Conservative Constitution

Why does the Conservative constitution hate Democracy?

Voters lose; politicians and the wealthy win

A draft document of a conservative constitution of the United States was developed by the National Constitution Center and can be viewed at draft conservative constitution. It is designed to replace the existing Constitution of the United States.

That document is surprising in a number of ways.

It takes power away from voters and puts it in the hands of politicians, making government less representative of, and less responsive to, the general public. In other words, it would make the United States less of a Democracy and more of an oligarchy, a country controlled by a few individuals not beholden to its citizens.
It shifts power to the states and weakens the federal government, which will make the United States irrelevant and ineffective in international affairs. The last time the United States was so isolationist, Pearl Harbor was attacked.
It greatly reduces the ability of the federal government to tax and be indebted, benefiting the wealthiest individuals, who pay far less than their fair share of taxes, and consequently reduces or eliminates services such as Social Security, Medicare, and education, putting most citizens below the living standards of Western European countries.
This document has some provisions that will improve Democracy in minor ways, but it takes important powers away from voters, greatly lessening the ability of the United States to function as a Democracy overall. Conservatives will try to point to the minor improvements as positives while ignoring the major theft of voter power.

This article highlights selected quotes from the conservative constitution followed by a description of the effect they would have on the United States population and government.

Article 1 Section 2
Congressional districts shall be compact and contiguous within a State and Congress may impose other rules of formation for districts.

This seems at first glance a step in the right direction, but it is really window dressing. It does not prevent gerrymandering. While it pretends to gives Congress ultimate power to require national, uniform standards for voting districts, it stipulates that congress may only pass such laws by a three-fifths vote, which is nearly impossible in practice.
Instead, it should require every state to have a non-partisan committee to draw voting districts that do not discriminate on the basis of party affiliation, ethnic origin, or race, such as that in the state of Arizona.
The current Constitution, by the way, contains no mention of voting procedures or districts within the states, a shortcoming in the original document.

Article 1 Section 3
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of one Senator from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for nine years, and ineligible to hold office for more than one term.

This is the opposite of how a Democracy should work. Here, the power to elect senators is taken out of the hands of voters and given to politicians. It also reduces the number of senators from two to one for each state, which seems benign but obscures a better alternative.
Instead, there are currently one hundred senators. If that were to be a fixed number, each senator could represent one percent of the citizens of the United States instead of just state boundaries. Then, each state could have a number of senators equal to its percentage of the total United States population, except that each state should have a minimum of one senator. That would better represent the population of the United States and give voters greater power over politicians.
By the conservative constitution limiting a senator to only one term, senators will not have a chance to develop years of experience in office that will gain them some wisdom in dealing with national and international issues, which is the intent of the original Constitution. Instead, all senators and representatives should be allowed to serve multiple terms, subject to the consent of the voters, but be forced to step down at the age of eighty years, if necessary, with a replacement selected beforehand.

Article 1 Section 4
In all elections for federal and State office, all citizens of the United States who are eighteen years of age or older and not currently serving a sentence for commission of a felony shall be entitled to vote. It shall be the duty of the several States to conduct all such elections and to protect the right of all qualified voters to cast a secure and secret ballot for the qualified candidate of their choice. No State shall impose any test or device that has the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote. It shall also be the duty of the several States to protect all qualified voters from violence, threats of violence, or the granting or withholding of any valuable right or benefit in connection with an attempt to influence voting, or dilution of the right to vote by allowing any person not legally eligible to vote. Rules governing the times, places and manner of holding such elections shall be prescribed in each State in accordance with its own constitutional processes; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.

This gives everyone the right to vote who is not incarcerated, and prevents states from discriminating against certain voters. It also allows congress to impose uniform standards on all states. While this is very laudable, the previous section took away the power to elect senators from voters, so it hardly makes up for the diminished power of voters.

Article 1 Section 6
The House of Representatives shall have the sole power to impeach, by a vote of three fifths of the members present ...

This is a backward step for proper government, because impeachment would never take place. The current Constitution requires only a majority for impeachment. Conviction for impeachment has never happened because the senate has never been able to get anywhere near three fifths of the Senators to convict. The same would be true of impeachment if this change were to happen.
Instead, both impeachment and conviction should require only a simple majority. For those worried about instability, a rule could be added that an impeachment vote could only take place after the targeted person has been in office over two years.

Article 1 Section 8
Within three months of any law [by Congress] going into effect, such law may be repealed by a vote of three fifths of the Governors of the various States, or by vote of Governors representing three fifths of the population as determined by the preceding census.

