How would you amend the US Constitution if you could make any change you want?

[clevbrowns95]

I was wondering if the extremely high bar to amend the Constitution is a net positive or negative. On the plus side, a tyrant like Trump isn't able to amend the Constitution to his will because of the high bar. On the negative side, any ways to fix the Constitution in a serious way will never happen in modern partisan era, and they didn't even really happen before it. The last amendment occurred in 1992, it was not substantial and involved Congressional pay, and before that, there was a big one, changing voting age from 21 to 18...but that was in 1971.

But all that aside, if you had unlimited power to amend the US Constitutions without consideration to plausibility of getting it passed, what would you do? The whole debacle of the Trump Presidency has shown how flawed our government is. How would you fix it? Also, reasonable ideas only. No calls to ban Republicans from voting for example. Plus, I totally (wink) would never agree with something so horrible (double wink).

I don't want to suck up too many ideas, so I'll just throw out a few to get started:

1. Abolish the electoral college completely and replace with pure popular vote
2. Term limits for Supreme Court justices. Also, give the House a vote on all justices and judges as well. But the SC needs even more reworking than these two ideas.
3. Recall elections for Presidents. As we saw with Trump, impeachment/Senate removal will never happen if the President's party controls even one branch of Congress. And the 25th amendment doesn't feel helpful either.
4. Make voting mandatory, 16 year olds can vote, and make voting day a national holiday.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Ban all political bribery. Aka "contributions". Then the will of the people can be followed rather than corporations.

 

[Landy828]

Two Presidents/Leaders/parties minimum. There would be no single man/woman that is more powerful than anyone else.

Every vote in the country would count. No lobbying/payments from any 3rd party allowed for any reason.

So yeah, no single party leadership. Always multi-party with a revamped voting and congress/government/etc system.

 

[Ecotic]

Make the U.S. a unitary system, which is basically a supreme Parliament/Governing body. Have the seats in Parliament be proportional to the percentage of votes a party gets. 40% of the vote = 40% of the seats.

 

[A Syrian Communist]

Completely take corporate money out of politics.

 

[Nepenthe]

That precious lil' Second Amendment is going bye-bye. Immediately.
Money needs to get out of politics entirely too because fuck plutocracies.
Secure the right to vote for every American of voting age, regardless of whether or not they're a felon.
Eliminate the Electoral College. We vote based on what's most popular. Sorry conservatives.

 

[Mona]

Ban all political bribery. Aka "contributions". Then the will of the people can be followed rather than corporations.

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yep

 

[blinky]

2. Term limits for Supreme Court justices. Also, give the House a vote on all justices and judges as well. But the SC needs even more reworking than these two ideas.

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I've become a big fan of this idea. All the justices should get staggered 18 year terms, so a retirement takes place every two years. That would greatly lessen the stakes of confirmation battles and ensure that each president got two judges each term.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

just copy the german system

(strong lower house elected via MMP, weaker degressively-proportional upper house appointed by state governments, mostly ceremonial executive)

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

I don't think changing to the popular vote would give the results people expect.
Politicians would change there stratagies.

 

[TerminusFox]

Anything that keeps conservatives from as much power as possible? Yeah do that

 

[CrankyJay]

Ban all political bribery. Aka "contributions". Then the will of the people can be followed rather than corporations.

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First post nails it.

 

[HylianSeven]

1. OP already said abolish elector college, but I will reiterate it. Miss me with the arguments of "Well California would effectively elect the president!" It's an election for the whole country, one vote is one vote, it doesn't matter if it's from California or Kentucky.
2. Make voter ID laws illegal.
3. Either abolish or significantly alter the second amendment to completely ban assault weapons, and limit who can get any other firearms to a very strict level.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Something obviously done about gun control. And I'd like to see something done with 2 Senators per state, that doesn't make any sense at all.

I'd love to hear your reasoning on why 16 year olds should vote OP.

 

[Damaniel]

The first thing I'd do is rewrite the Second Amendment to explicitly ban personal possession of firearms.

