By Emanuel Pastreich
The rapid shifts in American politics demand that we revise our aged constitution so that it better reflects the reality of contemporary institutions. If we fail to take such a brave step, we run the serious risk that our politics and practices will grow so completely out of tune with the constitution that it will lose what remains of its tattered legitimacy. Here is a modest proposal for constitutional amendments that can be quickly ratified.
Amendment 28
"It is required of all candidates for president of the United States of America that he or she has assets in excess of one billion United States dollars at the time that he or she begins a campaign."
Let us face facts. With billionaire Donald Trump as president and other billionaires like Michael Bloomberg yearning for a shot at the position, it is no longer realistic for someone to be in the oval office who is not already a billionaire himself.
Of course it is possible for someone like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama to skillfully balance his relations with a constellation of the super-rich, but such an approach is misleading, deceptive in that it gives the public the impression that the president has power of his own when in fact he is merely carrying water for those with the deep pockets.
Far better to just set the record straight by requiring those who take the highest office to have the assets to match their words in a town run by Wall Street.
Amendment 29
"The corporate media will play the final role in the judicial system, determining guilt or innocence through the publishing of innuendos and hearsay. Moreover, when there is a doubt as to the accuracy of a statement, the corporate media will be the arbiter."
At the same time that the judiciary has been undermined by the appointment of corporate hacks who do the bidding of their corporate sponsors, we have witnessed the rise of the corporate media at the sole arbiter of justice and of innocence and guilt in our society.
God have mercy on any individual who has been marked for attack through innuendo or rumors by the media. It will be far more efficient, and more honest, for us simply to make the corporate media part of the judicial system, serving as a both the appellate court and the supreme court for the United States.
Amendment 30
"Proposals for laws and other contributions to the formulation of policy shall be carried out exclusively by law firms, think tanks and consulting companies that are supported by investment banks, multinational corporations, sovereign wealth funds and the super-rich."
The systems by which laws were formulated by communities working together with politicians at the local level have gone the way of the stegosaurus.
It would be far more appropriate for us simply to recognize that the laws to which we are subject are written by law firms in the direct employ of the wealthy. Let us make it clear through amendment 30 that these private firms that draft our laws in secret are in effect part of the congress and today play a more central role than the senators and congressmen who have been reduced to cheerleaders.
Amendment 31
"Those who live in neighborhoods and regions assigned to the 'kindergarten to prison' track, those who attend marginal schools in neighborhoods that are undesirable, shall be considered by the constitution to be 'three fifths of all other persons' without the fundamental rights that can be assumed by those who grow up in more respectable circumstances."
This amendment is in effect a restoration of article 1, section 2, clause 3 of the constitution that originally determined that all those held in slavery shall be considered as "three fifths of all other persons."
Amendment 31 acknowledges the widely accepted fact that a broad range of American citizens born into broad swaths of poverty and neglect are not considered by the government, or by corporations, to have the same rights as their superiors in upper middle class neighborhoods.
They can be used for slave labor as prisoners in for-profit prisons run like the plantations of the antebellum South. Rather than leaving this practice of discounting the constitutional rights of certain classes of Americans in the back room, it would be better to make this fact explicit in the constitution for future generations, lest people forget how things really work.
 |
Amendment 28
"It is required of all candidates for president of the United States of America that he or she has assets in excess of one billion United States dollars at the time that he or she begins a campaign."
Let us face facts. With billionaire Donald Trump as president and other billionaires like Michael Bloomberg yearning for a shot at the position, it is no longer realistic for someone to be in the oval office who is not already a billionaire himself.
Of course it is possible for someone like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama to skillfully balance his relations with a constellation of the super-rich, but such an approach is misleading, deceptive in that it gives the public the impression that the president has power of his own when in fact he is merely carrying water for those with the deep pockets.
Far better to just set the record straight by requiring those who take the highest office to have the assets to match their words in a town run by Wall Street.
Amendment 29
"The corporate media will play the final role in the judicial system, determining guilt or innocence through the publishing of innuendos and hearsay. Moreover, when there is a doubt as to the accuracy of a statement, the corporate media will be the arbiter."
At the same time that the judiciary has been undermined by the appointment of corporate hacks who do the bidding of their corporate sponsors, we have witnessed the rise of the corporate media at the sole arbiter of justice and of innocence and guilt in our society.
God have mercy on any individual who has been marked for attack through innuendo or rumors by the media. It will be far more efficient, and more honest, for us simply to make the corporate media part of the judicial system, serving as a both the appellate court and the supreme court for the United States.
Amendment 30
"Proposals for laws and other contributions to the formulation of policy shall be carried out exclusively by law firms, think tanks and consulting companies that are supported by investment banks, multinational corporations, sovereign wealth funds and the super-rich."
The systems by which laws were formulated by communities working together with politicians at the local level have gone the way of the stegosaurus.
It would be far more appropriate for us simply to recognize that the laws to which we are subject are written by law firms in the direct employ of the wealthy. Let us make it clear through amendment 30 that these private firms that draft our laws in secret are in effect part of the congress and today play a more central role than the senators and congressmen who have been reduced to cheerleaders.
Amendment 31
"Those who live in neighborhoods and regions assigned to the 'kindergarten to prison' track, those who attend marginal schools in neighborhoods that are undesirable, shall be considered by the constitution to be 'three fifths of all other persons' without the fundamental rights that can be assumed by those who grow up in more respectable circumstances."
This amendment is in effect a restoration of article 1, section 2, clause 3 of the constitution that originally determined that all those held in slavery shall be considered as "three fifths of all other persons."
Amendment 31 acknowledges the widely accepted fact that a broad range of American citizens born into broad swaths of poverty and neglect are not considered by the government, or by corporations, to have the same rights as their superiors in upper middle class neighborhoods.
They can be used for slave labor as prisoners in for-profit prisons run like the plantations of the antebellum South. Rather than leaving this practice of discounting the constitutional rights of certain classes of Americans in the back room, it would be better to make this fact explicit in the constitution for future generations, lest people forget how things really work.
![[INTERVIEW] 'Korea, US can create synergy in space industry': NASA ambassador](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/97d561c153754ca19e3c626ec734eb82.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
