Comments on the Constitution

Amending the constitution, as was said by Larry J. Sabato, Government Professor at the University of Virginia, should not be taken lightly, but it is reasonable to update the basis of a government to suit the time at hand. There are very prevalent issues for the current generation which were not known at the time the constitution was written. In short, the founding fathers could not predict the behavior of future generations; and it is the social and moral behavior of a generation which defines how much freedom that generation should have. Just as the freedoms of prisoners have been restricted due to a lack of social or moral conscience, the baseline freedoms of a generation need to be tempered, either toward more or less freedom. It is my opinion that we should worry less about changing the constitution and worry more about changing the people under the constitution.

I feel that many of the suggested changes to the constitution designed to "level the playing field" or to "be more representative" are purely a ruse for government officials to avoid real problems. Granting more spots in the Senate and House of Representatives is only going to result in more people who can slow the government down if the quality and character of our representatives is left unchecked. The perfect example of this happening right now is nuclear waste storage. No official wants to suggest a solution to store nuclear waste since there is a solution right now which will last until the end of their foreseeable career.

There are also very good suggestions for amending the constitution. Giving the president a line-item veto would make so many good bills into great bills. Encouraging fiscal fairness and revising campaign practices may even bring about a better quality representative.

If I could offer an amendment to the constitution, I would mandate that at least half of the representatives in the House of Representatives and Senate have significant study in a technically scientific area. This is not to suggest that half of our representatives should be engineers and scientists (engineers and scientists have a different niche), but the lack of technical scientific knowledge is appalling.