Harnessing America's Historic Rhythm. Making the Next Reform Era
Let’s Guillotine the Citizens United vs. FEC decision
There is an interesting pattern to how Americans improve their government: American reforms come in spurts.
The first such spurt was the one after the American Revolution, when the Founders had to learn to govern the country during peacetime. It was easier to stay a bit more focused on the task at hand when King George III and Parliament were trying to kill you. After the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the states started to drift from their purpose, and the Congress of the Confederation lacked the authority to keep the country on course. So, the Founders, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, met to debate a new Constitution in 1787 in Philadelphia. They succeeded, ratified it, and then because of the push for a Bill of Rights, the new United States Congress debated 12 Amendments to the Constitution they had just written and then ratified 10 of them. They became the Bill of Rights as we know them still today. That whole process, writing and ratifying the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, lasted from the summer of 1787 to December 15, 1791—four-and-a-half years. That is a lot in a short space of time because of the energy and drive of the leaders and the voters. That is what is needed now.
Additional clarifications regarding federal judicial power over the states were needed, and the 11th Amendment was ratified in 1795. Then, the 12th Amendment was ratified in 1804 to deal with the issue of the Vice President being the runner-up in the presidential election and the threat of the presidential election ending in a tie because each Elector had two votes for president back then. Basically, each member of the Electoral College voted for two men for one job, the presidency, and you hoped one of those men got a majority and then the guy who came in second place was VP, but this meant that after George Washington left office, there was no clear preferred choice that everyone would defer to. So the Vice President and the POTUS could be rivals, which is still possible as the President cannot fire the Vice President and cannot give them orders because the Vice President is actually a member of the legislative branch, not the executive. Well, the founders fixed the issue of having the President and Vice President run against each other, and after the 12th Amendment, Electors had one vote for president and a separate vote for vice president. And then there were no Constitutional Amendments for sixty years! Yes, sixty years.
Then, the Civil War happened, the Southern slaveholder elite used their wealth to control the South - Winston Churchill said the poor White South was basically feudally controlled by slaveholder lords - and the American people had to crush slavery to save the nation from racialized oligarchy. Out of this struggle came three Amendments in five years. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery (1865), the 14th Amendment made ex-slaves citizens and nationalized the requirements for citizenship (1868), and the 15th Amendment gave all men the right to vote regardless of “race” (1870). We call these the Reconstruction Amendments. And then there were no Constitutional Amendments for fifty years! Again, spurts of activity, then calm.
The Progressive Era of the 1890s was when Americans began to confront the problems and imbalances of life under industrial capitalism. American elites were nationalist and patriotic and believed they could reform their country and make it run better. They were also interested in inequality and solving social ills by empowering the people. Women, especially upper-middle-class white women in the Western states, began to assert their rights to participate in democracy. Furthermore, many women were concerned with American men’s alcoholism, which threatened dependent women and children. At the same time, the world was becoming more connected through globalization spurred by the European spree of colonization, and the USA would need new tools of finance to fight to hyper-industrialized wars of the future against European threats from Russia, France, Britain, and Germany. In 1913, the Progressive Americans - who were dominant in both parties, by the way - ratified the 16th Amendment, granting Congress the authority to tax incomes. The same year, the 17th Amendment made the US Senate elected by the individual voters in the states rather than the state legislatures. The 18th Amendment in 1919 banned alcohol, beginning Prohibition, and the 19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote. Four Amendments, seven years. Then, things slowed down until the Civil Rights era provoked new reforms.
In between, however, there was the year 1933 and the 20th Amendment, when America changed the dates for when federal office holders began their terms and also provided clarity for what would happen if persons chosen by the Electors for POTUS and VP did not actually qualify for those positions by Inauguration Day or died before taking office. Anarchist terrorism and assassination were a problem in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and the country needed rules to handle any issues that might arise from misfortune. Because of the 20th Amendment, Congress must meet once a year, at noon on January 3rd, unless they pick another day by law, and Inauguration Day is January 20th. However, 1933 also saw the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which completely repealed the 18th Amendment that prohibited intoxicating liquors—the only time an Amendment had been used to annihilate a previous one.
