1) Given the way power is distributed and amendments are ratified, proposing any amendments is very dangerous. We may get some that we really DON'T WANT, like repealing the 17th Amendment.
2) Repealing the 2nd Amendment would not change much. The right to "keep and bear arms" by the people is implied by the 10th Amendment.
3) The way to approach the Electoral College Problem is via the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Our Founders were far from perfect and the Constitution was the result of lengthy argument and difficult compromise. As Prof. Akhil Reed Amar says: The North got the words, but the South got the numbers," and the latter have proved much more significant.
Ya, I wouldn't really try to change the 2nd... But we do need MUCH stronger gun laws! It's nice over here that our schools don't have to practice for active shooters! And again, agree - hurrah for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. If I were in the States, I'd be working on that! Prof Reed's comments are indeed true!
Long before Sinclair Lewis (and later Philip Roth) warned of the internal dangers to our republic, a very young Abraham Lincoln said, in his first public speech:
'At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
'At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.'
Well, this did happen: a demagogue who eventually becomes President. With a platform of fear mongering and false promises of free money and economic growth, he touts a return to a time of patriotism and traditional values. Once in power, he becomes an authoritarian ruler with the support of a citizen paramilitary force who terrorize the populace and enforce corporatist principles.
As to constitutional amendments.
1) Given the way power is distributed and amendments are ratified, proposing any amendments is very dangerous. We may get some that we really DON'T WANT, like repealing the 17th Amendment.
2) Repealing the 2nd Amendment would not change much. The right to "keep and bear arms" by the people is implied by the 10th Amendment.
3) The way to approach the Electoral College Problem is via the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Our Founders were far from perfect and the Constitution was the result of lengthy argument and difficult compromise. As Prof. Akhil Reed Amar says: The North got the words, but the South got the numbers," and the latter have proved much more significant.
Ya, I wouldn't really try to change the 2nd... But we do need MUCH stronger gun laws! It's nice over here that our schools don't have to practice for active shooters! And again, agree - hurrah for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. If I were in the States, I'd be working on that! Prof Reed's comments are indeed true!
Long before Sinclair Lewis (and later Philip Roth) warned of the internal dangers to our republic, a very young Abraham Lincoln said, in his first public speech:
'At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
'At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.'
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm
Also, it HASN'T happened here... YET!
Well, this did happen: a demagogue who eventually becomes President. With a platform of fear mongering and false promises of free money and economic growth, he touts a return to a time of patriotism and traditional values. Once in power, he becomes an authoritarian ruler with the support of a citizen paramilitary force who terrorize the populace and enforce corporatist principles.