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How to Amend the Constitution [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-10
No new amendments have been added to the Constitution for 52 years. Flaws in our government are being ignored.
Our Founders set up a system with two possible ways to start the process. First, we could use a legislative body, Congress, to draft the legislation. Secondly, we could hold a convention with trusted delegates, and they could draft the legislation. Congress is currently too partisan. And we certainly do not trust potentially biased delegates at a convention.
But we have a third option. The 7,386 state legislators could act as a legislative body. That’s cumbersome but has two advantages. It is easier for concerned citizens to contact their state legislators as compared to their United States Congressperson. State representatives have about 45,000 constituents and members of the U.S. House of Representatives have about 700,000 constituents. Secondly, we can insert a degree of direct democracy into the process. Recent votes in Kansas and Ohio show that voters can sometimes prevail over the desire of the state legislature.
It all starts with one state legislator introducing an amendment to the United States Constitution into his or her state legislature. We could ban gerrymandering, overturn Citizens United, reform the Electoral College, put term limits on Congress and the Supreme Court, mandate ranked-choice voting, codify reproductive rights, ban assault weapons, and mandate universal health care. The rest of the process is spelled out in Article V.
Contact your state legislators today.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/10/2186375/-How-to-Amend-the-Constitution
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