General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The "extreme left" didn't give us Trump. The path to hell was paved by [View all]eniwetok
(1,629 posts)I started a thread about it http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028735280
Dems need to walk and chew gum at the same time. NPV is a longshot... with big problems I've already mentioned. But what Dems SHOULD also be doing is taking a long term... 50 year view of finally making the Constitution democratic. But the amendment formula is so absurd it makes the Constitution virtually reform proof except for minor tweaks... and demographic trends are making the system more antidemocratic. Where once the population differential between the largest and smallest state was 17ish to 1, it's now about 70 to 1... and it gotten to the point states with less than 4% of the US population can block any reform... that is if an amendment ever gets sent to the states. To do so it has to run the gauntlet of the antidemocratic Senate where 18% of the population gets 52% of the seats.
If Dems are to stand for something it must be DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY of elections and government before an antidemocratic Constitution that is robbing the majority of the right to govern. And the first step is to DEFINE DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES... something virtually NO Dem wants to do. People deserve representation... not states because in the end this is nothing but a vote weighting/dilution scheme... similar to how the Jim Crow South negated the Black vote.
Of course the other option to reform is to shock the system... say that Cal, the state most DISenfranchised by our system threatens secession unless the Constitution is reformed. This may be the ONLY alternative since I don't think that 50 year strategy would work.
Back in 1787 the Framers we charged with fixing the broken Articles... and realized they could not be fixed. They proposed a new system but to propose it meant violating the amendment process in the Articles... the supreme law of the land. It's time we got up the intellectual courage to critique our system. Maybe progressive activists can have a Constitutional Convention propose a modern system for discussion should that day Cal DOES threaten secession.