After hearing the news this morning of yet another example of congressional infringement of our constitutional rights, my wife had to make a joke about the situation:
“I wish we had a king that could dissolve parliament!”
This set off a spark in my head.
We don’t have a king, but we do have the people and the states.
Why not amend the constitution to allow congress to be dissolved by an election? In general, we have an “over-incumbency” problem. The current most prominent idea there is to fix this is term limits. The main objection to this, however, is that if congressmen are kicked out on a regular basis, the career bureaucrats will gain greater and greater power due to their seniority, and the government will become even less accountable to the people.
But what if the voting populace could have the choice to “kick all the bums out” on an >irregular< basis? This would renew a sense of accountability to our elected representatives, but it would not be quite as rigid as a universal term limit.
This amendment should include a provision in which such a vote would take place in each of the states and the results in each state be counted as one vote. In this scheme, if a majority of states vote to dissolve congress, it is dissolved. The country could collectively say to itself, "Uh, no, that arrangement isn't quite right. Let's try something else." Any of the individuals thus booted out would be allowed to run for election again after they have been out of office one term, but it would have to be as a challenger, not an incumbent.
Such an arrangement would preserve the authority of the states in the tradition of federalism and the 10th amendment. If this isn't done, then states with large populations could unduly affect the outcome.
How would the dissolution of a house of congress be implemented? I envision a dissolution election taking place at the mid-point of the congressional term on the first Tuesday of November in any odd year between presidential and congressional election year (Could this be called an "off-off-year election"?). If the majority of states vote to dissolve, then the currently-sitting members of congress for that term are simply not allowed to return to Washington. Each state could decide how it would pick replacement congressman to return after the Winter holiday break -- some of the alternatives being gubernatorial appointment, vote by the state legislature, or even by lottery if they wanted to.
Such an amendment could be further refined to address the Senate and House separately. There could be a separate question on the ballot for each house of Congress, and the ballot question for the Senate would only concern that third of the Senate whose members were halfway through with their terms. (Only throwing out a third of the Senate at any one time would respect the original intent of the framers of the Constitution, ensuring that the membership of the Senate changes less frequently than that of the House.)
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Crafting the text of an amendment such as this is one thing, actually incorporating such an amendment into our Constitution is another issue entirely. To refresh your memory, there are two ways to amend the constitution. To quote the document itself:
“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress…”
As you may be able to guess, the first way is most impracticable, as it would necessitate two thirds of the incumbent, career politicians in each house of congress to pass the amendment that would threaten to cut short their political careers. Hell will be a nice spot for a ski vacation before that ever happens.
No, the only way for this amendment to ever see the light of day is for the people to petition their state legislatures to pass a resolution to call a constitutional convention to propose this amendment and this amendment only, thereby doing an end run around the corrupt incumbent politicians in Washington DC.
This will take a concerted and uniform effort all across the country, but I believe that it could be done. What do you think?