Constitutional Convention a Great Idea

by paradox

I was fascinated and greatly heartened to see Professor Larry Sabato (University of Virginia) appear at Daily Kos expounding the critical need for a Constitutional Convention. The disconnect between the people of the United States and Washington has never been greater, and the country desperately needs a workaround to the current DC institutional failure.

No matter who controls Congress the sheep essentially rubber-stamp the most corrupt, violent, debt-ridden heinous President we’ve ever had. Judicial is a pack of Republican quack, Ledbetter vs. Goodyear just the latest outrage, Bush vs. Gore still delivering its nightmare. American journalism is a sick joke, if it weren’t for the net no truth would be published at all.

Record ungodly numbers say the country is on the wrong track, the President is loathed with his own polling records to set, “volatile” (no shit!) elements of inflation like food and gas are so conveniently left out of equations, the world spits on us while in our lifetimes earth’s polar ice caps will disappear. Half the Democratic base is Dawn of the Dead, dazed and wandering from repeated bitch-slaps of betrayal. We’ve got to do something!

What’s so crazy or loony about the idea? It’s not out there somewhere, it’s right there in the constitution! If the people choose to use it can really happen, just because it never has doesn’t mean it can’t. No disrespect to friends working hard for very good goals, but waiting for Congressional Democratic reinforcements as the country goes to hell and my In box overflows with begging doesn’t do dick for me this weekend, but formulating goals and plans for a DC workaround is something exciting and worth looking forward to. [1]

The main element to the Convention that always kills it is this absurd grandiosity assigned to the goals of it, this ridiculous notion that huge, sweeping radical vistas of new government will somehow be accomplished in four weeks. It’s never, ever going to happen, the mechanism for Convention approval is an excellent check on it and it scares the bejusus out of people, so why keep proclaiming the Age of Radicalism is here? We don’t have to replicate the Founders in the first Convention, we just have to be small and consistent.

Consistent: infuriating incompetent corrupt fucks infest every branch of our government, do meet every two or four years to try and fix it?

Small: One big thing to accomplish for the first Convention, no more. Simple, clean and direct, no pinko commie leftists getting rid of the Founders anywhere, big enough change worth working for but not so much that it causes apprehension. My personal preference is campaign finance reform, elimination of our nauseating, dangerous Senate will have wait for another day. That’s not an absurd or radical idea either, our British cousins have already done it.

For now this god-awful democracy-crushing corporate-whoring election system we have getting permanently chucked out the window will have to do, not only does it set up the country for corporations it also forces out 95% of population from being candidates, we just can’t get enough good people to run. Even when we’re sure we’re doing the right thing a guy like Jerry McNerny knifes us, this insanity cannot continue.

But I’m flexible on this, totally, any liberal goal like universal health care, abortion rights, hate crimes or climate change so works for me, there will be another day, another Convention to work for. Set the schedule and hit one goal, not hard to do.

Somehow the country has to survive the rest of Bush’s term without going to war with Iran and a chance to hang on with enough stasis for a Convention mechanism to consistently develop. Those who scoff should take a good, hard look at what’s truly happened to our DC institutions, what our people are going through and how few alternatives we have. It’s our country, the Founders gave us a way to take it back right there and it’s time to talk about seriously doing it with realistic goals.

[1] No matter what my puny opinion is Democratic fundraising is doing extremely well with records everywhere this year, while the Republicans lag far behind, even the RNC is currently broke.