Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023 | 2 a.m.
We Americans worship not just our Founders but also our Constitution. But did the Founders leave us with a Constitution that we can use to navigate our modern world?
The Constitution disqualifies anyone convicted of insurrection from becoming president. But if Donald Trump is not convicted of insurrection but is convicted of espionage, racketeering, cheating on taxes, election interference, falsification of official records, etc., and still wins the presidential election, we would have a convict many times over sitting in the Oval Office.
And why does the Constitution only require that the presidential candidate is 35 years old, natural-born and with sufficient residency duration in the U.S.? The Founders would not let ordinary folks directly elect the president, which is why we have the Electoral College, but ordinary blokes and borderline literates can become president if chosen by the Electoral College.
And the Second Amendment. Nobody who has finished high school in the U.S. today would write it without explaining whether the absolute right to own and carry firearms belongs to the people or to people who are in militias, which at the time of the nation’s founding were treated as the reserve army.
And the U.S. Supreme Court. Lifetime tenures? This major blunder has given rise to people like Clarence Thomas and others who are accountable to no one. Aren’t the branches of government supposed to be co-equal?
There are 27 amendments because the Constitution, as written, has many imperfections. A number of new amendments are needed.
