Teachers told us that we should be proud that our state finally had a progressive new constitution. Well, while I am certainly not getting any older, the state constitution is. Yesterday, I was startled to realize that we’ve been living under our “new” constitution almost as long as we endured the moss-covered old document it replaced.
This one has lasted for 46 years now; it replaced one that had been in force for 55 years. Now you might say that in the great scheme of things that isn’t very long, and you’d be right.
After all, our federal Constitution was ratified more than two hundred and twenty years ago, and is still going strong.
But there’s a difference. Whether through genius, blind luck or both, the United States Constitution turned out to be one of the most brilliant documents ever written. Not that there aren’t contradictions and ambiguities and even a few atrocities in it.
The Constitution sanctioned not only slavery, but allowed the international slave trade to persist for a time. Yet we have overcome those horrors. What is brilliant about the federal constitution is that it is both rigorous and elastic.
You can change it, but it is fairly hard to do so. While it provides a framework for political and civic behavior, it allows broad latitude. The men who wrote it did not foresee the Internet, automobiles, space travel or fertility clinics, but none of those things required the Constitution to be modified in the slightest.
We are still living within the same basic governmental framework it established in 1787, when the entire nation had fewer people than the Detroit metropolitan area does now.
That’s a fact that would have amazed the founding fathers, by the way; the most optimistic of them, James Madison, thought the whole American idea just might last as long as 1929 or so.
But he, and they, built better than they knew. It is no insult to the men and women who wrote and haggled over Michigan’s current constitution to observe that there wasn’t a Ben Franklin or Alexander Hamilton in the bunch.
As I see it, our current Michigan constitution has two fatal flaws, and the first caused the second. It is far too easy for any interest group with a few million dollars to slap an amendment on the ballot.
And the amendment establishing term limits has virtually ruined state government by removing the seasoned and skilled veterans, and by taking away incentives for long-term, responsible behavior.
Fifteen years ago, I would have thought a new constitutional convention a dangerously silly idea. Today, I think it essential.
Just remember, if they write us a new one and we don’t like it, we can vote it down before it takes effect. So why not call a convention and try again. After all, what do we have to lose?
The US Constitution was no masterpiece it was a flawed document that required numerous amendments and it's core principles had contempt for woman and people of color....
The Michigan Constitution requires radical redesign . I will explore my recommedations and ideas later..
To Be Continued.....
Posted by: Thrasher | March 07, 2009 at 11:07 AM