People say that the United States Constitution was a remarkable document, but the biggest problems with our representative democracy are contained within this document.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a remarkable statement. I challenge any freedom-loving, independent minded person to find anything objectionable in these words, but I seriously doubt that the thoughts and ideals expressed in the Preamble could be passed by the Republican controlled Senate in 2019. I doubt that Mitch McConnell would ever permit the idea of “promoting the general Welfare” to even be debated much less be presented for a vote.
Personally, I would prefer that we teach our children the Preamble to the Constitution than the Pledge of Allegiance. But, this is about the Constitution.
Article I, Section 1 provides that the legislative powers shall be vested in the Congress, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Article 1, Section 2 provides for the election of Representatives by the People of the States and the Members of the House shall be at least 25 years of age and a citizen of the United States for at least 7 years. Electors from the states must have the same qualifications as representatives. There shall be at least one representative from each state and representatives are to be apportioned among the states after a census which is conducted each ten years. Not much to disagree with here, except that there has not been One new representative added to the House in over 100 years!
Section 2 included the notorious three-fifths compromise that was overruled by the Civil War and the resulting amendments , specifically the 14th Amendment in 1868.
Article 1, Section 3 created a real disaster by providing two senators for each state, regardless of population. The founding fathers could have never dreamed that any one state might have 100 times the population of the smallest state or no one would have thought that this was a reasonable way to run a government. Nobody could have imagined that 20% of the population could control half of the Senators!
Section 3 provided for appointment of Senators by the state legislatures, but that provision was amended by the 17th Amendment which provided for their direct election in 1913. Section 4 provides the date that Congress shall meet.
Section 5 provided that each House would be the judge of their own elections, and more importantly, would determine their own rules. Section 6 provided that the members of the Congress would receive compensation for their service, and Amendment 28 provided that the compensation for members of Congress could not be raised until an election of Representatives had intervened.
Section 7 provides that all Bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives and provides for the executive veto and Congressional override. Section 8 has a lengthy list of specific Congressional functions such as
laying and collecting taxes,
regulating commerce,
borrowing money,
establishing a uniform rule of naturalization,
coin money,
provide for post offices and postal roads,
support the Army and provide for the Navy,
Section 9 limits the powers of the Congress and prohibits certain types of legislation such as Bills of Attainder and ex post facto law. A Bill of Attainder finds a person guilty of treason without a trial and an ex post facto law makes something illegal after the act has been committed. Capitation and direct taxes were prohibited, but this prohibition was amended by the 16th Amendment which permitted the income tax.
Section 10 prohibited individual states from entering into treaties, alliances and confederations, coining money or doing many of the things that the Congress was prohibited from doing, including keeping troops, ships of war, or engaging in war unless actually invaded.
Article 2 addresses the Executive branch of the United States Government. Section 1 provides for the election and qualification by age of 35 years and a natural born citizen of the United States of America. This section also provides for the Electoral College and it was initially amended by the 12th Amendment to provide that Electors would vote for both a President and a Vice-president to avoid repeating the dilemma of 1800 election when two candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, his Vice-presidential nominee, each received 73 Electoral votes.
Section 2 provides that the President shall be Commander-in-chief of the armed forces and shall negotiate treaties with foreign powers. The President is also given the power to nominate ambassadors, ministers, consuls, Justices of the Supreme Court, and other officers with the Advice and Consent of the Senate.
Section 3 provides that the President shall give the State of the Union address, and provide information to the Congress, receive ambassadors from other nations, and take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
Section 4 provides that the President shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Article 3 provides for the judicial branch, with Section 1 providing that there shall be one supreme court and other inferior courts as Congress shall ordain and establish.
Section 2 provides jurisdiction of the Courts over all matters arising from this Constitution and from the laws passed by the Congress, arising in Law or in Equity, controversies in which the United States is a party, or between two states, laws in admiralty or maritime, and under any regulations passed by Congress
Section 3 defines treason and again prohibits Bills of Attainder.
Article 4 insured that Full faith and Credit would be recognized by contracts among the states. Section 1 provided that Congress might enact laws to prescribing the manner in which such contracts, public records and acts would be recognized. Section 2 states that citizens in all states would enjoy the rights and immunities of the several states, but limited those rights to the slaves who had to be returned to the state from which they had fled. That provision was repealed by the enactment of the 13th Amendment ending involuntary servitude.
Section 3 provides for creation and admittance of new states but prohibits forming states by joining two existing states or creating a state within the boundary of an existing state without the consent of the legislatures of those states.
Section 4 guarantees a Republican form of government to each state, but says nothing about the democratic measures that might be available, and also agrees to protect the states from foreign invasion and, if requested, against domestic violence.
Article 5 provides that Amendments may be made to the Constitution by a two-thirds vote of both houses, or by application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states, or by a Convention of three-fourths of the states.
Article 6 provides that the Laws and Treaties made under the Constitution shall be the Supreme Law of the Land and every member of the Congress shall swear an Oath to support this Constitution but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office.
Article 7 provides for the means of ratification of the Constitution by 9 states.
There have been 28 Amendments to the United States Constitution.
There is not one word in the Constitution about political parties and it does not address any means of redressing the issue of political partisanship.
We are currently in a situation where 20 states controlling 40 Senators have a population that is less than 10% of the total population of our nation.
The Electoral College is a disaster that has selected a president who lost the majority vote in two of the past five elections.
The United States is controlled by a partisan majority that was elected by a minority of the population.
The president in the White House ignores the rule of law and imagines that he is an imperial ruler without any limits.
I don’t think that the Constitution as it is currently written could be approved by three-fourths of the states — 38 states! We cannot approve an equal rights amendment with approval of 38 states.
The last amendment that was approved was proposed in 1789 and approved in 1992. It limited the salaries of members of Congress to any increase after an election of the House of Representatives. Before that, in March 1971, the 27th Amendment provided that 18 years should be able to vote in every election and that amendment was approved less than 4 months later July 1, 1971.
