Congress is broken. The USSC is bought and paid for. The WH had morons in control of the button.

[HopeHoops]

Is it time for a Constitutional Convention?

[mdmc]

1. There is great chaos under the sun..

[HopeHoops]

2. Somebody ALWAYS votes for "Kitteh".

:hi:

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Representatives selected by the several states

probably by voting. Same as the first one.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. It'd require a two-thirds vote of both houses.

Or a vote for a constitutional convention from two-thirds of state legislatures. Neither is very likely. (See Article V of the US Constitution for the amendment process.)

[HopeHoops]

7. You know your shit!

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Probably past time to scrap the outdated and monarchical presidential system and replace it...

with a parliamentary government, extend the term for representatives to four years, bring in proportional representation rather than first-past-the-post voting...but that would be too much change for most Americans who, even though the American form of government has very clear problems, act as though the Constitution was brought down from Mount Sinai graven on stone tablets.

[HopeHoops]

10. Voting is broken. Yes, that's also a problem with representatives to the CC.

I don't trust electronic voting. Wisconsin and Florida have both proven that the voting process is rigged. I'm not sure there's a good solution to the problem, but we're stuck with it for now. The founders never intended the Constitution to last this long. Many of the compromises they made are obsolete or have been changed. Even the process of amending it is problematic.

There are constant calls for a Constitutional Congress, but I seriously doubt those in charge (Koch, Murdoch, etc.) will ever let that happen. It can also be a dangerous territory. Yes, the USSC is corrupt, bought and paid for, but things change with time. I meant this poll to be a serious challenge to the question - on both sides of the issue.

[meow2u3]

26. This looks like a job for Anonymous

If anything can be done to stop vote rigging by electronic voting machines, Anonymous may have the tools to do it. Just kicking ideas around.

[HopeHoops]

27. LOL! Your comment made me think of ObviousMan from Non-Sequitur

[Journeyman]

9. Sounds like a wonderful idea. Let's give the forces of Reaction a hefty push forward. . .

What could possibly go wrong if they had a tabula rasa on which to give vent to their every desire. . .

[ellisonz]

11. We need a campaign finance and another voting rights amendment.

Not a convention.

[HopeHoops]

12. Do you seriously see that happening with a congress that's bought and paid for?

The "Citizens v. United" ruling pretty much handed all power over to the large corporations. Nearly every member of Congress gets the majority of their funding from anti-American interests (the 1% if you want to call it that). They've show time and time again that they aren't going to do anything to undermine their cash stream. This transcends political party - it is a fundamental part of our government.

[ellisonz]

13. And who elects Congress?

The voters. And where are the voters - mostly not voting.

What would make you think a Constitutional Convention would solve anything? Would special interests just control that too?

The problem is ignorance and a lack of a unified front in combating it in order to truly change things.

[HopeHoops]

14. Diebold - Protecting America from Democracy

[ellisonz]

15. Way to ignore my response.

[HopeHoops]

16. Not at all. I was serious. Do you REALLY trust your vote on those machines?

For $23 you can buy parts to hack into the damn things. But frankly I don't think hackers have anything to do with it. They just need to report numbers that are plausible. The concept of a recount has been defenestrated. All a recount means is getting the same numbers out of the machine that it gave you the first time. There's no paper trail, no accountability, no democracy.

[ellisonz]

17. Then get them removed.

I'm for paper voting. But you don't need a Constitutional Convention to do that.

Again, this is about our collective failure to preserve our democracy. We don't need a Constitutional Convention to fix that problem.

[HopeHoops]

18. The poll also had a "too dangerous" option. It was just a thought provoking post.

Who would be the representatives to the convention? How would we chose them? The original ones were what we might call the 1% of the day. My fear is that the path the current USSC is taking is going to lead to that branch seizing control. Face it - all the GOP has to do is THREATEN a filibuster to stop a bill cold. They don't even have to do anything. Sanders is the only one to actually attempt one in, shit, forever.

[ellisonz]

19. That was my vote.

If we had 60 plus votes in the Senate it wouldn't be an issue...

How long did it take to end slavery? How long did it take women to get the right to vote?

This is the fight of our lives. To re-establish our democratic community.

[HopeHoops]

20. I think we're on the same page then.

[ellisonz]

22. Did you see this?

Senators Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Citizens United

By Zaid Jilani on Nov 2, 2011 at 9:50 am

One of the overarching themes of the 99 Percent Movement is that our democracy is too corrupted by corporate special interests. This corruption was worsened last year by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allowed for huge new unregulated flows of corporate political spending.

Yesterday, six Democratic senators — Tom Udall (NM), Michael Bennett (CO), Tom Harkin (IA), Dick Durbin (IL), Chuck Schumer (NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Jeff Merkely (OR) — introduced a constitutional amendment that would effectively overturn the Citizens United case and restore the ability of Congress to properly regulate the campaign finance system.

The amendment as filed resolves that both Congress and individual states shall have the power to regulate both the amount of contributions made directly to candidates for elected office and “the amount of expenditures that may be made by, in support of, or in opposition to such candidates.”

----

Passing this amendment or any other amendment to the Constitution is an arduous process. There are two ways to propose a constitutional amendment. Either two-thirds of Congress can agree to an amendment or there can be a constitutional amendment called by two-thirds of state legislatures (this path has never been taken). In order to ratify an amendment, three-quarters of state legislatures must agree or three-quarters of states must have individual constitutional conventions that agree.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/11/02/358694/senators-introduce-citizens-united-amendment/

[HopeHoops]

25. Not that one in particular, but similar information. They abbreviated it to "Citizens United"?

I guess it has to fit into the most detrimental thing to ever hit a society - Twitter.

[HopeHoops]

24. It was a thought-provoking question, but I agree with you. A CC would be dangerous.

I'm not sure how to fix things, and I'm QUITE open to suggestions (but without influence), but shit's broken and it needs to be fixed somehow. Violence is NOT the answer, but how do you respond to the police being used as a military force? One picture in particular comes to mind. It was a young guy hugging a cop around his riot shield. This is not an easy situation to resolve.

[HopeHoops]

21. Okay. For those of you who voted yes, how would you suggest we achieve it?

:shrug:

[Tesha]

23. I wpuld be much more supportive of my region (New England) simply seceding.

One of the principal problems with this country is that
the major regions have very few common interests.

Tesha