What about a Constitutional Convention?

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

The original Constitutional Convention in Annapolis MD was supposed to reform the Articles of Confederation - instead they planned a new meeting to draft a whole new goverment.

Perhaps Americans from both parties and independents could form local conventions to elect delegates to the new Constitutional Convention? Talk about taking back our country!

[Dookus]

1. it would be a nightmare....

seriously. This is the very LAST thing we should wish for. If you think things are bad now, a CC would leave us with an anti-abortion amendment, an anti-gay amendment, a flag-burning amendment, and much, much more.

[Yupster]

21. And it was all done in secret

Try that one today.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

25. some interesting things were said at the debates

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/debates/debcont.htm

They didn't want to go on record with their votes either (I wonder why?)

"Mr. KING objected to one of the rules in the Report authorising any member to call for the yeas & nays and have them entered on the minutes. He urged that as the acts of the Convention were not to bind the Constituents, it was unnecessary to exhibit this evidence of the votes; and improper as changes of opinion would be frequent in the course of the business & would fill the minutes with contradictions. "

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/debates/528.htm

Seemed they had a problem with "anarchy" as well...

[Rowdyboy]

2. GOOD GOD NO!

In the current climate, I'd be terrified of what would emerge.

In the words of many old southern women "Hush yo mouth"!

[NashVegas]

9. No Kidding

I have to wonder what crack people are smoking when they propose this.

[camero]

12. In my case

I had more faith in the masses than I should have. I was wrong.
But the upper crust are not going to be our saviors either.

It's why I'm a DK fan. No aristocratic bloodlines in him.

[Muddleoftheroad]

13. Amen

I hold no political office, but I have always vowed to run as a delegate if some idiot pulls this off. I will run on the don't fuck with it platform.

[OneBlueSky]

23. Amen, Brother! . . .

turning our constitution over to what would undoubtedly be a group hand-picked by those in power (i.e. corporations and their minions in government), the damage that could (and likely would) be done is incalculable . . . bad, bad, bad idea . . .

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

26. what would emerge?

I for one believe in the principle of government by and for the governered, so perhaps I have a higher opinion of my fellow Americans that some people here do.

Afraid of the "levelling spirit" no doubt!!!

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/debates/debcont.htm

[madrchsod]

3. noooooo,

it would be a disaster.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

5. well, democracy IS the worst form of government

except for all the others...

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. How many Democrats voted for Patriot Act I and II???

They would probably make a constitutional amendment out of it.

Please, perish the thought!

[brainshrub]

7. Well said!

[LifeDuringWartime]

6. bad idea

bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea bad idea ad infinum…



did i mention that this is a bad idea?

maybe in 4 or 8 or 12 or 16 years…probably never

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. It will come when and if we have a civil war

the side that wins will do it...

[H2O Man]

10. The Constitution is fine.....

...it is the people on the rabid right who believe they have the authority to deny the constitutional protections to groups they want to exploit and oppress (non-republicans, non-white, gay, children, elders, the poor, the mentally ill, etc) that need to be dealt a swift blow. Read your constitution. The best thing you can do is to register and educate voters: should bush win in 2004, he will further stack the Supreme Court and erode that document.

[private_ryan]

11. I wonder if I live in the same world as you

the ONLY hope we have right now is that the Supreme Court might rule a few of these laws un-constitutional. By ammending the constituion, nothing can help us!!!

[zorkpolitics]

14. Convention must be requested by 2/3 of the states

Article V of the Constitution requires that a Constitutional Convention must be requested by at least 34 states, given that Bush won 30 states last time, we are pretty close to enough "red States" to call a convention.

[Cleita]

15. Gore Vidal suggested such a thing that

we should do so to bring our PRESENT Constitution up to date with the modern world, not to replace it.

[Rowdyboy]

16. According to a friend who is a constitution law professor

a new consitutional convention could decide, ON ITS OWN, what issues it chose to address. Even if it was narrowly called to address a few specific areas, any convention would have the power to toss the entire document out and start over.

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

[Yupster]

22. Just like

the last one did. They were only supposed to revise. They ended up writing a whole new one.

[kodi]

17. it aint broke enough to fix it.

i doubt that in the history of the world was there such a group of knowledgable men deciding on a form of govrnment as at the constitutional convention in philadelphia who formed the US government.

we are the world's oldest constitutional republic for a reason, the founding fathers did their job very well considering their circumstances..... yet slavery is the american original sin.

i just plowed thru aristotle's "politics" and plato's "republic" this holiday season and am even more impressed by what insight the founding fathers took from those ancient greeks. we should all be more thankful for the genius and efforts of the most important of the constitutional authors, james madison.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Glad to see...

it's a unanimous "NO."

The only people who want a CC are the ones who think the one we have isn't good enough.

Now, why would they think it isn't good enough?

[Rowdyboy]

19. Really...

This is about as much agreement as I've seen at DU in a LONG time.

[Deesh]

20. I could only favor it if --

-- the delegates are selected from the DU rolls. No Republicans allowed.

[hellhathnofury]

24. I wouldn't favor that either.

Compromise is at the very center of our constitution. Furthermore, everyone should be at the table.

But this is all hypothetical. I happen to love my constitution and my country in it's present form.