Constitutional Amendments

[AccidentalRepublican]

What should be the next Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

A set representation to population ratio for the House of Representatives?

Removal of states' power to Gerrymander federal voting districts?

Definitive federal voter registration requirements?

Here's one that's controversial: Mandating that citizenship be earned, and dictatiing the required qualifications?

 

[Molly Meow]

I've got one - how about, when the president blatantly (sp) violates the constitution by creating a governmental agency, he is impeached? If the president can't follow the "rules" that our country was built on, what business does he have leading it?

BTW - that goes for ANY president, this was not an attack on G.W., just used him as an example.

 

[Viking]

Your electoral college shoud be removed or at least the 'winner takes it all'-rule should be removed to really represent the people's votes.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I have no problem with the electoral college as is, since it allows the individual states to retain some form of sovereignty. If individual states want to determine how their electors are apportioned, that's fine. Maine and Nebraska allot two at large and one per Congressional district; it's just that they've never had to divide them.

Personally I'd like to see a return to the original method of selecting US Senators -- chosen by the state legislators. It might be interesting to see what kind of a shakeup that would have on the Senate membership. Not only that, but it's sure to have an effect on unfunded mandates sent from Washington to the states, when one of the houses is chosen by the people who would in turn have to decide how to fund the unfunded mandates.

 

[BuckNaked]

Winner take all is not part of the U.S. Constitution - states are free to split up the electoral votes if they want to.

As for amendments, the first one I would like to see is an amendment allowing the President line item veto power.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Another amendment I'd be interested in seeing would affect the whole Presidential primary system. It's ridiculous that the campaigns last so long and the primaries begin 10 months before the general election. I'd like to see regional primaries starting no earlier than mid-April (we pay our taxes, and then we start selecting new Presidential candidates) and ending around mid-July.

Yes, I know, I was advocating more power and rights to the states, but when it comes to the one office chosen by the nation as a whole, I believe the federal government should have more say in how it's done.

 

[MikeB63]

I would not argue with the line item veto, but I'd rather see term limits for our legislators in DC.

 

[AccidentalRepublican]

If we got rid of gerrymandering and actually decreased the ratio of people to representatives to something like what it was with the original 13 states, (I think that was close to 60-80K:1) you might actually know your Rep. Granted, even a ratio of 100,000:1 would mean having something close to 3,000 Reps, but it's a small price to pay to actually have a chance at knowing your Rep, lessoning their individual power, and making it so you don't have to have a ton of money to run. Probably would get rid of the conflicts of interest we have regarding campaign finance, and their wouldn't be district engineering by cronies in the statehouse to favor the incumbent's re-election.

We probably also need to have free (send the bill to the FEC?) media access for all parties interested in running to lessen the need to fundraise. Again, expensive, but probably a lot more legitimate than the Ponzi scheme we call Social Security. And definitely more egalitarian than the current system, which is just out of control. Who knows, maybe it'll bring civility back to politics, because even the whackos would have a voice! Then they couldn't complain about being disenfranchised (well the whackos being the whackos, they probably still would complain).

 

[dmadman43]

Originally posted by Molly Meow
I've got one - how about, when the president blatantly (sp) violates the constitution by creating a governmental agency, he is impeached? If the president can't follow the "rules" that our country was built on, what business does he have leading it?

BTW - that goes for ANY president, this was not an attack on G.W., just used him as an example.

Or how about when Congressmen and Senators vote to spend our tax dollars on programs that are not Constitutionally mandated. Let's impeach them, too. BTW, a President can't create a government agency.

 

[dmadman43]

Originally posted by Viking
Your electoral college shoud be removed or at least the 'winner takes it all'-rule should be removed to really represent the people's votes.

Before commenting on the electoral college, please try to understand it. The electoral college does represent the people's votes.... of their states. States elect presidents, not individuals.

 

[tonyswife]

The two I would like to see are in here already;

Line item veto

and

Legislative term limits

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Originally posted by MikeB63
I would not argue with the line item veto, but I'd rather see term limits for our legislators in DC.

I'm all for term limits for members of Congress IF it's made retroactive and would affect those currently in office. Otherwise, forget it.

Any Congressional term limits amendment will certainly contain a grandfather clause similar to the one in the Presidential term limits amendment, where the amendment would not affect those currently in office.

 

[Judy from Boise]

as my DH would say " we all ready have term limits....they're called elections !" It reminds of the quote that people get the quality of politician that they deserve. Apathy=career politicians.

One amendment I never want to see is one that limits any citizen's civil rights. I was very proud when the "gay marriage amendment " got killed in committee by our state reps.

 

[richiebaseball]

I'll go with repealing the 17th amendment.

Richard

 

[gottaluvPluto]

Had to look it up, but repealing direct election of US Senators (Amendment 17) I think makes them more responsive to the electorate's wishes and gets rid of cronyism, which I despise. The more competition, the better!

I'm very curious how Maine's electoral college law is written. How exactly do they split their EC votes? What's the other state that does this? I want to say NE, but don't know.