Yes, we, today, are smart enough to rethink our Constitution and should not be afraid to do it. To change our Constitution, 34 states must vote to hold a national convention. To amend the Constitution, it takes 38 of the states to ratify the changes. There are many things that should be looked at—good or bad. The bad things include a long obsession by the conservative movement for a so-called balanced budget amendment. This would make the government powerless to borrow its way out of a recession. The government would have to cut spending at the very moment it was most needed. The cuts would most likely be made to benefit programs instead of raising taxes on the wealthiest and eliminating the inheritance tax.
The effort to change the Constitution is being funded by the Koch brothers, Coors, DeVos and the Walton families, who produce op-eds and other positive-sounding propaganda that touts the need for such a convention. At this time, 29 states have voted to a hold a Constitutional convention. Only five states are needed to reach the magic number of 34.
Now what might be very good for the 99 percent maybe the abolition of the Electoral College, which was originally designed to bolster the power of the slaveholders. The Electoral College now just acts like a political life support for the outdated racial ideological descendants. The convention might also come to an agreement on term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices. Why should a president be able to appoint justices who shape the life of a nation to a particular political ideology for many years after they have left the bench? Some think an eighteen-year-nonreturnable term, which would see a new justice every other year. Using term limits could restore some sanity to the U.S. Supreme Court delation process.
Other issues could be raised, such as the right to healthcare, education, housing, the right to vote, minimum wage based on cost of living, and implementing a universal basic income. To have people selected for the convention, we could use a lottery to select a few hundred Americans. This is just some things to think about.
It has been 156 years since the Constitution was adopted. Maybe we need to reboot and tune up some things.
The survival of American democracy requires the existence of a flourishing union work force. In a survey, 68 percent of Americans approve of labor unions. So, as an old sheet metal organizer, I say we need to go all out in organizing while the soldering iron is hot, to use a sheet metal workers tool. We should organize all workers no matter where or what kind of work they do. All workers have the right to belong to a union and all should support each other. If you, in your work place, do not know how to form a union, then do what Napoleon’s military adopted adage, ‘Jump into the battle and then figure it out.’ One of the best ways to organize is worker to worker and plan it out over a meal or coffee and talk to other union workers to see what would work best for you and also what unions are winning at this time. Just go for it. When things are in disarray, like the shit show in Washington, D.C., they might not even know what you are doing until it is too late for them to push back aga...
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