Our dormant Constitution

Revision as of 22:51, 19 November 2014

Introduction

When we allow our Constitution to become stagnant, it causes political instability -- particularly when there are no amendments to restore liberty and justice. The Civil War -- the worst political instability in our country's history -- came after a dry spell of over 70 years without a significant amendment to our constitution. Afterwards, we quickly added three of our most effective amendments to improve liberty and justice. After the dust settled and reconstruction was wrapped up, we saw a period of reduced corruption and growing prosperity, capped by the "Gay 90s". Later however, towards the end of the 19th century after decades without any significant amendments, the country began to fall back into more crime, corruption, economic disparity and political violence.

Finally, after nearly fifty years without a liberty-and-justice amendment, the 17th Amendment (direct Senate elections) was passed and began to take effect, along with the 19th Amendment which further expanded the franchise to women in 1920. The prosperity and good times of the Roaring 20s followed.

The Great Depression and World War II again put the amending process on hold. To respond to the effects of the Depression, the president pressured the Supreme Court into short-circuiting the amendment process with sweeping opinions that shifted power to the Congress and the Executive. By 1960, after another 25 years without a significant amendment, the country had seen a reckless assault on civil liberties from McCarthyism, and was facing rising racial tensions. The 23rd Amendment (Electoral College for Washington, D.C.) and the 24th Amendment (elimination of the poll tax) helped to relieve the tension, but the externalities of the Vietnam War along with continued racial injustices, extended tensions through the 60's and into the 70's. The last significant amendment to the Constitution was in 1971 with the 26th Amendment extending the vote to eighteen-year-olds.

The decades following the 26th Amendment saw mostly growing prosperity and a rapid acceleration in technological innovation. However, after another 25 years without an amendment, political tensions again began to grow. The campaign leading up to the 2000 presidential election was extremely divisive. The Supreme Court hijacked the election, stopped the counting of ballots and selected the president; which cemented the political divisions and destroyed the Court's credibility.

It has now been 45 years since the last significant amendment. The beginning of the 21st century has seen continually growing political instability rivaling that which the country saw during the antebellum. The Supreme Court decisions that were made during the 30s and 40s that shifted power to Congress and the Executive in order to address the immediate problems of the times, have been abused by the leaders who have followed and have been used to suppress political participation. The result is a severe erosion of civil liberties and justice -- and a stagnant constitution. The lack of avenues for civil resolution to the grievances of the people is leading the country to failure.

In order to avert this downward spiral, we need to restore liberty and justice by amending the Constitution. The Uniting Amendment is the comprehensive amendment that can provide a foundation to help rebuild the country.

Quantitative analysis

The chart below shows amendments that increased liberty and justice. Amendments that were primarily procedural or that reduced liberty or justice are not shown. The dates indicated for the amendments were the dates the amendments became fully effective, e.g., the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, but its full effect wasn't realized until all Senators had faced the electorate by 1918. The chart shows that, after the dust had settled from the amendment process, the periods following the amendment(s) were politically stable compared to the time immediately before or long after the amendment(s). For the purposes of this analysis, the Bill of Rights is treated as a single amendment.

List of amendments

In the following table, amendments indicated as the type, "Liberty and Justice", were restorative to political stability.