The second thing would be to eliminate the Electoral College and replace it with straight popular vote counts. It's not 1790 anymore - we can quickly count ballots these days.

 

[Shadybiz]

Electoral college got to go.

No corporate money in politics is a good idea.

2nd Amendment I’d be fine with losing entirely, even though I’m a gun owner. If not tossed out completely, I would at least like to see federal requirements for ownership a lot like it is here in NJ. Also I’d want mandatory safety courses for anyone who wants one, and an annual safety recertification and an annual background/mental health check for owners.

Federal mandate that convicted felons are able to vote after they’ve served their sentences. They have already paid their debt to society...keeping them from voting after that is just dumb.

 

[makingmusic476]

1. End the Electoral College.
2. Require that states use electoral systems other than FPTP.
3. Forbid gerrymandering.
4. Keep the Senate as a body that's significantly smaller than the House, but make the number of Senators proportional to the population of each state.
5. Restrict financial contributions as a form of political speech.
6. Clarify the second amendment so that the government has more leeway in regulating firearms.

I'd also like something that would make it easier for cities to expand and annex new territory, to deal with the huge issue of local coordination and excess bureaucracy that's a consequence of our fractured local governments, but that'd probably need to be legislation as opposed to an amendment that's uneasily changed or improved.

 

[inner-G]

Legalize the weed

Corporations aren't people

 

[sgtnosboss]

Ban all political bribery. Aka "contributions". Then the will of the people can be followed rather than corporations.

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YES

 

[menacer]

Making voting mandatory wouldn't make sense because anyone who doesn' t give a shit will just throw it away.

 

[onadesertedisland]

No private funding for any political campaign, funding comes from the government and is equal for all candidates passing a certain bar, say a number of signatures supporting them proportional to the office and population of the position. Voting day an official holiday.

 

[clevbrowns95]

I'd love to hear your reasoning on why 16 year olds should vote OP.

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This is something I don't think is at the top of my list of things to change, but I always feel that expanding voting within reason is a good thing. At 16, you can drive, get married, work, join the military (with parental consent), get emancipated, and so forth, but you can't get vote. I think they are old enough to make informed voting decisions.

 

[Madison]

PROTECT TRANS PEOPLE

 

[deftones r cool]

Free Ice Cream Fridays*

 

[FaceHugger]

420 LEGALIZE IT

No seriously (well, I am halfway serious in the above....) end the electoral college. Give the power back to the people. Fucking archaic system designed by people who hated blacks and other non-whites.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

This is something I don't think is at the top of my list of things to change, but I always feel that expanding voting within reason is a good thing. At 16, you can drive, get married, work, join the military (with parental consent), get emancipated, and so forth, but you can't get vote. I think they are old enough to make informed voting decisions.

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Fair enough I suppose, I disagree that 16 year olds in general are informed enough but I suppose we should allow for special requests if someone wants to register early.

 

[Gaf Zombie]

I'd get rid of the loophole that allows slavery

I'd fully enshrine the rights of LGBTQ people

I'd do away with the second amendment.

I'd get rid of the EC

I'd limit the amount of SC judges and establish a system of 2 appointments every 4 years

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Electoral college got to go.

No corporate money in politics is a good idea.

2nd Amendment I’d be fine with losing entirely, even though I’m a gun owner. If not tossed out completely, I would at least like to see federal requirements for ownership a lot like it is here in NJ. Also I’d want mandatory safety courses for anyone who wants one, and an annual safety recertification and an annual background/mental health check for owners.

Federal mandate that convicted felons are able to vote after they’ve served their sentences. They have already paid their debt to society...keeping them from voting after that is just dumb.

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Regarding the second amendment, if bribery were out of politics it would be a moot point. Politicians would be accountable to the people and not just a corporate super minority with titanic pockets for bribes. So without that legislation can get through and a balance can be achieved. Better background checks, secure home storage, etc would make a tremendous difference. Most importantly the people's will can take the driver seat and not whoever can buy the politicians.

