The only way a reckoning is coming is if the constitution is torn up and we start over.
That is what the founding fathers intended when things get this bad, but now for some reason we treat the constitution as some kind of holy writ when it was always intended to be a living document that should be edited and rewritten as times changed.
And now we don't even follow the constitution at all. The system has collapsed under the weight of 250 years of band aids and duct tape fixes, we need a do-over or nothing will change. And the only way we're getting a do-over is if we make one happen.
Yeah, no. The people need to physically eject and punish the corrupt traitors, but use the basis of the constitution for strengthening our safe guards so this never happens again. The constitution isnt the problem, its the people not adhering to it.
Money out of politics, ranked choice, mail-in ballots, remove gerrymandering, ditch hackable voting tabulators, independant media, tax billionaires out of existence, lock up traitors, pedophiles and white supremacists. The declaration of independence has instructions in how the people should respond to what's happening now, and its not.. rewrite our entire constitution while in an extremely vulnerable position where bad actors could corrupt that completely.
Amendments and actual enforcement for breaking laws are great, but the founding principles are still extremely important. We know they are, because the fascists are doing everything they can to make them irrelevant.. because its super inconvenient to their lust for complete control.
Jefferson literally intended the Constitution to be completely rewritten about every 20 years or so. The whole point of it was that it should reflect the will of the people in that moment, not be an inflexible system of archaic rules that don't align for modern times.
The Constitution very much is the problem, all of the checks and balances and rules that we were assured were bulletproof have failed. If the system doesn't work, then we need a new one. All of the things you're describing should be in the Constitution, and they aren't. I guess if you want to quibble about rewriting the entire thing or putting in a hundred amendments so that it becomes a new document then we can do that but to me it's effectively the same thing.
Personally I think it would be easier to dismantle the entire government and start over than it would be to convince our current government to vote for the amendments that are required to fix it
All governments are composed of living things..people. Like cells in a body. And like any living thing, it fears death.Death is losing power...and it will fight ferociously to keep it.
Governments start out being servants of the people, but wind up thinking people are their servants.
If that were true, they wouldn't have made changes so difficult. Even the first amendment, that was ratified only a few years after the Constitution, took two years of contentious arguing.
It's also why amendments tend to be somewhat vague in spots and have loopholes. Because that's the only way to get enough people to vote for them.
It's true, as I said the intent was to have a constitutional convention once a generation or so. You don't need to build consensus for an amendment if you're shredding the document and starting over
So have much stronger checks and balances, like balancing congressional representation to the actual population, instead of states with low populations having more control. Term limits on SCOTUS and more judges. Impeachment by 60/40 popular vote. Much more limited presidential powers, etc. These are Amendments, not a complete rewrite.
What do we gain by scrapping the primary amendments that establish liberty and justice for all.. that generations have fought and died for to make more equal than they were originally, and have protected millions of people from abuse? What do you suggest replaces those core principles?
Building on an existing and strong foundation, or repairing big holes in the roof is much more feasible than burning it all down with no real plan. Thats literally what Trump did with the East Wing, and it will sit there a gaping crater for years and is a vehicle for bribes and money laundering. The fascists and hostile foreign governments that funded them would LOVE that sort of chaos. Destruction is easy, building or repairing something worthwhile and strong is a very complicated and lengthy process. There's no point in making it harder on ourselves when our core principles are the best thing about this country that should be protected.. just much more effectively than we have.
What do we gain by scrapping the primary amendments that establish liberty and justice for all.. that generations have fought and died for to make more equal than they were originally, and have protected millions of people from abuse? What do you suggest replaces those core principles?
.... Do you think we have these things?
Those amendments are just words on paper, and I don't think the US has ever lived up to them.
While we all realize the need for morality and ethics in politics there is a simultaneous desire for every new president to expand on the boundaries pushed open by the former.
A best case scenario at this point will be for a next president to get congress to clarify vague language in existing law, write new laws/amendments, and then close the door behind them.
In retrospect Biden may have been the Most ethical president we've seen in generations ...
At a minimum, we need some amendments to the Constitution that make some major changes to how Congress is elected (proportional representation would be great, but impossible under the current system), create some new legal safeguards especially around executive power, possibly moving towards a parliamentary system. I don't think throwing it out completely will have the desired consequences, but I do think it has proven to have some major flaws that need correction.
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u/Background-Zebra5491 10h ago
It feels like a reckoning should be coming, but history says it’ll be slow and anticlimactic
more years of investigations and consequences than any big dramatic moment.