Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The Constitution is a flawed document written by flawed men who happened to be in the right place at the right time, but they had the foresight to include an amendment process, which has worked out pretty well to smooth out the rough edges. There's even been an Amendment canceling an Amendment: the repeal of Prohibition; the 21^st over the 18th. Per Article 5, there are two ways to make changes to the Constitution; first, when two-thirds of both House & Senate pass a proposal; or second, through a Constitutional Convention, a method that has never been used, when two-thirds of the States pass a proposal. Both methods require three-quarters of the States to ratify before a proposal becomes an Amendment to the Constitution. So far, 27 Amendments have been added out of the 33 approved by Congress, but there have been 11,700 proposals, typically over 200 proposals a year by various Congressmen trying to appease this or that constituency back home.

Unfortunately, there hasn't been a new Amendment in half a century, the Right for 18-year olds to vote. Now, either society hasn't changed much in 50 years, or The Constitution is perfect, or the political process has broken down. During that same period, the advent of the information culture has drastically changed our lives in ways the original authors of the Constitution could not predict, as well as advanced scientific knowledge, and vastly improved communication. Currently, changes due to these issues are being handled by the United States Supreme Court, but that makes nine people the Amendment process, the opposite of representative government, and thwarts the intent of the Constitution. Apparently, Article 5 needs to be amended.