I think this goes for anything not just the second amendment. Get the corrupt money out of politics and the rest falls in line.

 

[clevbrowns95]

I don't think changing to the popular vote would give the results people expect.
Politicians would change there stratagies.

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Well, Democrats won the popular vote 6 out of past 7 times, and the only time they lost was Bush's reelection, but with a straight popular vote, he wouldn't have been the incumbent at the time anyway. Yes, Republicans could change where they campaign, but if they think they can focus on high population areas like CA and NY with their same far right policies and expect to win, they can think again. And even the repeal didn't help Democrats much, it should still happen. The EC is so outdated. How can you lose the popular vote by 3 million votes and be declared the winner?

 

[Richiek]

Repeal the Second Amendment and the electoral college.

 

[Baji Boxer]

Some ideas off the top of my head:

-Change our electorial system, eliminating the electoral college and going to a popular vote.

-Give U.S. territories and DC representation in the Senate (say, one Senator each).

-A modern civil rights ammendment reflecting what we know in regards to LGBTQI people.

-A new amendment reinforcing Americans' voting rights. Auto voter registration of all citizens. No removal from voter roles unless very specific evidence backed reasons (like if someone is confirmed dead). More standardization of voting rules nationally.

-Rework the House somehow to be more evenly distributed, or go to a different model.

-Make the 2nd ammendment better defined, or eleminate it altogether.

-Make healthcare a fundamental right.

-More explicity enforce the principle of seperation of church and state.

-Reduce the ammount of legal "bribery". Find some way to eliminate the two party stranglehold on the system. Complete transparency in regards to all finances and buisiness by elected officials. Basically cut back on legal avenues of corruption, and make it easier to identify illegal activity.

 

[miscellaneous houseplant]

1. Equal Rights Amendment - guarantee equal rights and ban discrimination based on gender, sex, sexual orientation, race, etc.
2. Abolish the Senate, or make it proportional to state's populations. Maybe proportional +1 extra senator if I'm being generous.
3. Abolish 2nd Amendment
4. Abolish Electoral College
5. All seats in House of Representatives represent an equal number of people
6. Everyone is automatically registered to vote, never lose right to vote
7. Federally funded elections. No private contributions ever. Can't contribute to your own campaign. Election season is three months long.
8. Federally funded pre-k and daycare
9. Universal healthcare
10. Federally-set zoning laws. Fuck you NIMBYs, mixed-use zoning is coming for your shitty white suburb
11. Minimum 5-weeks paid vacation, 6-months paid parental leave
12. Immigration reform: Let everyone in and get citizenship if they live here for five years. Citizenship for anyone here when this goes down.
13. Legalize all drugs, fund rehabilitation and education clinics. Tax drugs based on medical evidence of potential for harm.
14. Enshrine the Environmental Protection Agency in the constitution. Give them strong policing and fining powers. Make their slogan "Saving the Goddamn Planet"

Something needs to be done to separate the Supreme Court from the whims of the executive.

Police forces need to be totally reworked, as does the criminal justice system.

Copy whatever other European countries do to make college affordable.

 

[Hirok2099]

Legalize the weed

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.......Priorities

I'd get rid of the second amendment.

I don't think changing to the popular vote would give the results people expect.
Politicians would change there strategies.

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Change strategies to actually appeal to more the most people? I'm sorry I feel like any argument in favor of the electoral college has to somehow be run under the assumption that the vote of people living in cities are somehow less worthy of a voice than those in rural areas. Yeah it sucks for farmers that because there are less of them and so their issues are not a priority but guess what? There are also less Black, less Latinx and Muslim voters should we also change the system to make their vote more valuable and so have their issues be over-represented?
I get the whole protecting minorities from the oppression of the majority but giving them more voting power is not the way.

 

[WaffleTaco]

And this is why I’m glad this can’t happen. These suggestions are not very good and based on populist decisions for contemporary times.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

First few I can think of: I know I have radical views compared to people on this forum and I welcome people who want to educate me.
New Amendment:

Any sort of campaign contribution is public knowledge AND has to be personal (i.e. a person to a person for use with a specific acknowledged result) as opposed to corporations and/or consortium directly to a warchest for a party/candidate.

