Reforming, Rewriting, and Repairing

Let’s start off today with some trivia! Who once said, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”?

It has been argued recently, both in the press and amongst my family and friends, that California’s government has become overly large, complex, and destructive. California’s constitution is the third largest in the world. Not only amongst states, but amongst any governing entity with a constitution (states, countries, etc.). We have diluted our constitution with over 500 amendments since its ratification in 1879. As a result, our education system is practically on the brink of collapse, our elections produce legislators with ideological extremes who cannot pass a decent budget to save their (or our) lives, and our water will likely dry up completely before anyone does anything about that looming crisis.

At this point to “effect” Californians’ safety and happiness, it seems that the next logical step is to “alter or abolish” the government. Ok, take a deep breath, I’m not saying that we should take up arms and storm Sacramento (although that would be really exciting), our founders actually gave us the tools to fix the underlying problem in a non-violent way (way to be on top of that founding fathers).

Through a constitutional convention, California can completely scrap the constitution as it stands now and start all over! Sounds like a pretty good idea right? Unfortunately, as of now there is only one way that we can make this convention happen: our legislators can authorize a convention with a two-thirds vote (HA! The very idea that two-thirds of our legislators would agree to do this totally cracks me up.).

Enter Repair California (www.repaircalifornia.org). A non-profit organization started by the Bay Area Council (http://www.bayareacouncil.org/bay_area_council.php), Repair California’s mission is to give Californians the opportunity to take part in a Constitutional Convention to completely rewrite our current, overblown and diluted constitution. On October 28, 2009 Repair California presented the Attorney General with the language for two Propositions which will appear on the November 2010 ballot and which you will know as Proposition 1 and Proposition 2.

Proposition 1 amends the current constitution to allow the citizens of the state the opportunity to call for a constitutional convention with a majority vote on a ballot initiative.
Proposition 2 is the ballot initiative calling for a citizens constitutional convention.

I highly recommend reading both initiatives. Proposition 1 is only two pages long and Proposition 2 is only slightly longer at 16 pages. The text can be found here: http://www.repaircalifornia.org/Docs/repair_california_prop_1.pdf and here http://www.repaircalifornia.org/Docs/repair_california_prop_2.pdf.

There are still lots of hurdles to clear before the citizens constitutional convention can become a reality. Both measures have to get 1.4 million signatures before the attorney general can even allow them on the ballot. Then, both initiatives have to be passed by the people, clearly one is no good without the other. Once the convention is held and the delegate’s reform package is written, is must again be voted on by the citizens in 2012 to become legally binding. I realize this sounds incredibly overwhelming and a little scary. But really, I think sticking with our current constitution is far more terrifying.

To calm your fears a little, here’s an interesting statistic: since 1950, five states have undergone constitutional conventions to completely rewrite their constitutions. They are Montana, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan and Connecticut.

Now for the answer to trivia! In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.