The 28th Amendment (2050)

If the founding fathers could see how our government has evolved they would be horrified and would go back  and make many changes. This is my idea of what we should change.

It should be obvious to everyone that our governmental process is broken. We have evolved into a system whereby the elected officials running our country really only care about one key thing and that is to GET REELECTED. This results in terrible decisions or non decisions being made that are dramatically effected by big money donations. Citizens United was the final act that pushed things over the edge to our current situation.

When a Senator or Congressman first gets elected they of course will have had to fight through a nasty primary and general election. This process alone is a cause of concern as only a certain type of ego driven person will subject themselves to this torturous process. But once they are in the desire to stay is overwhelming and their primary goal. Why? Because once in the club you are treated like royalty, especially if you're a Senator. People fawn over you. Your jokes are really funny. You get access to the best table in restaurants. You get to go on TV. All kinds of people want to talk to you and they listen to what you say as if you have great incite into almost any subject.  You get a great retirement package and health care. In short, you start believing that you are a really special person and want that to continue.

So what happens.... if a congressman you  have to start your reelection campaign about 6 months after just getting elected. Senators can put it off a couple of years. And since today's campaigns cost an enormous about of money you have to start dialing for dollars and you have to take meetings with lobbyists and beg for their money even if you don't agree with there cause.

The end result is that decisions are made with "how it will effect my reelection" as the primary factor. Just look at how Mitch McConnell supports criminal Trump because he is afraid of not being reelected. How sad.

Some examples of the terrible congressional actions....

GUNS

Our fascination with guns is a huge problem that should and could be reined in with simple steps that 70% of Americans support. 100% background checks, no assault riffles, limits for people who are mentally ill. Limits on ammunition, etc. None of these restrictions would impact the normal gun owner who likes to shoot animals and compete in target practice. But as we all know the NRA support and contributions completely blocks any sensible changes. Doesn't matter how many people get killed everyday because voting for change would impact my ability to get reelected.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Oh how different the world would have been if Al Gore had been elected in 2000 and the country had embarked on an all out assault on carbon. The solution was trivially simple: Slowly raise taxes on carbon and subsidize clean energy which would let the market fix the problem. Had we taken the lead it would have pulled along the rest of the world and our economy would have thrived. But of course the fossil fuel industry contributes massive amounts of money and so today we have this bone headed outlook that defies logic. Pretend that there is not a problem and just push the problem into the future. Thank Republicans for the agony that mankind will experience 50 years from now. The obvious conclusion is that they don't care about their grandchildren. Period. They only care about getting reelected. And of course the stupid actions of Trump just confirm that we will not do enough to fix this problem.

DRUGS

The opioid crisis is real and as 60 Minutes revealed the primary cause was congress passing laws that PROHIBIT the DEA from going after companies that are pushing the pills. We blindly let a pill pharmacy distribute millions of pills in a community that has only 2,000 people. How stupid. The whole problem could have been controlled by limiting how many pills a given doctor could prescribe in a year. How did this happen? The pharmaceutical industry spent millions making sure they could do whatever they wanted. And of course there are the stupid drug laws affecting  marijuana where we lock up people in one state and give them free access in others.


Well, one could keep going on this list as it is very long but let's focus on other structural problems in our system that contribute in wrong headed direction.


GERRYMANDERING

This is one of the more disgusting things that we have let happen. Republicans are great at using the system to favor their side. Democrats are probably equally to blame.  We have now created a system where a logical cohort of citizens do not have a representative who aligns with their interest and needs. 

JUMBO BILLS

I am not sure what other name to give for the process whereby a given bill in congress can get loaded up with numerous things unrelated to the supposed main topic of the bill.  Want to limit abortion, tack it onto the highway bill. Want a new airport in your district, try to get a line item on the health bill. The fact that a given bill can have just about anything it means we don't know what laws are being passed because nobody, probably not even the congressman, know what's in the bill. We need to fix this.

