We here in America should start practicing democracy instead of pretending. The government no longer works for human beings only for lobbyists and their employers.
When the American Government under the Articles of Confederation began to break down, the great men of the nation acted to save the country from dissolving into a dozen or so petty states.
We’re in the same situation now. We just don’t have any great men. Our current crop of politicians are contemptible. Would let a anyone involved in that disgrace of a “budget ceiling” negotiation work for you?
What should a constitutional convention do? Get rid of the Senate. The idea that the two Senators from North Dakota should have the same weight in national deliberations as the two Senators from California is bizarre and ridiculous. What’s more it allows a small minority to have veto power over the rest of the nation. That’s why we have farm supports that make no sense here financially while causing havoc overseas. You can’t make intelligent policy when a minority can derail intelligent action. Let’s have a single house legislature with the seats distributed by population. That’s democracy. Pretending that the states are actually independent countries is an idea the Civil War should have finished off for good.
The second thing we should do is get rid of the electoral college. Elect the President directly by the voters. Electing Presidents by states electoral votes is a formula for disaster. You get Presidents without actual majorities.
The third thing is to put the right to vote into the Bill of Rights. Every kind of shenanigans is now being employed and has been used throughout American history to keep people from voting. Let’s make sure everyone is on the same set of rules. It’s wrong to stop people from voting. Period.
The Constitution created a government divided in purpose to make oppression less likely. It wasn’t a bad idea but now it is no longer viable. The government and the those influencing it are more the enemies of the people than ever before, and because the government only sort of responds to the voters, that response is muted and ineffective. We need a government strong enough to resist large pressure from large economic organizations but weak enough to leave people individual rights.
To keep our rights, it is time to change the form of our government. Now.
James Pilant
https://southwerk.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/constitutional-convention/
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Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
I disagree with the idea of a unicameral legislature. We have a House of Representatives for the purpose of giving weight to population distributions. The problem is that without a Senate to equally represent every state, its easier to ignore the minority. This becomes a problem when its the minority who grow our crops and perform other vital economic functions. I totally agree with you that there needs to be a total overhaul in our agricultural policy. It makes absolutely no sense! Here in Georgia, in almost every hay field, you see bales of hay that sit at the corners of the fields just rotting. When you ask the farmer why he is wasting his harvest, he’ll tell you that the government is paying the farmer more to let the hay rot than he would make by selling it. These subsidies make absolutely no economic sense. It serves only to harness support for the politician who is putting money in the farmers pocket. The government was never supposed to be a market force. A market watchdog, yes. A market player, no.
Our government was designed to be full of redundancies and lack efficiency. Our politicians have learned how to exploit these redundancies for their own selfish desires. Thats where the process is breaking down. Its a moral issue. Morality and philosophy has been replaced with selfishness and politicians. Our government, and any government for that matter, requires civil servants who possess moral integrity and can only function properly when that condition is being met.
I absolutely agree that the Electoral College should be gotten rid of. It served a function a long time ago when information didnt travel at the speed of light like it does today. Its antiquated and needs to go. Im also with you on the right to vote for ALL citizens. Although you really dont hear much about disenfranchisement anymore it seems. I dont think its much of an issue.
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The Senate was a compromise allowing states like Rhode Island to have the same say as New York in one house of the legislature. Since the federal government had little taxing power and foreign affairs were it major concerns, it wasn’t that big a deal. But now the feds collect the bulk of the taxes and provided services to every citizen while maintaining huge military and law enforcement responsibilities. Watching European Parliaments solve issues while watching our Congress unable to deal with issues like immigration that have literally been a major priority for my entire life without taking any effective action or intending to take any effective action is a dismal experience. We don’t live in an age where our problems will go away. They are just going to get worse. We don’t have a legislature capable of effective action because each body has different masters. Democracy means the people rule not the states.
James Pilant
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The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. There would no longer be ‘battleground’ states where voters and policies are more important than those of other states.
When the bill is enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for president. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 small, medium-small, medium, and large states, including one house in AR, CT, DE, DC, ME, MI, NV, NM, NY, NC, and OR, and both houses in CA, CO, HI, IL, NJ, MD, MA ,RI, VT, and WA . The bill has been enacted by DC, HI, IL, NJ, MD, MA, VT, and WA. These 8 jurisdictions possess 77 electoral votes– 29% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
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