Rationale:

Times change. The existing Constitution was a dramatically innovative document at its inception. It founded the world’s first modern democracy. It ushered in a new era of human values. And it gave our new government structure and institutions that have functioned now for over two hundred years. But in that time we have advanced dramatically in both our technology and our understanding of democratic human systems. So it is time to incorporate our new understanding into a new document, rather than continue to have the written code of our government fall further and further behind the reality of our common society.

Language:

One reason to rewrite the Constitution is simply to update the language. Our Constitution should be one that our citizens can readily understand. The language of the current Constitution is often vague or uses phrases not currently understood, except by legal scholars. It is time to make sure we all know what our Constitution says, so we can make sure it says what we want it to say.

Comprehensiveness:

Our current Constitution does not actually address some of the most compelling dilemmas in our current democracy. Many issues we face today were not imaginable in the late 1700’s. For instance, technology has enabled personal wealth inequalities far beyond what was possible when drafts of the Constitution were written with quills by candlelight. Individual possession of a nuclear bomb, for instance, is a possibility now that our Nation’s founders could never have foreseen. We need a new constitution so that our responses to modern governmental dilemmas are addressed directly. Without it, we are subject to an ever increasing volume of “case law precedents,” handed down through the interpretations of various judges, rather than a document ratified by the people and their representatives.

Values:

Over time the values of a society change. In the late 1700’s the overriding value of the day was freedom from the tyranny of monarchs and authoritarian religions. We still value freedom and liberty as essential principles of American life. But we have come to understand other values as essential as well. Among them are the values of: Equality of economic opportunity and governmental representation; Trust in the Ethical functioning of our government officials; the safe and fair functioning of our Electoral process; and a Justice system directly accountable to the citizenry. These and other values are included in this proposal for a new US Constitution.

Comments are welcome below. All comments must be respectfully written and not contain misinformation or fallacious reasoning. We welcome thoughtful dialogue of differences.