The present Constitution of the United States of America has served its purpose. However, it is now time for the United States to adopt a new constitution. Therefore, a constitutional convention should be called in order to write an entirely new constitution for the United States of America.
In the past, I have asserted that it is time to repeal the Second Amendment. The purpose of the Second Amendment as envisioned by The Founders has been served and is no longer needed in the USA.
And now, the failure of the United States Senate to convict Donald John Trump on the charge of inciting insurrection strongly indicates the United States Senate is an outmoded archaic institution.
The United States of America is a republic; it is a representative democracy, a democratic republic. The national legislature in the United States is bicameral, consisting of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. These two legislative chambers are jointly referred to as Congress. Throughout the history of the United States of America, the size of Congress has increased as the number of states have increased and as the population has increased. Today, Congress consists of 100 senators (two from each state) and 435 voting members of the House of Representatives.
To balance the interests of states having small populations with states having large populations back in the 18th Century, the Framers of the Constitution divided the power of Congress between the two chambers, a.k.a. houses. Each state, regardless of the size of its population, has 2 representatives (known as Senators) in the Senate, while representation for each state in the House of Representatives is based on the size of each state's population, i.e. proportionate representation. There can be no fewer than one Representative per state, and no more than one for every 30,000 persons. The Apportionment Act of 1941, in addition to specifying the apportionment method, sets the House size at 435, requires an apportionment every 10 years, and mandates administrative procedures for apportionment.
Over time, the House of Representatives and the Senate have evolved into very different bodies. They have entirely separate rules and ways of conducting business.
The United States Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach and remove the President, Vice President, and all federal civil officers for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The practice of impeachment makes clear, however, that Members of Congress are not civil officers subject to impeachment and removal.
The two houses of Congress have two very different roles in the impeachment process. In impeachment proceedings, the House of Representatives acts much in the same way as would a grand jury that evaluates whether there is enough reasonable evidence to indict, i.e. bring charges against, a person, and if there is, then the grand jury decides if there is probable cause and recommends charges. In the impeachment process, the House of Representatives charges an official of the federal government by approving, by majority vote, articles of impeachment. A committee of representatives, called “managers,” acts as prosecutors before the Senate. The Senate acting as would a trial jury sits as a High Court of Impeachment in which Senators consider evidence, hear witnesses, and vote to acquit or convict the impeached official. The U.S. Constitution requires more than a simple majority to convict; indeed, the Constitution requires a supermajority of a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict, and the penalty for an impeached official upon conviction is removal from office. In some cases, the Senate has also disqualified such officials from holding public offices in the future.
In the historical second impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, there were 57 Senators who voted Trump guilty on the charge of inciting insurrection for his role in the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol riot that left 5 people dead, including a police officer. The guilty vote included 7 Republican Senators in the most bipartisan majority to support an impeachment conviction in the history of the United States of America. Only 43 Senators, all of them Trump Loyalist Republicans, voted not guilty.
The indisputable fact is that Trump was found guilty on the charge of inciting insurrection by a majority bipartisan vote of 57 Senators in the United States Senate, but was aquitted by a minority vote consisting of 43 deplorable Trumplicans in the United States Senate.
The 57 senators who voted to convict Trump represent 76.7 million more Americans than 43 Trumplican Senators who voted to let him off scot-free!
Underscoring today's unrepresentative of population and thus undemocratic United States Senate:
- Each of the 50 States, regardless of its population, is allotted and elects two (2) Senators.
- Presently, the United States Senate is evenly split with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. However, the Democrat Senators represent 41 million more people than do the Republican Senators.
- Fifteen (15) states with a total population of 38 million people are allotted 30 Senators and have elected a total of 30 Republicans. Meanwhile, California with a total population of 40 million people (2 million more people than the total population of those 15 states combined), is allotted 2 Senators (28 less Senators than the combined total for those15 states) and has elected 2 Democrats.
With this latest faux pas, the U.S. Senate has yet again demonstrated that it continues to act against the best interests of modern day United States of America. The Senate has proven again that it does not represent the wishes of the majority of Americans.
The United States Senate is the antithesis of representative democracy. The United States of America needs to change the structure of its government with the elimination of the Senate, in order to do so, The United States of America Needs To Have A Constitutional Convention!
