Jeff AtwoodMar 4

https://chqdaily.com/2017/07/paul-raushenbush-discusses-great-grandfathers-inner-vision-carried-work-forward/

As for the nation’s literature, Brandeis may have been the first .. to refer to the Constitution as a “living organism, capable of growth and adaptation.”

“This approach allows the fresh context of the present to perform alchemy with the wisdom of the past, to offer new ways to make the law and faith relevant and responsive to present conditions,” he said. “Prophetic witness cannot set its gaze backward on a frozen history with an unrecognizable context. Instead, it faces forward, informed by the past, yet determined to bring back vision into the world in the present age.”

This no longer works, unfortunately.. how does the constitution change when it is effectively impossible to amend due to Constitutional Calcification .. only "interpret" through a ridiculously gerrymandered (thanks Mitch M) SCOTUS? https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/116115405545619662

Show threadJeff AtwoodMar 4
I don't really see a way out here, honestly. If you do, tell me what it is, step by step. Explain it to me like I'm five years old.
Show threadJ. PetersonMar 4
@codinghorror If you tried to re-write the constitution today, you'd have to battle the nut cases that want the country to be a Christian theocracy (among many similar issues).
Show threadJeff AtwoodMar 4
@isonno or we simply do it without them and proceed.
Show threadJ. Peterson
@codinghorror
Mar 4 at 10:34pmWeb
Show threadJeff AtwoodMar 4
@isonno look at the alignments and resources of these nine states. Very very closely. Because I have. For one thing, OR, WA, and CA are an absolute lock for west coast.
Show threadParker MorseMar 4
@codinghorror @isonno The more I learn about U.S. history the more often I find stories about states admitted to the Union when they were, or with the borders they have, because the then-current Congress hoped it would give them an advantage in the Senate and/or Electoral College. (Dakotas? Wyoming? F*ing MAINE?!?) And every one of those incidents highlights the mutually-reinforcing ideas that the Constitution is flawed, and it's nearly impossible to change the rules while the game is ongoing.
Show threadParker MorseMar 4
@codinghorror @isonno Packing the Supreme Court is *amateur hour*. Real pros pack the Senate.
Show threadcurtmackMar 5

@isonno @codinghorror This is simply inaccurate.

You can't amend the Constitution to balance the Senate:

"... Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; > and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. <"

Show threadcurtmackMar 5
@isonno @codinghorror (That first part says they can't fix slavery until 1808... and no, I didn't learn that in school either.)
Show threadRobot Diver 🌊🌬️🍃🌿🌸🌱🌱🌱Mar 5

@isonno @codinghorror

This is pretty much the same situation in Canada under a slightly different system

Show threadKhleedrilMar 5
@isonno @codinghorror I've long thought that the best thing for the US right now is to allow Greenland to 'invade' for one day, and then 'defeat' them; in that day they can kick the current government out and disavow the constitution, leaving the place clean to make a new start.