Welcome to a Constitutional Convention

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Constitution-21 is a remodel of the 1789 Constitution for the 21^st Century. The 1789 Constitution of the United States was written for thirteen ex-colonies – for another world in another time. In 1789 communication with Europe was a matter of weeks, and the perception of remoteness continued through most of US history. The US is now anything but remote; it is the dominant military and economic nation with formal alliances and informal obligations supported by military bases all over the world.

The dramatic contrast in the international posture of the US has been matched in the domestic economy and society. No one should be surprised that the Constitution of 1789 is a poor fit for the superpower US of the here and now.

Constitution-21 is the draft of a complete plan. It restates the Bill of Rights and includes provisions on federal revenue, health care, and social security – matters that have confounded the existing Legislative and Executive Branches. But the main thrust is new ideas for the structure of government – some of which are quite radical. Major provisions are concerned with the following:

At present, whether controlled by a different party from the President or not, Congress dodges around important issues and passes legislation only with great difficulty. The US has a chronic deficit in the federal budget that Congress is supposed to control with its power of the purse, but Congress sets tax rates and approves expenditures with no sense of long-term fiscal responsibility. As a particular current example, expensive military operations in the Middle East are funded without matching taxes, as if divorced from the general finances of the federal government.

The US has an unsustainable deficit in foreign trade, importing many things in which it was once self-sufficient – most importantly oil. Congress is unwilling to consider the most obvious steps to conserve energy. The solutions to big problems are easily blocked, but Representatives (more than Senators) trade favors to provide subsidies and tax breaks to the narrow interests of political contributors.

Congress does a poor job of checking on the operations of the Executive Branch – especially when controlled by the party of the President. Even with an unpopular President, leaders of Congress are eager to be seen on television entering or leaving the White House or in the background while the President signs a major piece of legislation.

The number of important matters inherited by the Judiciary is a signal that something fundamental is wrong with the US government. The courts are forced to use the Constitution as a kind of senior statute extending its clauses to solve problems that ought to have been debated in Congress or in the state legislatures.
 

Constitution-21 assigns the Senate and House different organizations to serve different roles but keeps the staggered six-year terms for Senators and the two-year terms for Representatives.

The Senate is the national legislature that passes all laws and approves treaties and major Presidential appointments. There are only twenty-one Senators elected from large districts but nominated in a national Federal Nominating Convention. The Senate should be an effective counterweight to the President. Each Senator will be an important person known nationally, and a joint statement from three or four Senators is likely to be the leading news story of any day.

As a body, the House can propose laws and reject laws, but it cannot amend laws passed in the Senate. The House works in committees to draft legislation, to investigate the operations of the Executive Branch, and to represent the interests of constituents. Representatives are elected from districts with approximately 350,000 citizens; there will be about 860 Representatives for a population of 300 million citizens. Representatives are among the delegates to the Federal Nominating Convention.

Constitution-21 defines the system for approving budgets to eliminate special favors, and it defines the sources of federal revenues to limit the opportunities for complicated tax breaks; instead it provides for special expenditures originated in Congress that are subject to a line-item veto.

The Executive Branch has long been the dominant engine of government, but at least since the Kennedy assassination, Presidents have been notably unsuccessful. Johnson backed off trying for a second nomination; Ford, Carter and Bush I failed reelection; and Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment. Of the Presidents reelected: Clinton was impeached but acquitted; Reagan was in trouble over Iran-Contras; and Bush II is in serious trouble over Iraq.

All of the Presidents named above except Ford were elected. Did the voters choose the wrong man in the general election? Or did the nomination system present poor choices?

Many of the problems of the Presidency can be traced to the Presidential Primaries. Proponents of primaries claim them to be exercises in democracy; in fact, they are arenas for public relations consultants where a defeated candidate can be declared the winner by exceeding expectations. The team that runs a successful election is usually brought to the White House as senior staff, but the skill set that wins elections often proves ineffective when exercising power in the Executive Branch.

Primaries force candidates to appeal to the activist extremes within a party, determine the nominees too early in the election cycle, turn the conventions into empty ceremonies, perhaps contribute to the declining voter turnout, and ultimately weaken the connection between the elected President and his party in Congress.

