The Second Amendment
This Amendment, as written, basically makes no sense. To quote: “A well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of a free people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”. Seems almost like a non sequitor. Are we going to call a bunch of armed civilians out of their homes to fight WWIII? At best, the Amendment has long been superceded by technology (were the Founders familiar with assault rifles??). We do have a “well regulated militia” (the Armed Forces), for which we pay well north of several hundred billion dollars a year. Perversion of the interpretation of this Amendment has made us, arguably, the most heavily armed, and the least secure, populace among the rich countries of the world. In which nation, besides the USA, do grade school kids practice active shooter drills?
Justice Clarence Thomas
Arguably, this guy should never have become a Supreme Court justice. He was selected to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall (couldn’t the first Bush Administration have found a better qualified African American judge)? To paraphrase scripture, Thomas is not fit to fasten Marshall’s sandals. In the roughly three decades he has been on the Court, he has distinguished himself solely on the basis of how much he has accepted in the way of bribes (yes, bribes), from a billionaire new best friend. Not to mention his wife’s apparent role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection…….
The Debt Ceiling
As I write this, we, as a nation, are sweating through another cliff hanger involving The Debt Ceiling. Other than Denmark, no other nation on the planet goes through these gyrations. WE HAVE ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY!!! If we don’t want to increase the national debt, we need to budget accordingly. This nonsense does nobody any good. The last time this happened, in 2011, we got too close to the abyss, and, even though we didn’t default, we suffered a hit to our credit score, so to say, which cost us several billion. Just a rounding error.
The Electoral College
Yes, the Founders, basically, didn’t trust We, the People to choose our chief executive wisely, As I’ve noted in previous posts, the franchise was pretty much limited to property owning white males. What could go wrong? For the first centuries of our existence, in only a few elections, the College came to a different conclusion than a majority of the voters. In this century, however, it has already happened twice, 1n 2000 and 2016. George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump. Yes, there are a lot of academics who are opposed to its abolition, people with PhD’s in political science (not some clown with a masters in chemistry) but I did a lot of time in the federal government (and often wondered how the hell it functioned).
Gerrymandering
Named for a colonial official named Elbridge Gerry, the term describes a process whereby seats are reallocated in the various state congressional delegations following the decennial national census. Since the size of the House of Representatives is fixed (currently at 435 members) states gain or lose seats depending on increases or decreases in population. Each state determines the procedures used to reallocate seats. In recent years, the Republican Party has effectively gained control of many (if not most) of state legislatures (while the Democrats slept?). The end result in one of the hardest hit states (Wisconsin) the Democrats must poll about 60% of the vote, to barely break even in the number of seats. Not your father’s democracy, exactly.
The Filibuster
In order to form (any) union, the Founders needed to make some compromises. In addition to the Electoral College, they created an “upper” house. It’s bad enough that each state gets two senators regardless of population, but at some point, following ratifaction, Senate rules were changed to require a “supermajority” to pass most legislation. Currently, 60 votes are required. As a result, the outfit has gone from “the world’s greatest deliberative body” to a legislative dead body. Since my background is scientific rather than political, I probably just don’t understand stuff like this. Neither does the general public, writ large.
These are, depending on your point of view, nice thoughts. They will never come to pass, but in the time I have left, I can dream, can’t I?
Rogernarc 