Preface
America's original 13 colonies banded together to form the United States of America. The first constitution for the United States was the Articles of Confederation which were adopted by the Continental Congress, also known as the Philadelphia Congress, on November 15, 1777. However, the Articles were not ratified by all thirteen states until March 1, 1781.
Not long after its adoption, there was a call to hold a convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. to discuss and draft improvements to the Articles of Confederation.
The Convention met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. However, most of the delegates (not all) in attendance concluded that a new system of government was needed, not simply a revised version of the Articles of Confederation.
The Philadelphia Convention became known as The Constitutional Convention of 1787. At the Convention, several plans were introduced. James Madison's plan, known as the Virginia Plan, was the most important plan. The Virginia Plan was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. After much debate, several major compromises were reached at The Constitutional Convention.
Ratification of the new Constitution of the United States of America was a long, tedious process. The new proposed Constitution did not require ratification of all 13 States to take effect; it only required ratification of 9 States.
"On June 21, 1788, the Constitution became the official governing document of the United States of America when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it." Virginia soon followed with ratification on June 25, 1788, with New York quickly following on July 26, 1788, becoming the 10th and 11th States to ratify the new constitution.
The lack of guarantees of individual rights was a major impediment to the ratification process. It was not until a bill of rights was proposed by Congress in 1789 that North Carolina became the 12th State in the process and ratified the Constitution on November 21, 1789. Rhode Island had originally rejected the Constitution in March 1788 by means of popular referendum. However, in 1790 upon being faced with the possibility of being treated as a foreign government, Rhode Island called for a ratifying convention and ratified the Constitution on May 29, 1790 by only a 2 vote margin, making Rhode Island the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the present day Constitution.
Soon after the new Constitution of the United States of America as written in 1787 was ratified, the first ten amendments, known as The Bill of Rights, were passed. As of today, there are a total of 27 Amendments to the United States Constitution.
NOW, on to my Commentary:
There have been many criticisms of the National Government of the United States of America. People have been critical of electing the President by means of the Electoral College, of the way in which Congress functions or doesn't function, of national legislative "career politicians" who have no term limits (except by means of the ballot box - that sarcasm is all mine) and whose primary interest is being elected to another term, of Presidents for everything from A to Z, of corrupt elected officials bought and paid for by special interests, ---- and the list goes on and on and on.
As you know, the United States of America Congress consists of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Right now, the House of Representatives has a Democratic Party majority and the Senate has a Republican Party majority.
The U.S. House of Representatives is based on the one person/one vote principle, with the House consisting of 435 Representatives proportionally representing the population of the 50 states. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives each represent a portion of their state known as a Congressional District, which averages 700,000 people.
The Senate is not based on the one person/one vote principle. The U.S. Senate consists of 2 Senators from each of the 50 States, for a total of 100 Senators. Unlike a U.S. Representative, each Senator represents the entire population of a State, regardless of the State's population. Consequently, a State with a small population, such as Rhode Island (1.06 million people) has an equal vote (read that as "has as much power") in the Senate as a State with a large population, such as New York (19.85 million).
The President blames Democrats for everything that isn't right in American politics, as do Republicans in general. Democrats blame Republicans. The Senate political majority blames the United States House of Representatives; and the House majority blames the Senate. It seems as though no one in the National Government will take responsibility, let alone be held accountable for their own words, actions, and deeds. And what of being responsive to the American public?
Well, I have my own thoughts on a resolution to this whole thing.
We need a new Constitutional Convention.
I say change the term of office of President to 6 years with election being in odd numbered years and limited to one term, change the term of office for members of the House of Representatives to 6 years with one-third of its membership elected every 2 years with election being in even numbered years thereby assuring continuity of government and also limited to one term, and totally eliminate the Senate. With no more worries about running for re-election, maybe those elected officials will work at getting things done rather than posturing for the next election.
ADDENDUM
COUNTERPOINT FROM DALE PERCHECK
The following comments (copied and pasted below) were sent to me via e-mail by Dale Pertcheck, who was unable to post his comments here directly.
[FYI: Mr. Pertceck's comments were not accepted by the Blogger platform because of the length of his comments. Here is the message issued by Blogger: "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Must be at most 4,096 characters"]
from: dale pertcheck
to: Roland Hansen
date: Feb 23, 2019, 6:04 PM
subject: My attempt to post.
