Hi, America! This is a constitutional amendment proposal to:
- provide congressional representation to D.C. and the territories.
- end the Electoral College,
- make the U.S. Senate proportional to population, and
- provide for future constitutional amendments by referendum.
There is a common theme here: all voters should have an equal say over the law.
Here is the BIG IDEA: This proposal will declare its own procedure for ratification.
Yes, we can do this. It is possible.
Extraordinary constitutional moments require constitutional creativity by the people, such as:
- The Declaration of Independence did not follow any written procedures of Parliament. Colonial legislatures authorized their delegates to the Continental Congress to declare independence. That was a creative solution.
- The Constitution did not follow any written procedures for forming new constitutions under the Articles of Confederation. The Confederate Congress called a convention to amend the Articles, the delegates at that convention proposed a constitution, and the proposed Constitution included terms for its own ratification. That was a creative solution.
- Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure in 1862. The prosecution of the war ended slavery as a practical matter in rebel states by the summer of 1865. Faced with reality, these states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, formally ending slavery. That was a creative solution.
- Congress in 1867 passed a law requiring the rebel states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before their representation would be restored. That was a creative solution.
- Under the Reconstruction acts, the army oversaw elections in the South and ensured that newly freed slaves could vote and participate in the formation of new southern state constitutions, all before the Fifteenth Amendment protected the suffrage of blacks, and even though the Constitution at the time gave states the power to decide who could vote. That was a creative solution.
This proposal is a creative solution in this grand American tradition.
This is what we should do. There will be a two-phase national referendum initiated by the states/D.C./territories.
- This amendment will be formally proposed by a simultaneous majority vote of the people of a group of states/D.C./territories that comprise a majority of the population of the United States.
- This amendment will be ratified six months later, provided that the states/D.C./territories that did not vote the first time have an opportunity to do so, and that the overall vote remains a majority vote of the people.
I think this plan is more likely to succeed in its goals than any other.
This procedure is as consistent with the principle of political equality as our current institutions will allow. Read more about the process here.