I think we need a national popular referendum on a new Constitution.
I think we need a national popular referendum on a new Constitution.
Lovely but not possible in the current system. And of course I’d agree. But again the problem is the system.
We can replace the old constitution the same way the old constitution replaced the articles of confederation. The old constitution is dead and we should honestly acknowledge and deal with that fact
Sure I agree but this would require a revolution. Not just voting.
I don't think I have ever head the transition from the Articles to the Constitution characterized as a revolution. The constitution simply ignored the existing system and imposed a new one via a (convoluted) voting system. It was expressly not authorized by the Articles. We could do the same thing.
What matters is not legal formalism but democratic legitimacy and broad buy in. If you had a new constitution that passed in a national referendum buy like 70%, and elected officials comport with the new rules, that would be that
The constitution took effect 6 years after the end of the American Revolution. So yes, it was out of a revolution. Times are much different. We absolutely do not have 70% in our favor and we certainly don't have elected officials in our favor. The constitution has rules about its replacement.
Pragmatically, replacing it through the courts or congress is functionally impossible. So is your plan of just saying well let's make a new one. Any such change will take decades, through peaceful means.
Countries create new constitutions and pass them semi-regularly. These things can and do happen without wars beforehand. I refuse to just accept being locked into a broken system where no change is possible. This could be done if people campaign for it. But you seem to think the system is magic
And that there is some mystical force that will prevent a national referendum from having any effect. And that's simply not the case. At any rate we no longer have a working constitution at all. SCOTUS and the GOP have nullified it. We now exist in a free floating state of pure power politics
On the contrary I think you are engaged in magical thinking. I’m extremely aware of how things get done. 40% of the voting population supports Trump near conditionally so far. We all wish it weren’t that way, but it is. It is going to be grueling, decades long work to do this.