What might the American people ask Barack Obama to tackle on January 21st? I am assuming here that the members of the Electoral College elect him. I am also taking him at his word when he says, "I'm asking you to believe not just in my ability to bring about change in Washington, I'm asking you to believe in yours."
What changes do we Americans want? Like everyone else, I have a list, and like many others, ending the war is at the top of my list. My next priority is that Obama initiate public hearings all over the country, with the goal of revising the US Constitution. Fundamental changes in the Constitution would take care of many other things on my list.
No other constitution in the world is as old as America's is. Few are as skimpy. In fact, I know of none that is. The eighteenth-century conception of citizens' rights embraced in English Common Law, the US Bill of Rights, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen drew from peoples' determination to curb the arbitrary power of tyrannical monarchs, and thus the emphasis on Civil and Political Rights. Since the eighteenth century, conceptions have changed and there are few tyrants left in the world (well - a few), but the US Constitution has changed little. Additional amendments liberated slaves and gave African Americans and women the right to vote. That's all. Nothing even about the rights of indigenous Americans, whose life expectancies are comparable to those in many Third World countries.
The English and the French, along with around 161 other countries, have moved right along, expanding citizens' constitutional rights to encompass much more than Civil and Political Rights. Contemporary constitutions typically encompass provisions for decent jobs, economic security, women's rights, rights of race and ethnic minorities, and cultural pluralism. Not the US Constitution.
Globalization accompanies practices that put people at risk, and, therefore, countries have rapidly undertaken constitutional revisions that will better protect their peoples. On the face of it, this idea might seem quite remarkable to many Americans. The government protect us? The government does protects CEOs, lobbyists, multinationals, pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, banks, and hedge fund managers, but we citizens are left to fend for ourselves.
Let's take a few examples of provisions in State Constitutions:
Gender equality (Mozambique): Men and women shall be equal before the law.
Right to work (Spain): All Spaniards have the duty to work and the right to work,
Right to health care (Belarus): Citizens of the Republic shall be guaranteed the right to health care.
Environmental rights (Angola): All citizens shall have the right to live in a healthy and unpolluted
environment.
Right to leisure (Brazil): Annual vacation with compensation at least one third above the normal
salary.
Right to housing (South Africa) Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing.
Minority rights (Slovakia): Citizens of national minorities or ethnic groups in the Slovak Republic
shall be guaranteed their full development.....
Security (Belgium): The right to employment.... decent accommodation; the right to enjoy the
protection of a healthy environment; the right to enjoy cultural and social fulfillment; the right to
social security, to health care and to social, medical, and legal aid.
Readers can explore more on their own. Constitutions can be found on the website set up by the Richmond Law School, "Constitution Finder." A main thing here is that all constitutions have Civil & Political Rights, but beyond that nearly all constitutions also encompass positive rights that people have. Such rights rest on the assumption of equality, that the interests of all the people are harmonize with the interests of the State, that people themselves care about their fellow citizens, and, that citizens' wellbeing is the object of the State.
Things are tough --- with many Americans losing their homes, the collapse of many college lending programs, the rapidly escalating prices of fuel and food, layoffs, businesses and factories closing, stagnant wages, growing food insecurity, increasing homelessness, exorbitant health care costs, a weak dollar, failed retirement plans, and always deeply sad news from Iraq.
We deserve a new constitution! No better time for CHANGE!