The Democracy Amendment

How to Unlock Democracy in the United States

The most glaring deficiency of the U.S. Constitution is its failure to follow democratic norms. This has become apparent this century with two Presidents elected despite more votes going to another candidate. We are also still fighting for the right of citizens to vote as the Supreme Court has thwarted laws passed by Congress to prevent states from denying voting rights. Properly fixing these deficiencies requires an amendment. But another democratic deficiency is that the Constitution is “practically unamendable.”

I would like to propose a way out of this dilemma. It is increasingly likely that the Democrats will have full control of the Federal Government as of January 20, 2021. They must use that opportunity to secure democracy through legislation — but also by amending the Constitution. Here’s how: conduct a national referendum by mail asking citizens if they would like to amend the Constitution to guarantee voting rights, directly elect the President, and permit constitutional amendment by national referendum. This last element will legitimize the change: if a majority votes in favor, as I expect they will, Congress will declare the amendment to be part of the Constitution.

Below I provide details of how this amendment could happen and why we should want it — particularly with regard to the method of constitutional amendment.

Read this article and more of my thoughts on fixing our defective democracy.

The Proposed Text

My proposed amendment consists of three ideas expressed in one sentence each, together with the implementation language used in many adopted amendments:

Section 1. Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

Section 2. The President of the United States shall be elected by direct popular vote of the adult citizens of the United States.

Section 3. The people of the United States shall have the right to amend this Constitution by means of a national referendum.