I attempted to post the comment below to your commentary. It is too long, and I do not know how to get it on your website. If you will do me the favor of posting it for me, I would greatly appreciate it. If not, so be it. I've then wasted a LOT of time writing it. Oh, well.
Here it is (I hope):
Personally, I HATE term limits. I have never seen term limits improve the overall quality of the people who are elected to office. We have two good examples right here in Toledo, Ohio.
The City of Toledo has term limits placed upon its members of Toledo City Council, and also on the post of Mayor. Have either of these term limits been successful in getting better performance from Toledo's government? Not that I've seen!
Also, the voters in the State of Ohio, way back in 1992, placed term limits on our state's elected officials. How's that working out? Has Ohio's government improved since then? I don't think so!
Now, I may be far outnumbered in this opinion, but, I have seen many incumbents, who "everyone" thought could NEVER lose, indeed LOSE! When I was at the University of Toledo, I worked on the campaign of John Gilligan when he took on a long-time incumbent, U.S. Senator Frank Lausche, in the Democratic Primary. NONE of the professional politicians gave Gilligan a ghost of a chance to win. But, win he did! He went on to lose a very close race in the General Election to William Saxby, a moderate Republican, back when moderates in both parties could get nominated by their parties, and win elections.
Then there is Ohio's 9th Congressional District. Thomas Ludlow (Lud) Ashley was first elected in 1954! He served 13 consecutive terms in office until he was defeated by a total unknown named Ed Weber in the 1980 election. Not one political "expert" saw that coming! Weber only served one term, until he was defeated in 1982 by Marcy Kaptur. Kaptur still holds that seat today, being re-elected every 2 years since then. She is now the longest-serving woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives!
And how about what happened to one Joe Crowley just in 2018? An unknown named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat him in the Democratic Primary for the right to run in the General Election to represent New York's 14th District in the U.S. House of Representatives! Oh, and she won in the General Election, too! This happened even though she was outspent by her opponent by a factor of over 17-1, and Crowley had received the endorsements of New York's governor, both of New York's Democratic U.S. Senators, and most of the other Democratic elected officials, large unions, and other groups which normally support Democratic candidates for office. Hmmm...
To me, and I know I'm in the minority on this way of thinking, the only thing term limits really limit is the choices a voter has for the office that is term-limited! Could Barack Obama have had a more likely chance to win a third term and defeat Fat Donny than did Hillary? Oh...he couldn't run. He's term limited! And, for example, how would my life have been enhanced if Marcy Kaptur's term of office had been limited? Do we really believe that those who serve many years are more susceptible to the pressures of lobbyists than are nubies? How so? When we place term limits on elected officials, we leave a power vacuum! That vacuum is gleefully filled by special interest lobbyists!
I well remember when the term limits of Ohio General Assembly members was first being proposed. I had a conversation with Linda Furney, then in the Ohio General Assembly. The limit to be placed was 8 years for all Ohio Legislators (2-four year terms for the Ohio Senate, and 4-two year terms for the Ohio House of Representatives). Her comment to me was, after 4 or 5 years, she had finally felt comfortable understanding the workings of Ohio government, and with term limits, she'd be out just when she had learned how to be the most effective! She could not imagine how the Ohio General Assembly could function well with so many newly elected officials taking office every two years! The lobbyists just get more and more powerful in such a scenario. And that's exactly what has happened!
Now, if you want to discuss the problems of money in politics, IMHO, we have an entirely different issue. The best thing that ever happened to Lud Ashley, personally for him, was losing to Ed Weber! After his many years of experience in Congress, Lud became one of the most successful -- and one of the most highly paid -- lobbyists in Washington, D.C. And when his former Yale classmate and friend George H.W. Bush became our POTUS, Lud's influence was enormous!
Term limits seem to be an easy answer to the problem of poorly performing elected officials. Term limits focus the attention on the individual office holder, instead of on the system which is overly influenced by money and lobbyists!
Unfortunately, it takes a much greater effort to improve government. U.S. citizens must become experts on how government works. They must be fully informed about the candidates who are running for office so they can make wise decisions at the ballot box. We must limit the enormous amounts of money it takes to run even local campaigns. As Thomas Jefferson stated over 2 centuries ago, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
In short, be informed. Make better choices. Only then will we get better government!
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