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With the conventional wisdom firming up that Washington is broken beyond simple repair, we’re starting to hear more talk of Constitutional remedies, even as professions of fealty to the Constitution become ever more ritualized.
In a recent column in The New York Times, Sanford Levinson of University of Texas, suggested several constitutional changes that might make the wheels of government turn more smoothly:
- Give the president the authority to appoint 50 House and 10 Senate members at the beginning of his term, each to serve four years.
- Create a mechanism to resolve deadlocks between House and Senate, perhaps through a supermajority vote in the House or a vote of the entire Congress.
- Allow some especially divisive issues to be put on the ballot. “Might we not be far better off to have a national referendum on “Obamacare” instead of having nine politically unaccountable judges decide?”
- Reduce the number of 5-4 Supreme Court decisions by requiring the votes of seven justices to overturn legislation.
I’d like to push for getting rid of the Electoral College, of course, and a better system for legislative redistricting, and maybe a resolution of this corporate citizenship stuff.
Any other ideas worthy of consideration?
