A Constitutional Convention would see every Leftist, Socialist and other fellow travelers ooze out of the muck in which they live. The resultant document would make War and Peace look like a simple easy read (ever see the European Constitution?)

I’d settle for the following:

1. Repeal the 16th Amendment – Income Tax
2. Repeal the 17th Amendment – direct election of Senators

When 435 incompetent, power hungry, egomaniacs ‘represent’ 300 MILLION+ Americans, there’s a problem. The House of Representatives Ill-Repute is not truly representative of the people. Thus:

3. Approval of an Amendment to limit Congressional Districts to the Federalist concept of 100,000 American citizens – increase the count in the House of Representatives and lessen the power of any one Representative while making them more accountable to their constituents.
4. Approval of an Amendment to make Congressional salaries representative of their constituents yearly income – in other words cut their pay.

The ’several States’ are at the mercy of a bloated, over powering, stupid behemoth of a Federal Government whose ‘brain’ (i.e. Congress) is too small to control its own actions.

SeniorD on April 23, 2009 at 9:06 AM

I have a hard time imagining any scenario in which the 17th Amendment is repealed – you would face a horde of people from every corner of the political spectrum, howling about “disenfrachisement.” By the time we have an electorate mature and politically discerning enough to support something so easy to demagogue, we would have much less urgent need of such a reform.

The 16th Amendment is going to be a tough one, too. It exists because of a crisis of faith toward capitalism – the belief that a completely free economy is too lavish to its winners, and too harsh on its losers. I don’t see how anything close to a majority of voters could be persuaded to part with that belief. One of the reasons I prefer the flat tax to the Fair Tax, as an idea for radical tax reform, is that the Fair Tax will never work unless the 16th Amendment is repealed – otherwise the “Fair Tax” would swiftly become a value-added-tax lumped on top of income tax, which would quickly return to confiscatory levels. The flat tax would be an epic uphill battle, but repealing the amendment that allows taxation of income would be an uphill battle with the electorate marching backward, every stop of the way. At least the total collapse of socialism Obama is presiding over should make the electorate willing to march uphill for the first time in generations.

Limiting the size of congressional districts is a good idea in theory, and I’m all in favor of diluting the power of individual politicians, but it would be a tough sell to minority communities that would see the power of their racially-elected champions watered down. It’s painful to say it, but the American minority voters are the most culturally and politically childish electoral body on Earth, and they are generations away from reaching the point where they don’t see their political leadership as their only ticket to livelihood, respect, and fair treatment… they’re too close to solid historical reasons for feeling that way. I tend to think restraining the collectivist tendencies of Congress, with legal barriers they can’t bend or break, is more important than changing the number of elected representatives. Term-limiting them, in both House and Senate, would seem like a much more effective way to prevent the development of corrupt feudal barons like Barney Frank, who already comes from a very small voting district. In fact, reducing the size of the districts without imposing term limits would make it even more likely we’d be saddled with Representatives-For-Life, and even if you double the number of congressmen, you’re still going to have powerful committee chairs for them to fuse their butts into.

As for reducing congressional pay: their salary is already a tiny part of what these guys line their nests with, and reducing it will only make them more eager to develop other income streams. I’d be happy to pay them more but term-limit them so they don’t stay as long. The current crop of crooks, ideologues, con artists, and traitors would still be a bad deal for us at half the price.

Doctor Zero on April 23, 2009 at 10:09 AM