Then, we had an 18-year gap until the 22nd Amendment in 1951, which limited the president to two terms. Then, the height of the African American Civil Rights Movement and later Vietnam put Constitutional reform back on the Agenda.
In 1961, the 23rd Amendment addressed the issue of citizens living in the federal capital not having a vote for president or vice president. Now D.C. Washingtonians get electoral votes so long as they do not have more than the list populous state. Then, in 1964, America ratified the 24th Amendment, which outlawed poll taxes as a tool to keep poor people from voting and was used especially to keep African Americans from voting because the Southern system of white supremacy deliberately kept them poorer than whites to evade the colorblind language of the 15th Amendment. But poll taxes also kept poor whites from voting, which was an acceptable loss to the racist elites. The 24th Amendment reformed the system for all poor Americans and took away a major tool for dispossessing the poor. Three years later, in 1967, the 25th Amendment again took up the issue of presidential succession due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. This somewhat trick Amendment takes care of the issues of what happens if the Vice President resigns, dies, or is removed from office, what happens if something happens to both the POTUS and VP, and how to deal with a president who is in office but otherwise incapacitated. However, there remain disputes over how the incapacitation clause would work. But I’ll write more on needed clarity and reforms to that section at another time. Finally, we come the most recent Amendment passed by Congress that was then ratified by the states the 26th Amendment of 1971 which gave 18 years olds the right to vote. This is the Vietnam Amendment. If young men can be drafted and sent to die for their country at age 18 in an unpopular war, why are they not trusted to vote for the government that sends them to the field of battle? Good question and Congress responded to the pressure: it was intense; the Amendment passed Congress in late March and was ratified by the states on July 1; if you demand it, things happen. It took 100 days from Congressional passage to 3/4th of the states ratifying it. Whew!
The exception is the 27th Amendment. Amendment Twenty-Seven is a bit different as it was first passed as one of the Bill of Rights back in 1789, but it took the states 203 years to ratify it!
My point is that the Americans of the past taught us to get active, not passive, when there is a problem in the system. There is a glitch, and it is up to us to patch it. It is time for a new reform movement to deal with the power of new tech oligarchs who use algorithms to divide us and use the money spent in primaries to bribe and intimidate our politicians legally.
It is time to push for new reforms: I’ll start with the Let’s Guillotine the Citizens United vs. FEC decision with a clear Constitutional Amendment. Please share and talk to your representatives:
Corporations are not People
Section 1. The rights and protections afforded by the first article of amendment shall apply only to natural human persons, except that corporate entities, associations, and other organizations may exercise the rights of freedom of religion, peaceable assembly, and petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. No corporate entity, business organization, association, or other artificial legal entity shall be recognized as possessing rights from the first article of amendment to contribute to or independently expend funds in support of or opposition to any candidate for public office, political party, or political committee, nor have such rights from any other article of amendment.
Section 2. Congress shall have the exclusive power to regulate and set uniform laws governing campaign contributions and expenditures in all federal, state, and local elections in the United States. Such regulations shall include, but not be limited to, limits on the amount of money that any individual, including a candidate, may contribute or expend on their own or another’s campaign. No State shall establish separate or conflicting campaign finance laws.
Section 3. No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall contribute funds or anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any candidate, campaign, political party, or political committee in connection with any election at any level of government within the United States. No non-citizen may vote in any election for office under the United States or any of them, nor hold such offices, whether elected or appointed offices of Offices of Profit or Trust under the United States or any of them.
Section 4. Nothing in this article of amendment shall be construed to limit the freedom of the press. Newspapers, news organizations, and other journalistic entities whose primary purpose is the reporting of news and information to the public shall retain their full rights from the first article of amendment, including the right to publish editorial opinions, political endorsements, and investigative journalism, provided that such entities do not serve as a conduit for undisclosed or otherwise prohibited financial contributions or expenditures.
Section 5. Congress shall have the authority to implement and enforce this article through appropriate legislation, including prescribing the penalties for violations. And no State shall enact or enforce any law inconsistent with the provisions set forth herein.
Okay, thoughts?