A Week Off from Journalism

And some thoughts elsewhere on how to improve the Constitution

Second Rough Draft is taking a week off, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve published an essay I hope some might find interesting.

It’s called Three Branches, Three Amendments: A Constitution for Our Time. For today, tomorrow and Friday, it’s free on Amazon, where otherwise it sells for 99 cents (their minimum price). I put it there because it’s too long for a magazine, much too short for a book, and I hope it makes important arguments.

Here’s the gist:

A blueprint for practical, bipartisan constitutional reform. There have been no successful constitutional amendments proposed in more than a half century, and this extended essay argues that the time has finally come for a new wave of such changes. The detailed proposals range from limiting partisan gerrymandering in Congress to ending gerontocracy in the presidency to moving to meaningfully depoliticize the Supreme Court. The essay also debunks the usual constitutional reform impulse to abolish the Electoral College, explaining how that would end the two-party system and herald even greater instability. It also explains why enlarging the House of Representatives, while not requiring a constitutional amendment, would both ease passage of the limits on gerrymandering and soften some of the concerns with the Electoral College. With historical detail, Three Branches, Three Amendments offers critical steps toward a more effective and democratic republic.

Again, the essay is here. Second Rough Draft will return next week to our regular programming.