New Amendment:

Overhauling of the electoral college process, I like the idea that it gives every state and people in less populous states a potentially equal stake when compared to population dense communities, however in its current incarnation it is broken and dramatically hurts voters in large cities when compared to voters in smaller cities. I'm not sure how to fix it, but it needs fixing.

Amendments to amendments:

Second amendment needs clarification/retooling - removal of all guns will not solve the rampant violence plaguing our inner cities and destroying homes but regulation, education, and outright banning of mass murder weapons is a start. Maybe Move everything back to single shot, barrel load firearms? Either way whatever guns remain are heavily restricted and exclusive to controlled, highly government regulated licensed locations. I can only hope this would help prevent a lot of random acts of violence while not driving up the acid attacks, knife violence we see if countries that outright ban guns.

Enshrine person-hood rights to citizens of all races, creeds, backgrounds, religions, and sexual orientation. It won't stop hate, but it will remove a lot of "but the constitution doesn't say" that is out there. The basis is already there in the ninth amendment, it just needs to be taken further.

An extension of amendment 4 to bring it in line with modern ownership

the 8th amendment needs to outright ban for profit prisons on a national scale and codify the need for rehabilitation to be the primary focus of imprisonment not exclusively justice. Justice should be punishment to rehabilitate the guilty to become a valuable member of society and to make those that lost something whole, not punishment for punishments sake alone.

 

[Netherscourge]

Add Term Limits across the board.

House, Senate, SCOTUS.

 

[giraffereyn]

Repeal the 2nd amendment

 

[ratcliffja]

If it could be retroactive, I would replace the 2nd amendment with the 13th minus the prison clause.

 

[m_shortpants]

The good ideas in this thread are depressing lol

The 18 year staggered SC retirement cycle in particular

In reality, we need to stop treating the Constitution as a holy document. Times change. The process for amending the Constitution makes it near impossible these days.

 

[inner-G]

.......Priorities

I'd get rid of the second amendment.

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It's not popular opinion here, but I don't think that makes sense for much of the country.

 

[SamAlbro]

No Electoral College.

Retool the Senate. Still the smaller house, but no more equal representation for States. Population trends are making that increasingly undemocratic.

Supreme Court Justices serve 10 year terms.

Constitutional protections against gerrymandering and voter supression.

Runoff elections. No one can be elected with less than 50% of the popular vote. Lower performing candidates are eliminated in rounds until someone gets a majority vote.

 

[WaffleTaco]

The good ideas in this thread are depressing lol

The 18 year staggered SC retirement cycle in particular

In reality, we need to stop treating the Constitution as a holy document. Times change. The process for amending the Constitution makes it near impossible these days.

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^That’s a good thing. It needs to be hard to change.

It's not popular opinion here, but I don't think that makes sense for much of the country.

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It would literally cause a civil war.

 

[moomoo14]

I would establish term limits for Supreme Court Justices. I don’t think the framers has judicial review in mind as something that would exist when making the judicial branch. We basically have a group of nine kings and queens who can legislate from the bench because of this.

 

[Hirok2099]

It's not popular opinion here, but I don't think that makes sense for much of the country.

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Care to explain why it doesn't? Like the right to bear arms is supposed to be to fight against government oppression do you think you'll get to fight the government's bombs and drones with guns?

 

[Metallix87]

I'd use an Amendment to eliminate the vice president as a running mate and go back to the role being filled by the runner up in the general, plus giving them some more power and an active role in the executive branch.

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

1. Give the us government the right to regulate arms.

2. Abolish electoral college.

3. Equal rights amandment, and include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.

4. Eliminate cooperate personhood in regards to civil rights.

5. Abolish conscription

6 abolish private prisons.

7. Forbid police from investigating their own crimes.

8. Government has the right to establish universal health care.

9. Abolish gerrymandering, increase size of the house so that every congressmen represents the same amount of population.