VOTER LIMITATIONS.

A favorite tactic of the Republicans is to essentially cheat the system by trying to limit who can vote and create gerrymandered districts. This is a cancerous assault on our system.


THE ONLY SOLUTION TO CHANGE DIRECTION IS A 28TH AMENDMENT.

Now when one thinks about an amendment you quickly realize that nothing in the amendment would pass because current Senators, Congressman, State Governments, and lobbyist would fight it to it's death.

So the most important part of this amendment is the effective date of Jan 1, 2050. This is 23 years into the future. Most of the current politicians will be dead or retired along with the lobbyists and state governors.  The hope then is that they will not be concerned with how it affects them TODAY and just might vote their true conscience for a better future.

OK, here are all my changes to put into the amendment.


1) Effective date of Jan 1, 2050

2) Term limits on all politicians.

• Two 4 year  terms for president (already done)
• Three 6 year terms for a Senator
• Five 2 year terms for a Congressman
• Three 4 year terms for a governor

And to sweeten the deal for existing politicians the term limits would not apply to those who are already in office on Jan 1, 2050.

The objective here is obvious. If people know that they cannot make politics a life long career they just might do the right thing because they know they don't have to fight for reelection every term. 33% of senators would be on their last term with no need to placate special interest groups. 20% of congress would be terming out. 

Now a major argument I hear from people opposed to this is that there will be no institutional memory and novice short term politicians will not know how things work and will be greatly impacted by lobbyists. I think this is totally unfounded. In my career I joined several new companies and had to learn quickly about the company process, politics and historical events. It takes about one year to be fully operational. Now think about becoming a senator or congressman. It's the identical job that hundreds have held before and they all need the same knowledge of how things work. It would be easy, and probably already exists, to publish "Senators for Dummy's" that gives a new senator a blueprint of how things work.

The advantages of term limits far outweigh the potential disadvantages.

3) Non Partisan establishment of congressional and state voting districts. 

• Within 1 year after the 10 year census all districts will be modified as necessary to reflect the current population.
• All districts must have geographical and ethnic coherence.
• No district can have non adjacent boundaries.
• The establishment of districts will be done by a bi partisan group of citizens selected by the state supreme court.
• Gerrymandering is forbidden.

4) Congressional Bills must be for one cohesive subject.

No congressional bill can contain sections or amendments that are unrelated to the primary definitions of the bill. Provisions of the bill will be monitored by an independent bipartisan commission and enforced by the supreme court as necessary.

The obvious advantage to this amendment is we stop ear marks and all the other stuff that happens when a bill is moving through congress.  You want a large infrastructure bill that provides funds for road improvements, sewer and water upgrades, and airport expansion, then you won't be able to tack on a birth control amendment or a new border wall, etc. You could add an amendment to increase the budget of air traffic controllers because it is related to the bill definition.

5) Right to Vote.

All citizens have the right to vote. No one can be denied the opportunity to vote. Each voter must register to vote and that process can be via mail and must be available at all times. The penalty for illegally voting is $10,000 and/or one year in prison.

6) Voting process.

• All elections will be held on Saturday and Sunday with polling areas open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm each day.
• No election results can be revealed until after voting ends on Sunday at 7:00 am.
• All citizens will have the right to vote by mail with mail ballots being available at least 30 days prior to election weekend.

7) Appointment of judges and cabinet members.

All nominations put forth by the president for judges and cabinet members must be approved or disapproved by the senate within 90 days of nomination. Failure of the senate to act within the 90 days results in an automatic approval of the appointment. 

8) Eliminate the Electoral College

This ancient process might have made sense it 1787 but today it clearly denies the majority their right to pick the candidate of their choice. Trump is a fraud who clearly was not wanted by the majority of citizens.

Well that's it for now.  If would be great if we could get a "28 in 2050" movement going and test the water to see if it's at all feasible.