Let’s Have a Party — a Constitutional Convention Party

For those of us who are not wealthy enough, or experienced enough, in the grand tradition of challenging the King, or organizing a siege against the High Castle, it must be a nerve-wracking project to enter the lists as a candidate for the President’s Throne. I cannot begin to imagine how I would go about doing it. Fortunately, That’s not what I’m most intent upon in this year’s challenge — to remove and replace Donald Trump.

I’ve reached the point where I am deeply concerned about the survival of our species on our little home world here. In addition to this profoundly troubling concern, I am also concerned these days about the survival of our American form of government, our one nation under God, ostensibly indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I haven’t seen much evidence of the “indivisibility” here of late, as our divided partisanship splinters from simply Republicans and Democrats to Independents, and Libertarians, and Never-Trumpers and Trump Fans and immigrants and aliens. There are also the many religious factions — the Catholics and the Baptists, the Mormons and the Buddhists, the Taoists and the athiests who have a vested interest in seeing their objectives met, as well. (I suppose they would like to have their “affiliation” capitalized as well.)

But most importantly, I am deeply worried about whether we can, as a nation and a diverse collection of peoples, (to say nothing of our nation’s membership in the international community of nations) rise to the imperative to save our world from destruction before our time runs out. And it IS running out… faster than we all think! Our polar ice caps are melting, the oceans are rising, and there is a hole in the ozone layer of our atmosphere over the North Pole that is bigger than our American continent!

So, we need to begin the process of reforming our Nation’s Mission and Goals, and that requires that we unify in ways that have not been attempted so far. We need a new Constitution that addresses the imperative that we are facing — to save our world from dying before we all die from the pollution, the radiation from our sun and the poison in our seas.

Let us talk about what a Twenty-First Century Constitution should have incorporated in it’s text, shall we? Before we can re-order our world and our nation’s policies, we have to articulate what those policies are, and the goals we’ll have to achieve. And if, as you read these suggestions, you feel that they lack sufficient justification, or merit, or even basic value, please forgive my naivete. I am not a constitutional lawyer, nor a college professor. I’m just one of the regular folk — but I’m a wee bit more scared about our future, so I gotta do something…say something.

Here are some elements I think are important:

One: One Nation under God, indivisible should have one political party under God, and subject to the Will of the People — as defined by the people, and enforced by our Supreme Court.

Two: Our Supreme Court needs younger members on the Court, and the Court should not be composed of judges who are allowed to grow old and die on the bench. They should be appointed by the People in the same electoral process as our political representatives — but perhaps by a chosen panel of University notables who know something about constitutional law and the history of our nation. Partisan presidents should NOT hold the kind of power that allows them to “Pack the Court” with their favorite flavor of Conservative or Liberal Judges — nor should the Speaker of the Senate or the House have the power to throttle the appointment process for these worthy ladies and gentlemen.

Three: Where is it written that we need to have a formal split between our Liberal and our Conservative factions in our governing body — such that we can forever squabble over the motives for why legislation is either approved or denied by a bunch of political hacks with ulterior motives which have nothing to do with the good of all our peoples, and everything to do with the reaping of public profits by the few who manage to get elected to the House or the Senate. Let us remember that tried and true adage: A Divided House Cannot Stand!

Four: The Senate should NOT be more powerful than the House of Representatives. If anything, the House of Representatives should have more power than the Senate, for it more closely represents US.. the people.. But certainly equal representation — and always balanced 50/50 between liberals and conservatives…. NOT allowed to be overwhelmed by one faction or the other.

Five: The First Order of Business of our Government representatives — our President, and our state representatives — must be the restoration of our nation’s natural resources. The purification of our water resources is absolutely vital, and the preservation of our national forests such that they can continue to grow and flourish — for they are the source of the oxygen that we breathe, and they provide life support for the animals who live within their realms.

Our animal species, and particularly, our bees, must be protected and saved from annihilation! We are now faced with the invasion of a dreadful giant bee (or hornet) from across the seas that is murdering and eating our bees. If our bee population dies and disappears, the pollinating process they perform that makes it possible for us to grown our corn and wheat and other foodstuff will be destroyed. No bees…. no food…. no sustainable human life! Period!

We do not have adequate respect for our animal species. Our world is One Web of Life. Everything that lives on our planet impacts other things, and we cannot survive if we are sitting on a pyramid of dead wolves, dead birds, dead, beavers, dead bears, dead everything else! We MUST save our animals and our world plants. All are precious to our survival as a nation and a species.

Six: We the People have the means now to communicate with our representatives using our computers and our cell phones. A way must be made possible and reasonable to allow us to provide feedback to our elected representatives, and our representatives, and our president should all be accountable for what feedback they have been given by us, the People, and on a timely basis. If they do not fulfill this requirement, then we should have ready recourse to administering sanctions against them, and also to remove them from office, readily.

We really cannot continue to run our government by any form of laissez-faire, casual tolerance and inadequate response to our appointed leaders. If we do not exercise our right to monitor their choices and decisions and correct their mistakes and their abuse of power, then we cannot maintain our hold on our civil rights. Power corrupts! Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely — Lord Byron said that, and it’s as true today as it was when he said it.

Seven: We should, if at all possible, rewrite our Constitution within this calendar year, that it may become part and parcel to our new Nation before the next election in November 2020, and it should be ratified by us, through our representatives before November 3, 2020. (Of course, if that isn’t a reasonable goal, then we can adjust accordingly, but we should do this thing…and do it soon.) The Sooner, The Better.

We cannot permit Donald Trump or any of his power elite administrative or congressional followers to prevent us from achieving this goal this year. If we can do this, and if we can establish a single party political process, whereby we could gain more effective control over our elected representatives and our chosen President, then I believe we would have a fair chance of saving our world, ourselves, and our children.

What say you, friends and neighbors? I say, let us make it so!