Needing A New Constitution Part II

WITHIN FIVE YEARS of the implementation of the United States constitution on Spetember 17, 1787, James Madison, its principle authhor, regretted not only its implmentation, but also his ever having had anything to do with it. It simply was not working out well, he surmised. His fundamental assumption underpinning the entire document, that we the people were incapable of governing ourselves,that there needed to be a representative republic, not a direct democracy,and that governance must be derived from the elite one percent, whom Madison arrogantly termed "the better sort", meaning wealthy, educated, landowning white men, men such as himself, and Jefferson, and Washington, was, alas incorrect. The better sort would supposedly look after the interests of the teeming ignorant masses, we, the ninety nine percent, the "lesser sort". Only, it was happening. This was all too evident to Madison, "little black Jemmy", as early as 1792. The better sort were grabbing up all the land, wealth, and power, and sharing none of it. The teeming masses were not only being excluded from power, they were being excluded from representation as well. More than two hundred years on, little if anything has changed. If anything, the intolerabe situation, in which only a tiny fraction of the general population has any real wealth or power, adheres as strongly as ever, if not more so. Only the fact that we the ninety nine percent lesser sort are wholly unaware of and unconcerned about our powerless plight keeps revolution from storming into the streets. Alas, we live in these United States of Plutocracy, in terms of highly concentrated wealth and concentrated power.The ultra wealthy, in a nutshell, have us exactly where they want us, barefoot and ignorant, and that is precisely where they intend to keep us, barring any miraculous, spontaneous awakening by us to our circumstances. The United States of corporate America. Our much beloved and venerated corporate masters. Jefferson knew what Madison knew. He knew that the document the founders had instituted was a good, noble attempt, a remarkable try at what was essentially an impossible task; the invention and sucessful implementation of representative government on the shores of a vast disorganized cultural wasteland. A huge continent, of scattered,disparate folks, trying to govern themselves, if only indirectly. Impossible. He therefore realized that in the future future citizens would have to constantly upgrade, rewrite,replace the founding document with new and improved versions, suited to their changing circumstances. A new constitution every generation, as he put it, to free future Americans from the tyranny of being governed by thieir ancestors, as he put it. Only, it never happened, and still hasn't, despite being desperately overdue. Over the decades, a few tweaks and additions, but nothing really meaningful. We the people now elect Senators. Women vote, or can if they choose. First you couldn't drink alcohol, then you could again. Eighteen year olds vote, or can, if they know they can and want to. And yet, African-Americans are still constitutionally three fifths of a human being, we still regulate muzzle loading muskets, and convicted felons can still ascend to the American presidency. (we may even now be on the verge of enduring that unthinkable circumstance.)...Tear the obsolete thing up, and start over. A brand new national constitution, for the twenty first century, not the eigtheenth. A second amendment which makes sense, dealing with assault rifles, not muskets Excluing convicted criminals from the White House. Something about abortion,maybe? Who knows what a wonderful appropriate born again founding document we could come up with, if we all put our teeming lesser sort minds to it,and gave it a go?