 

[Stinkles]

1a. Eliminate the ability for corporations to act as citizens or to remain anonymous and scorch earth lobbying and financial political malfeasance that creates a vicious cycle of corruption and eternal campaign fundraising. This is multiple constitutional changes.

1b. Require all national and state candidates and their cabinets to full financial, education, mental competency, medical and background disclosure. Require minimum standard of literacy and civics (see citizenship test) and eliminate arbitrary 35 year old minimum in exchange for minimum education or experience criteria. Also clarify citizenship requirements.

1c. Make vote tampering and gerrymandering and foreign money in politics extremely serious crimes. Felonies for sure but up there with bank robbery and assault. No wiggle room on vote suppression or obfuscation. None.




1. Clarify language and intent of second amendment. You can all argue about what that means or suggest phrasing from "everyone can have as many guns as they like as long as they keep their militia uniform clean " to "nobody can have any guns ever" but you can't argue the wording is clear or modern as it stands without doing NRA comma magic.

2. Fix loopholes allowing the presidency to continually gather more power and term limit and redesign SC preferably with apolitical goals and rules - including impeachment channels for serious malfeasance. Call it the Kennedy rule.
3. Fix or eliminate current design of electoral college to continue to empower states as full members of federation but to rationalize population impact on democracy.

4. Require state senators and congressmen to work for their states and remain independent from the presidency.

5. General election is a holiday. Voting is seriously encrypted with a paper and electronic trail. Lottery tickets already have a simple handshake and paper trail.

6. Treason properly defined to acknowledge modern statecraft and eliminate need for hot war to be in progress.

 

[Paltheos]

1. End the Electoral College.
2. Require that states use electoral systems other than FPTP.
3. Forbid gerrymandering.
4. Keep the Senate as a body that's significantly smaller than the House, but make the number of Senators proportional to the population of each state.
5. Restrict financial contributions as a form of political speech.
6. Clarify the second amendment so that the government has more leeway in regulating firearms.

I'd also like something that would make it easier for cities to expand and annex new territory, to deal with the huge issue of local coordination and excess bureaucracy that's a consequence of our fractured local governments, but that'd probably need to be legislation as opposed to an amendment that's uneasily changed or improved.

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I agree with allot of the ideas in this topic. I want to comment on a couple of the ideas here in particular.

2) I'm particularly in favor of a voting system that allows you to vote for multiple candidates and assigns points based off how high up the list they are for you. If x number of candidates are voted for, the system assigns the topmost vote on your ballot x number of points, the second candidate x-1, and so on. Impossibly complicated a hundred years ago but we live in the modern era. This should be extremely easy.

4) I'm not sure I agree with that. Maybe some reworking is called for - Maybe they might have too much power relatively - but 'tyrrany of the majority' doesn't... sound like an illegitimate fear. Just off the top of my head. This isn't something I've thought or know allot about.

 

[Hirok2099]

And this is why I’m glad this can’t happen. These suggestions are not very good and based on populist decisions for contemporary times.

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I mean we live don't live in 1787 why is adjusting the constitution to better fit contemporary world a bad thing.

 

[Stooge]

1. Enshrine voting rights. No voter ID laws, no more purging voter rolls, no more closing polling stations. National payment for elections. I want voting machines on every block. Vote anywhere in your state. Vote any day for a month open from 6 AM till 10PM. National holiday for voting. Independent panels/computer modeling to create voting districts. Ranked choice voting being a national law.

2. Abolish the electoral college

3. Term limits for Supreme Court justices. Clarify that nominated SC justices that are not brought up for a vote can be appointed by the President. Potentially need to look into a jury pool like system for Judges. I.E. you can only block X number and then you have to confirm.

4. Legally define appropriate use of deadly force for police.

5. Abolish the 2nd amendment.

6. Statehood for DC. I want PR, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana, and US Virgin Islands to be a states as well, but that doesn't require a constitutional amendment. I'd also like the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau to have standing offers of statehood if they so choose.