Is it time for a new Constitutional Convention?

My best friend brought this up yesterday and I had to stop and think about it. Charlie has quite a remarkable mind that isn't usually apparent at first blush. He's dyslexic and had a hell of time in school, and isn't the QUICKEST thinker I've ever known, but he has an amazing talent for getting to the heart of a matter. His plodding intelligence is really quite deep. I wish I could get him here on DU, but he doesn't spell well, so finds this sort of exchange frustrating, at best.

Anyway--he thinks it's time for a new Constitutional Convention, to 'update' the Constitution, as it were. To strengthen those points in the Constitution that have been weakened by deliberate malfeasance, or by incidental deconstruction, and to change those things that were overlooked the first time around.

A few days ago I posted the idea from my blog which suggested we no longer ELECTED the members of our House of Representatives, but, instead, select them by lottery. I won't go into the details now, but suffice to say I know it would be unconstitutional, though I can see many advantages to doing it.

I was informed today by another friend that it was actually an idea that Benjamin Franklin put forward originally. I was amazed.

You can access my blog from my signature line website address, if you're so inclined. If you're a fan of science fiction or fantasy, I highly recommend checking out the site before going on to my blog. Or returning later.

Anyway...Is there reason to believe that we could do justice to the Constitution if we were to look at updating it? Or would it be an exercise in futility--or, worse, stupidity?

What are your thoughts?

There are no Constitutional provisions for what a Constitutional convention would consist of. It would be whatever the most powerful faction wanted it to be, and technically, everything, including the Bill of Rights, would be up for elimination.

If the neocons and/or the Dominionists were in the majority, they could turn this country into a fascist theocracy, and we wouldn't even be able to claim it was unconstitutional.

The very thought gives me the creeps.

Let me repeat: There is no set procedure for such a convention. It would be whatever the participants wanted it to be. The wingnuts could take over the convention and turn this country into a full-blown, no-holds-barred fascist theocracy, and it would be totally legal.

The way to go would be by individual amendment, which would have to be ratified by 2/3 of the states. This tedious process may keep some good amendments out (ERA), but it also prevents the real stinkers from being written into the Constitution (in the 1970s, there was a serious move at a Constitutional amendment to ban busing for racial integration).

I hadn't really thought of it that way.

Re: the Amendment process...Banning Gay Marriage? That would very likely fly, unfortunately. At least in this socio-political climate.

There was a convention to update the Articles of Confederation, and the delegates threw the whole thing away and wrote a Constitution instead.

Very dangerous because there aren't any rules.

The other time people gathered to rewrite the Constitution was the Constitutional Convention of the Confederate States. Interestingly they met in Montgomery for weeks and ended up rewriting the US Constitution with very, very few changes.

They added a line item veto.

They limited the president to one term and made it six years.

They even kept the electoral college of all things.

probably get gays put in concentration camps.

The dumbest amendment ever added to the Constitution was Prohibition, but the country came to its senses 14 years later.

You read my mind! As I was reading the post I figured if some hardcore rightwing nuts got into to it they could really alter the Constitution in their favor (and out of ours). And maybe I'm just cynical, but as corrupt as many politics our right now, how do you know some lobbyist groups might not get involved and "encourage" the new framers to tip the scale in their favor. It could be a real nightmare.

for liberalism. It would outlaw abortion, gay rights, welfare, and probably remove half the Bill of Rights.