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What all the current and future members of Congress should recognize, thanks at least partially to President Donald Trump, is that our Constitution needs tweaks. If the 120th Congress will make holding a constitutional convention a top priority and will not simply attack Trump’s acts, it could prove to be the best act of our legislators for centuries to come. It would be the best gift our legislators could give to America.
We need measures that would prevent the rise of a dictator; we cannot allow elections to be bought; speakers of the House should be treated like others in the line of succession to the presidency per rules for their removal; we should establish age-limits for federal officials; and we need to make legislators “pay” for failing to do the basics of their job. These measures would go a long way to ending our political gridlock.
When Democrats take control of Congress they cannot fall for the trap and go on “their” version of a retribution tour. It is not what would be good for America. We could be in for endless investigations of Trump’s acts over the next two years. That would be foolish. America has more pressing issues than holding Trump accountable for his past actions. We do not have the time.
As the midterms approach and the inevitable soon will become reality – the Democrats will likely take the House and Senate – we need to look back at other midterm elections and see what we can learn.
Two massive changes in Congress had radically different results. In 1994 the GOP won control of Congress and got a lot of meaningful work done. In 2010 the GOP-controlled Congress had blocked nearly all work from being done, possibly for the first time in history. In both instances, prior to Election Day, Americans wanted to send a message to the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave: Stop, we rebuke you.
President Bill Clinton gave us the largest tax increase in history at the time, and the Democrats paid a price.
In 2010, the public did not understand former President Barack Obama’s key initiative, the Affordable Care Act. It did not believe in its virtues or appreciate the way it sought to achieve its noble objective. Because of a failure to achieve bipartisanship on the issue – blame here goes to both sides – it left a major legislative program with only the fingerprints of Democrats on it, much like Clinton’s tax increase of 1992 hung over the heads of Democrats decades earlier.
However, there was a difference between the outrage in 1994 and 2010. On budgetary matters, a mere majority vote passes laws. Normally on domestic legislation senators are forced into bipartisan agreement largely due to the Senate filibuster, which requires 60 votes to stop debate and force a vote.
In 1994 the Republican Party took control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in 40 years. There were 54 more Republicans in the House and six senators in the Senate. The GOP did it on the strength of a written promise to America, the so-called “Contract with America.”
The biggest shellacking in recent history occurred during Obama’s midterm in 2010. At that time there was a 63 net Republican gain in the House and a seven net GOP gain in the Senate It marked the birth of the Tea Party, deemed by many observers as an extremist political movement.
Trump’s acts over the last two years have left him popular only in states that have a handful of people. Thus, Trump campaigns in states like Montana and Alaska. A landslide, maybe near the scale of Obama’s shellacking, is possible.
The anticipated large number of new members of Congress should make tweaking our Constitution a priority. Here are a few priorities:
1. Age limit amendment. This would establish a mandatory retirement age of 80 for all federal officials. Turn 80 and you must resign. (The need is rather obvious after our current and past presidents.)
2. Establishing a process to remove those in line of succession to the president. This means that House speakers, once elected at the start of the congressional session, can only be removed via the same means as the president or vice president. This would allow a speaker to do the people’s business without fear of a coup among his own ranks.
3. Campaign finance reforms establishing limits and other measures. Not sure what would be best here, but we cannot continue allowing anyone to buy elections. Elon Musk, for example, has spent around $300 million to elect Republicans.
4. A no dictators amendment. The president can be held responsible for crimes committed in office when he abuses power or uses extortion tactics, including failure to abide by a Supreme Court ruling. A president cannot pardon himself or accept a pardon from future presidents. A Supreme Court chief justice or majority of the associate justices can remove any attorney general who does not enforce this law.
5. Federal incompetency fine amendment. This proposal would punish failure. Congress and the White House must achieve the “basics” of their job: passing a budget on time, passing all (each independently) Appropriations/spending bills on time, and raising the national debt ceiling. If they fail to do these basics, they would be subject to a federal incompetence fine. This would put an end to Continuing Resolutions per spending bills and fears of a government shutdown. Members of Congress, the president and vice president would be subject to a personal fine of 15-20% of their adjusted gross income.
6. After impeachment in the House, lowering conviction in the Senate for removal of officials. This proposal would reduce from two-thirds of the Senate (67 members) to 57 votes (57%) with at least one from the opposite party.
Post the November midterms we must prepare to govern. The best way is to fix all the measures that have impeded good governance.
Gary Franks served three terms as a congressman from Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black conservative elected to Congress and first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years. Host: Podcast “We Speak Frankly” www.garyfranksphilanthropy.org