The United States Constitution has proven to be one of the most remarkable political documents ever created. Still, there is no shortage of people with ideas to improve our constitution. I’m one of them.
Maybe it’s time. It’s been over 50 years since the Constitution was last updated.
Two months ago, many of the co-hosts of ABC’s “The View, ” including Whoopi Goldberg, called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban Donald Trump from serving as president for a second term if he was in prison.
The governor of the great state of California, Gavin Newsom would like the 28th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to restrict gun rights.
Readers of the New York Times, on Aug. 14, 2021, sent in their ideas for amendments. They included protection for the unborn, the right to an abortion, abandoning the Electoral College and an environmental amendment calling for the right to clean air, and pure water.
A Balanced Budget Amendment would be good, but that idea is probably 30 years too late.
Earlier this year, South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman introduced an amendment in the House for term limits — three terms in office for House members and two for senators. This idea is tempting, but I believe term limits have been a detriment to Missouri.
I have a better idea; an amendment requiring all Federal Representatives and employees to pass a cognitive test when they reach the age of 65, and each succeeding year, or when requested by a majority of the members in the House or Senate.
In 2018, after requests from Democrats and the media, President Donald Trump — at 72 — took and passed a cognitive test. Repeated calls for 80-year-old President Joe Biden to do the same have been met with crickets.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, a cognitive test “assesses abilities involved in thinking (e.g., reasoning, perception, memory, verbal and mathematical ability, and problem-solving). Such tests pose questions designed to estimate applicants’ potential to use mental processes to solve work-related problems or to acquire new job knowledge.”
Unfortunately, Biden is not the only elected official in Federal Government that needs to take this test.
Currently, 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives are over 80, and four are in the Senate. They are from both sides of the aisle.
The oldest is Dianne Feinstein, who turned 90 on June 22. Feinstein has been confused in Senate meetings. On July 27, another senator had to tell her to stop reading from her prepared remarks and vote ‘aye’ in a committee hearing. In May, she allegedly told reporters that she was never gone after a three-month absence from the Senate due to health reasons.
The senate minority leader, Mitch McConnall, appeared to freeze up for almost a minute at a press conference on July 26.
Age is not the only factor that reduces someone’s cognitive ability.
Before he was elected, Penn. Sen. John Fetterman suffered a stroke. In May, he caused concern when his questions in a Senate hearing were almost incoherent. He said, “So far, everything’s been true. So, doesn’t it feel that now if a bank really believed that they wouldn’t be bailed out, now after bailing them out, these couple of bailouts, they are going to.”
I am trying to make the point that we, as voters, elect individuals to represent us. If it made no difference, we would vote for the party of our choice, Democrat, Republican, etc, and let them fill the seat. When any elected leader cannot function mentally, we are not getting who we voted for.
Feinstein is obviously a puppet being told when and what to say by her aids. There is evidence that Biden is in this same boat.
Civics lesson: The Constitution gives two ways to add amendments. First, Congress — both the House and Senate — has to pass an amendment by a two-thirds majority. Then it has to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. The second way is with an Article V convention. In this scenario, two-thirds of state legislatures must pass a resolution calling for a convention. Then, if the convention adopts the amendment, it has to be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures or three-fourths of conventions called in each state for ratification.
The Constitution is primarily an operating manual for the federal government. Amendments should never be considered for social policy like abortion, clean air, etc. Those are best handled through the legislative branch of government.
