Why Wait For a Convention, New York?

Every year when the budget deadline passes without a budget, or whenever there is a stalemate between the Governor and the only two legislators that actually wield legislative power (I speak of the Assembly Speaker and Senate President), someone asks, "Why don't we amend the state Constitution to fix this?"

And then the news stations dig up a softspoken constitutional scholar from a SUNY basement somewhere and he explains, with great solemnity, why amending the Constitution now is just not possible. According to the state Constitution itself (Art. XIX Sec. 1), he says, amending the document first requires legislative approval in two consecutive legislative sessions, then approbation by popular ballot, and then a delayed effective date. Figure three years minimum, likely more. The most we can do right now, he says in so many words, is wring our hands and hope for the best.

And then someone says, "well then let's have a convention and write a new constitution," and the constitutional scholar goes even grayer as he explains that under the Constitution (Art. XIX Sec. 2) this is something the legislature must first consent to be put on the ballot, or else we must wait up to 20 years for the question of a convention to be put on the ballot automatically, and we should then hope everyone's paying attention and still angry enough about the legislature's antics from 10 or 12 or 18 years ago to vote for a convention.

And through all of this the newscaster will nod in understanding until it's time to go back to the anchor desk for the weather or a reel of the latest fire, and that is that.

Now in my mind, that approach puts the relationship entirely backwards.

That approach has so-called "experts" looking no further than the state Constitution for the origin and definition of their powers of self-governance.

In my mind, it is the citizens' powers of self-governance that give rise to the Constitution, not the other way around.  It is the citizens' ability to say for themselves how they wish to be governed that gives birth to a constitution of government.  It is not for the constitution of government to define that ability, or to so limit it as to the point of virtual extinguishment.

If the document by which we govern ourselves can provide no genuine redress for the ineffectiveness of our elected officials, is it truly a democratic document?  No.  Is a document that so severely limits our ability to exercise the powers of self-governance that we cannot act even in the face of impasses that threaten to close down our government truly a democratic document?  No.

If the legislature has the power to cancel, for the span of 20 years, any initiative that would alter its composition or powers, then where is its incentive to act appropriately? If the ridiculous antics of the legislature of late are any indication, there is no such incentive.

We should not be so quick as to assume that our form of government has not become a perverted form of democracy. What we have in New York is at least this:

• inequitable ballot access laws that protect entrenched political parties
• a campaign finance process that obscures the public's view
• a budget process that all but guarantees a late and irresponsible budget
• a partisan legislative districting process that protects incumbents
• most egregiously, a manner of amending the Constitution to more accurately reflect the will of the people that, in operation, sets itself against the will of the people.

And this is only a small list.  Are we truly only left to line up behind our constitutional scholars and wring our hands mightily for the next dozen years, as they suggest? Or can we not conceive of a different path?

Do we not have the right, arising from our own powers of self-governance, to collectively rip up the current Constitution and begin anew?

Of course we do. Of course we can.

It is a bold idea, yes, to abolish a government by replacing it with a new one. But it is certainly not a new idea. Each year on the Fourth of July we celebrate and pay homage to the men and women who were brave enough to carry out that idea even in the face of armed resistance from the old government. Are we less brave?

Adherents to the current government will poo-hoo the idea, claim that it is too radical, too disruptive, would never work, isn't possible, etc. Look carefully and you will see in all instances that they speak either out of a vested interest in the current government or else out of pure fear.

And before you poo-hoo the idea yourself, ask whether the current government is working for you, or for some other interest?

A convention of the people to form a government is indeed a radical concept, but it is the very mechanism on which our state and our federal governments were born.  Could anyone legitimately challenge such a mechanism?  We have so many examples in our national history that we need not question the validity of the process.  And we can look to the process by which those conventions were held for guidance on how to compose the convention and ratify its product, if the product is indeed worth ratifying.

We have only to find the bravery to do it.