Happy Constitution Day!

I forgot to publish this when it was relevant on September 17th, but thought it would be worth remedying that here and now.

Yes, I know it comes more than two weeks late, almost three weeks. But better late than never.

After all, I did not want to forget it. Especially since so many people seem to be forgetting the spirit of the Constitution that has served as the basis for our democracy ever since. Now that our democracy seems to be slipping from our grasp, it felt like we could use a reminder.

This was supposed to be published on September 17th:



Today is Constitution Day.

Yes, I know it's kind of an obscure holiday. Truth be told, it escaped me, too. I only know about it because they mentioned it on a radio program that was on during my commute back home.

They had a guest, although I do not remember what his name was. However, what he was arguing was interesting, although I am not entirely sure that I personally agree with what he was saying. Essentially, what he was arguing is that it was time to scrap the Constitution, and suggested that it had run it's course. He suggested that the Founding Father had some great ideas, and the Constitution had a good run of well over 200 years, but that we should not be ruled over by men who have been dead now for centuries. 

Ultimately, he seemed to be suggesting that the Constitution had grown divisive, and that people seemed to emphasize that if you do not agree with their interpretation of the Constitution, then you are deemed to be unAmerican, which is a particularly grating argument when you are discussing what is best for the country. We get tied up in obscure and impossible to resolve arguments about certain passages or historical background that might back up or outright validate our personal interpretation of what the Founders meant, such as with the gun debate, even though the Founders lived many, many years ago, in a world so different as to be unrecognizable. Frankly, it would be impossible to accurately guess what they might think about this world, and how to approach it.

He has a point, although I am not certain that scrapping the Constitution entirely is the way to go here. 

Some things are better left alone. There are things that we can do with this country that, I think, would get us moving again, and many of these probably have nothing to do with our current differing interpretations of the Constitution. Things like finally accepting climate change is real, and being advanced by human activity, and then trying to seriously curtail that activity, for one. Or getting a fairer, affordable, universal healthcare system in place, kind of like the single-payer system that Senator Bernie Sanders has recently proposed. 

However, if we need to fixate on what the Constitution says, then I think that we might want to debate what would go into the next amendment to our Bill of Rights - the 28th amendment, as it were. 

Maybe we will not all agree, but there are some ideas that spring to my mind right away. One of them that feels glaringly obvious actually already exists and was proposed, and that was a second Bill of Rights - the rights for workers. This was what Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed, and it is a damn shame that it never came to pass. If we had certain guarantees about the minimum level of comfort and security from employment that we could expect to get - and that includes affordable healthcare and homes and dignity in general - than I think our country would be in much better shape.

Unfortunately, that was simply a proposal, and it never was passed. If it had been, we would most likely be better off - and I might argue far better off - as a nation than we are today. 

Perhaps some ideas seem glaringly obvious, though. Some ideas that keep coming right back up as proposed amendments. Among them:

 - An Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that would assure gender equality. Sounds reasonable to me, yet it has been rejected time and time and time again, over the course of decades.

 - An amendment reversing Citizens United, getting all of that big money out of our increasingly corrupt elections once and for all. I think that would definitely be a plus.

- One idea that a caller had would be a reversal of what is actually presently in the Constitution, and that would be to scrap the Electoral College. 

Now this, I could get behind. Frankly, I do not think we need a complete overhaul, or to scrap the Constitution and the Bill of Rights entirely. However, we can indeed change things when they are clearly not working. After all, let us remember that Prohibition used to be an amendment to the Constitution, and it was not working, so it was reversed, and rightfully so. I think we can make some arguments - and serious arguments at that - that the Electoral College is just an outdated and, frankly, undemocratic process that actually detracts from our democracy and our voting rights, rather than enhancing it. Indeed, let's do away with it. 

There are plenty of ideas that can be bounced around. One person, a caller, suggested not a minimum wage, but perhaps a maximum wage. Is that something that we can perhaps start to argue in favor of? After all, much of the damage that is being done to this country, and increasingly being felt around the world, is the actions taken from those whom I have heard referred to as "wealth addicts."

Yes, a limit to what is increasingly outright insanity, and the so far limitless power of vulture capitalists who are destroying the economy, and so many millions of people's lives out there, all for the sake of short-term profits. So that the CEO's and board members of multinational corporations and "too big too fail" banks can make even more tens of millions of dollars, basically at our expense. 

How about putting some serious backbone to President Obama's proposed Consumer Bill of Rights? The idea behind that is to curtail the ridiculous power and abuse of banks and credit card companies. They struck back, and then people got on Obama's case afterward, but what if we actually empowered the government - a government elected by the people and given the teeth to bite these corporations back - with the ability to curtail all of their nonsensical, abusive activities, and to protect the American consumer? Would our lives not be drastically improved, by and large, if we did not have to worry about being screwed over time and time and time again with excessive fees and penalties and offensively high interest rates, and other generally unfair policies of big banks and credit cards?

Just a few thoughts that I had there.

What about you? Perhaps you have some ideas that you might like to share? Anyone else have any ideas on how to add, or perhaps even subtract, from the Constitution to perhaps make our lives better today?

Let's see who, if anyone, responds.

In the meantime, let us remember and honor the Constitution that, while not perfect, still allowed us certain freedoms that have clearly expanded over time, and become increasingly inclusive for all Americans. Our rights have not always been protected or guaranteed, but without the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that obviously were added to it, I think it is safe to say that this country would be far, far worse off than it is right now.

So, at the very least, let us take a moment, on this Constitution Day, to be thankful for the rights that we have been given, and which, to varying degrees, have remained protected and intact to the present!