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Not a bad idea at all, but it does reveal the root of the problem.
If most people agree on how things should be, then you don't need a constitutional amendment to assure it. The bill of rights is there to prevent the government from doing things that are both popular and inappropriate. If the constitution does not work without popular approval, then it's not a constitution anymore, and you just have exactly the sort of mob rule it was designed to prevent.
At its root, it's an unsolvable problem. The basic question of government is, Who Watches The Watchmen? There is no good answer, just several bad answers, and a near-infinite number of even worse ones. We can write all the rules we want, but we always have to remember how important it is to actually follow them
The best we can do is muddle through, tirelessly educating the younger folks, and challenging the older ones who ought to know better. Everything we know, every tradition, every institution, is always one generation away from being lost. It's an endless process with no sure result.
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[–] Kromulent 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Not a bad idea at all, but it does reveal the root of the problem.
If most people agree on how things should be, then you don't need a constitutional amendment to assure it. The bill of rights is there to prevent the government from doing things that are both popular and inappropriate. If the constitution does not work without popular approval, then it's not a constitution anymore, and you just have exactly the sort of mob rule it was designed to prevent.
At its root, it's an unsolvable problem. The basic question of government is, Who Watches The Watchmen? There is no good answer, just several bad answers, and a near-infinite number of even worse ones. We can write all the rules we want, but we always have to remember how important it is to actually follow them
The best we can do is muddle through, tirelessly educating the younger folks, and challenging the older ones who ought to know better. Everything we know, every tradition, every institution, is always one generation away from being lost. It's an endless process with no sure result.
But yeah, it's the best we've got.