Constitutional Fixes #2

When I was in college, I recall reading that the United States Constitution was the best of its kind. That sounded so good back in the Cold War days. Time has proven the errors in what I was taught. Its weaknesses have been exploited by the Republicans and especially the Trumpists until they threaten our democracy. The United States Constitution needs amendments. 

These are ideas that came to me over the past twelve years. They still seem timely.

Changing the House of Representatives

I see two problems with the House: 1) gerrymandering; and 2) under-representation.

Gerrymandering ties directly to the House districting being state by state. The state political parties twist districts to make them safe for their candidates.

My solutions:

1. Remove the House districts from state boundaries; retain a population basis but with a probable increase; form district boundaries on a longitudinal basis crossing over state boundaries until meeting the population basis; and make these districts multi-member districts - the first and second top voter getters go to Congress (but see below).
2. Create a pool of at-large seats apportioned to the parties by the total votes cast for each political party and whose representatives will be nominated by the parties at a convention prior to the election.

The But: other than the at-large seats, Congressional races will be run on a basis of proportional representation with a twist - there will also be on the ballot a choice of "None of the Above." Any candidate not getting one vote over "None of the Above" is removed from consideration. If no candidate passes this bar, the parties shall put forth new candidates.

Yes, this would mean doing away with the Electoral College. Donald Trump's election proved the Electoral College is a failure. The Electoral College must go regardless of any other constitutional reform.

No, I cannot conceive any state Democrat or Republican Party supporting these changes. They will see them as giving up too much power.

sch  7/1/22

Updated 7/6/22 from It’s Time to Declare Independence from America’s Two Political Parties, this passage has me thinking we are searching for a solution to the same problem: 

But imagine if there were two additional parties—one on the center-left and one on the center-right—that were given fair ballot access with resources to compete. Would these Independent voters who lean one way or another bolt given the chance? Probably a good chunk of them would. Or what if we had more competitive districts, open and nonpartisan primaries, and ranked choice voting to help break the “two-party doom loop”? Then we’d have a situation where the two main parties would have to genuinely fight for the middle portion of voters who don’t accept the down-the-line economic and cultural ideologies of the big dogs. The parties would be forced to be more tolerant of people with different personal views and positions on hot-button issues rather than insisting on fealty across the board. They would need to recruit and field a diverse array of candidates from different backgrounds who are not beholden to ideologically predetermined positions. Perhaps with more competition the parties would adjust their governing visions to better represent a “pro-worker, pro-family, pro-America” centrist agenda that is economically nationalist and culturally moderate.