Fifteen: A New Constitution

In the most recent Economist magazine, I saw a review of a new book by a professor out of Virgina (I think) named Sabato (excuse me, Professor, if I've fractured your name). Anyway, the book seems to echo what I have been advocating for many years; i.e., government reform at the Constitutional level. Although the professor's approach is more thought out and, certainly informed, than mine (after all, he is professional scholar, and I am just a small town lawyer and life-long political and government critic), we appear to be on the same track, which tells me that many, many Americans feel the same way.

My pet proposed constitutional amendments (which would hopefully be embodied in Sabato's new document) are: Term limits on all elected federal office holders; Mandatory government service for all Americans, to be performed between the ages of 18 and 25; and Tax Reform (preferably the Forbes flat tax). The first of these proposals, term limits, is without a doubt the most important, because, as Sabato would probably agree, since all human beings always act in their own self interest, the current system of virtual lifetime public welfare (excessive salaries, gross sumptuous perquisites, lifetime health and pension coverage, etc.) for U.S. Representative and Senators will never allow those office holders to make decisions for the public good and their own expense.

What are the chances of Saboto's convention or my amendments coming to pass in the next several generations? I put the odds at less than one in ten.