without trying to fix them is unacceptable. Large states have enormous power in the House and must coerce enough states to accept constitutional amendments. A long-term campaign to effect these changes must be begun.

Of course, the nation likely will see wholesale upheaval or disintegration before any of these things happen.

Yeehah (1,552 posts)

14. As far as the electoral college goes....

I think there are plenty of people in red and blue states that are sick and tired of their votes not counting. If we go with a popular election of the president, everybody's vote counts.

 

Star Member Laelth (30,565 posts)

4. Only one way to fix that ... tear it up and start over.

The EC and the Senate favoring low-population states are built-in, essential FEATURES of this 233-year-old agreement between the states. To get rid of them, we’d have to have a new Constitutional Convention and start over from scratch.

I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

-Laelth

Star Member brush (32,740 posts)

7. It can be fixed. Will it be fixed is another matter?

The Electoral College and the Senate are the two biggest sore spots IMO but both issues advantage smaller states which outnumber the larger states so it will be a hard slog but it needs to be tackled, increments at a time is probably the only way.

Starting with how Maine and Nebraska apportion their EC votes would be a good, doable start.

Voltaire2 (8,714 posts)

10. The 18 states that signed on to the Texas suit could leave the union.

Then the rest of us could amend the existing document to make a functional representative democracy.

Pantagruel (1,164 posts)

11. Racist confederate statues are falling

maybe it's time to chip away at the racist foundations of the constitution?

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/electoral-college-racist-origins/601918/

Star Member Irish_Dem (6,517 posts)

15. The state of Kentucky has been terrorizing us for years. nt

 

moondust (16,410 posts)

29. Step 1:

Overhaul or eradicate the Gang of Predators (GOP). They're not much more than a bunch of anarchists now who live to prevent government from doing anything.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Imagine if we decided to split the union based on counties, instead of states.

Democrats would become the new Palestinian territories.

[franksolich]

Yeehah (1,552 posts)

14. As far as the electoral college goes....

I think there are plenty of people in red and blue states that are sick and tired of their votes not counting. If we go with a popular election of the president, everybody's vote counts.

We are?

[SVPete]

Funny, I didn't know that FEATURE is spelled H-O-L-E. I learn something new every day,   .

[Texacon]

It’s absolutely astounding to me how ignorant these people are of how our government works.

Congress (House of Representatives) represents the PEOPLE of a state.

Congress (The Senate) represents the STATE the people live in.

Those two should never be confused. The state as a whole deserves equal representation just as the people do.

I seriously don’t get why that’s so difficult. I think it’s genius the way it’s set up.

KC

[thundley4]

It’s absolutely astounding to me how ignorant these people are of how our government works.

Congress (House of Representatives) represents the PEOPLE of a state.

Congress (The Senate) represents the STATE the people live in.

Those two should never be confused. The state as a whole deserves equal representation just as the people do.

I seriously don’t get why that’s so difficult. I think it’s genius the way it’s set up.

KC

They have been indoctrinated just the way the communists want them to be.

[ExGeeEye]

Congress (The Senate) represents the STATE the people live in.

Those two should never be confused. The state as a whole deserves equal representation just as the people do.

I seriously don’t get why that’s so difficult. I think it’s genius the way it’s set up.

KC

The Seventeenth Amendment did much damage to the founders' vision, in 1913.  I would personally favor repeal.  Along with the Sixteenth.

[Delmar]

Response to Voltaire2 (Reply #33)Tue Dec 22, 2020, 02:51 PM
former9thward (23,154 posts)
35. I have no idea what Trump is going to do with pardons.

I will wait until they happen or don't happen. People's predictions about what Trump is going to do have a horrible record over the last five years.

We elect Presidents under the Constitution. The Constitution gives presidents unconditional pardon power (except to reverse an impeachment verdict). So I don't get worked up when they exercise their Constitutional power. If people really wanted to change it they would. In his last hours Clinton made some pardons which some found questionable. Probably the most famous was to a fugitive financier and Clinton donor Marc Rich. He was hiding from the FBI in Switzerland at the time. Another to his brother for cocaine trafficking and dealing. I did not like either one of those but I accepted his right to do it. Obama gave pardons to Puerto Rican terrorists who tried to kill members of Congress and assassinate Truman. Same thing. He had the right no matter what I may think.

Why would the former9thward primitive risk his status as a deep cover mole by pointing out the highlighted parts to the other primitives--things that won't even register in their stupid heads? 

[SVPete]

Why would the former9thward primitive risk his status as a deep cover mole by pointing out the highlighted parts to the other primitives--things that won't even register in their stupid heads?

LOL! I'm sure f9w's post got multi-lerted, .

[DLR Pyro]

Emoluments clause apparently undefined and unenforceable.

with their dubious ties with china and Ukraine, we'll see how they feel about enforcing the emoluments clause if the head of the biden crime family is in the white house next month...

[SVPete]

As an aside, the scarcastic scare quotes around "revered" is a self-revelation by Pantagruel. (S)He doesn't give a @#$% about the US Constitution except as it gives room for his/her tyrannous lust for power.