This would allow conservative governors, representing a minority of the population, to disembowel any legislation passed by Congress, resulting in a weak, ineffective Federal government. It would take as few as 13 of the largest states to exceed three fifths of the population, although that mix of states is unlikely to do so. The 30 smallest states, which represent only 25.02% of the total United States population, are more likely to repeal a federal law. See States Ranked by Population:.

Article 1 Section 9
The Congress shall have power: To lay and collect taxes for the purpose of paying the debts and providing for the common defense and general welfare of the United States, but all taxes shall be uniform throughout the United States; and Congress shall not lay any capitation tax, tax on sales, or tax on real or personal property, which revenue sources are reserved to the States.

This provision prevents the Federal government from collecting significant taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations, resulting in a weak Federal government.
At present, the wealthy 2% of citizens own 50% of the wealth in the United States but pay far less than 50% of the taxes. This would make it much worse. The federal government would be unable to collect enough taxes for social security and would have to abandon reduced cost higher education and medical care of its citizens, making the United States non-competitive world-wide in education, science, health, and technical prowess.

Article 1 Section 9 (continued)
[The Congress shall have power:] To borrow money on the credit of the United States, provided that the public debt of the United States shall not exceed 50 percent of the gross domestic product as defined by law, except during a declared war or Emergency as provided herein.

This would make it impossible for congress to pay for most government expenses because the Republican party has given huge tax breaks to the wealthy, leaving the government with insufficient revenue. Failure to raise taxes on the wealthy, and borrowing being prevented, would lead to a greatly weakened federal government that could not afford Social Security, other social service programs, or aid to other countries or membership in the United Nations.

Article 1 Section 11
[Congress shall have the power: ...] To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, but all residents in such District shall be considered for purposes of voting, apportionment, and representation in federal elections as residents of the particular States from which the territory in which they reside was ceded; and to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of military bases, national parks, and other federal enclaves;

This does away with the District of Columbia as a separate political territory. Congress would run its day-to-day affairs but residents would vote within the state of Maryland. This solves an annoying problem for Republicans, that this heavily Democrat-voting district is asking for statehood and proper representation in congress. The original Constitution was naive to create the District of Columbia as an independent entity with non-voting residents as government workers. Instead, it should revert to being a city within the state of Maryland run by officials elected by its citizens and not under the control of Congress.

Article 2 Section 1
The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America, who shall hold office for a term of six years and be ineligible for reelection, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows: On the second Tuesday of September of the sixth year of a President's term, each member of the respective State legislatures may cast one vote for a person eligible to be elected President, and the two persons receiving the most votes from each branch of the legislature ... shall receive that State's nominations. ... The two nominees receiving the most nominations by the State legislatures shall be candidates for President. In addition, any eligible person may become a candidate on petition signed by one percent of the number of votes cast in the preceding presidential election in at least a majority of the States by October 10 of that year. On the first Tuesday of November of that year, the States shall conduct a national popular vote among the candidates so qualifying. The candidate who obtains the majority of popular votes by method of ranked choice voting shall be elected President.

This section voids state primary elections when the voters choose presidential candidates. It also eliminates party conventions, which have become a formality in most elections. Instead, elected politicians in state legislators would choose presidential candidates. This seems very close to an authoritarian government and is not how a Democracy functions. The only good part of this section is the elimination of the Electoral College, a defect of the original Constitution. Candidates would still be campaigning in public as they do now, but there would be no momentum building in staggered primary elections. Since candidate selection would be in September, there would be only a short, two month window for selected candidates to make their case to the public.

Instead, the present system which empowers voters should be kept except for elimination of the Electoral College, and all candidates for the office of president should be required to [1] have prior experience as an elected government official; [2] to have been reelected at least once to the same office or another of equal or higher standing; [3] to release the last 15 years of income tax returns in January of the November election year; and [4] not about to become eighty years old before the end of their term in office.

Article 3 Section 1
There shall be nine judges of the supreme court, who shall hold their offices for staggered terms of eighteen years, such that every two years there shall be a vacancy.

This is one of the few provisions in the conservative constitution that would benefit the United States as a whole and be a great improvement over the current Constitution which stipulates life time terms for supreme court judges. It should also say that if congress fails to approve or disapprove a nominee within two months of an appointment, or fails to approve any nominee by the end of the year, the most recent nominee is automatically confirmed.