Constitution-21adds an Electoral Branch to the three existing branches of the federal government and defines procedures for the nomination and election of federal officers. This new Branch monitors nominations and elections, sets standards for voter registrations and voting procedures, defines the rules for drawing Congressional Districts, regulates the raising and spending of campaign money, and enforces provisions designed to encourage voting.

At present state politics have evolved so that the Representatives’ Districts are allocated between the two major parties to the point that Members are reelected at a rate that mocks democracy. Constitution-21 broadly describes how computer programs will build up the districts of Representatives from census tracts within states and the districts of Senators from Representatives’ districts crossing state lines.

Constitution-21 defines a biannual Federal Nominating Convention that divides into two or three caucuses (by party). Delegates are Senators, Governors, Representatives, and persons selected by state legislatures. The caucuses run simultaneously, and delegates can switch from one caucus to another. The political theater should keep the public involved.

Every two years each caucus selects a slate of nominees for the Senate seats that are due for election; every four years each caucus selects a nominee for the Presidency. Senatorial candidates must appeal to members of their own party in a national caucus to be nominated, and then each nominee must appeal to the general electorate in their own large local districts to be elected.

Constitution-21 defines the political calendar to encourage interest in political processes and voting.

In recent decades, federalism has been turned on its head: states interfere with federal functions, and federal laws impose themselves on local government. The states rarely serve as laboratories where different ideas of government can be tested (e.g., medical insurance, energy conservation), but states over-influence the choice of weapons systems, the location of military bases, tax deductions, and tariff negotiations. In the meantime, federal laws and agency directives circumscribe and/or require state and local activities for purposes that often run counter to local sensibilities and practical interests. That so-called social issues muddle the debate over national issues is the unhelpful feedback.

Constitution-21 attempts to separate the powers of the federal governments from that of the states. In a conflict between levels of government (federal, state, and local), the higher takes precedence over the lower only where there a reasonable social or economic case for national or state-wide uniformity. In particular, the states control health care, education, and basic welfare. The federal government contributes finance and compiles statistics that compare economic and social conditions in the states.

Constitution-21 reduces the direct role of the states in the making of federal laws – primarily because Senators are elected from large districts and not from states. The federal government is responsible for the United States, the nation. The states have the power, and the power to amass the resources, to look after themselves and to stop fighting over federal largess; and state legislatures pick almost half the delegates to the Federal Nominating Convention.

The existing governmental structure is most dangerous in the most critical areas: geo-politics and world economics. Per official policy, the US seeks to maintain perpetual dominant military strength against possible adversaries; thus US intelligence agencies are forced to interpret the activities of all non-allied nations as potentially hostile. Concerned about potential rivals, aligned with many other nations and thus against their rivals and antagonists, the US is sensitive to almost every international event as either for or against its direct or indirect interests. With world-wide concerns, the US spends more on military forces than all the other nations in the world combined.

New international commitments are made, but few are voided. New weapon systems are developed, but few are cancelled. The assumptions that these trends strengthen national security and that the economy can sustain the costs are rarely questioned. The President, in charge of the military and intelligence services, defines strategic policies; the Legislative Branch provides neither check nor balance. The United States – and the world – needs a US government that can make well considered long-range strategic choices.

Different provisions of Constitution-21 will offend one group or another. The purpose here is to inspire ideas about how to reorganize the government to meet current and future conditions. The document is a draft in a website designed as an on-line forum, a modern Constitutional Convention. Visitors to the site are invited to participate, to debate the provisions, and to offer suggested improvements.

The author thanks all those who read the various drafts of Constitution-21 and made criticisms, comments, and suggestions. A special nod to Stanley Tobin, the author of A Journey in Search of Justice (1998) and A Legacy Lost (2005). The flyleaf of the latter accurately describes "An Active Observer Critiques the American Political Process". Working from direct experience, Stan shares the author’s concerns and concurs with many, but not all, of the provisions in Constitution-21. The author was fortunate that Stan was willing to discuss the ideas and the language of Constitution-21.

Whatever the contributions of others, Constitution-21 and the accompanying notes state the author’s ideas on how the major faults of the US political system might be fixed, and the author takes full responsibility.

PoliSys