The past 80 years of American history have been remarkable. Those who have watched the events and our response as a country have witnessed that;

1) World peace is very illusive and fleeting;
2) That each generation has its own crop of maniacal people who want-to-be despots;
3) That democracy is very fragile even in the USA where we have not yet achieved a true democracy;
4) That our Constitution is manipulable as originally written;
5) That we have retained the liberties we have up until now mainly because our military leaders have for the most part stayed our of politics;
6) Our country and world has seen dramatic change with the development of political parties, world wars, massive migrations, genocides, and interment camps because of race, tribe, ethnicity and gender bias, religion, etc, etc. The list seems endless.
7) The presumed balance of power between our three branches of government has proven to be an illusion;
8) Time has shown that since our founding our politics and policies have been too often manipulated behind the scenes and even openly by aristocracies of the wealthy and powerful;
9) We have had a system that worked most of the time because the bulk of our leaders were people with a moral compass who usually put country before personal gain, that seems to have changed.

Events since at least World War II and especially in the two decades of this 21st Century have put us in real danger of loosing our freedom with an accelerated rollback of voting rights, dramatic acceleration of gun violence, secret and now open proliferation of gun toting gangs calling themselves militias so as to look more legitimate than they really are, political developments of antisemitism, racism, religious bigotry, and crippling divisiveness.

So what can we do?

 

 

Many things need to be done. It is important that those who limit their views to what they see and hear on the Internet and from only getting their information from media sites that tell them what they want to hear must start listening and considering alternate views. This is unlikely. We humans prefer to look for justifications for our biases.

We need to bring our Constitution into the 21st century and clarify or close loopholes that are being exploited by the unscrupulous and power hungry.

My latest project is an effort to do just that. I have been working on reviewing the 1790 Constitution with all of its deliberate ambiguities line by line, and writing a book with changes I think would help modernize and prevent power grabbing and make it more difficult for corruption, make it more democratic, our country safer, and make loss of our liberties more difficult. It is a huge project but my goal is to complete writing it by 4 July 2023 or sooner.

If I do a good job, many of you will find parts you will not agree with but I must write it for the best interest of the whole country for the foreseeable future, not just for me or you.

I am an ordinary citizen like most of you. I am not a lawyer, have never held political office or been a political party officer. I believe this makes me more likely to reflect what the average American wants in their Constitution. When it is finished I hope I can find a publisher with the courage to present it to the public and enough citizens willing to read it, consider it, and get our political structure to vote on it or offer it in a national referendum or Constitutional Convention. I fear that those wanting a comeback of a Hitler, fascism, or dictatorship are moving fast and pushing hard with their lies and distortions. Time is short. We must not lack the courage to say what we believe will save the lifestyle we have come to enjoy and cherish.

~ Raymond Leo Blain

For comments by Paul Palmer see Rethinking the Constitution