So ok, I'm a constitutional lawyer so, it looks like I have to bring the news to the world. Constitutional scholars have recently rediscovered constitutional amendment by popular sovereignty. So, the thing is, WE are in charge and specifically, we are in control of the constitution - the ultimate law of the land; the law that controls all laws. It turns out that we can change the constitution any time we want by simple majority vote. So yes, it's true we don't have much say in our representative government, but we control it. If we don't like anything our government does? We could overrule it by simple majority vote. Our Founding Fathers gave us ultimate, final control.
We think inequality is out of hand? We could constitutionally limit inequality by majority vote. We think the war powers are out of control? We could constitutionally limit them by majority vote. We don't like IMF/World Bank policies? We could constitutionally set forth the rules by majority vote. We don't like the environmental policy? We could specify the policy in the constitution by majority vote. And so on. But we've never done it; not once in our whole history. So, turns out, the people are slackers.
It's a very long article - 53 pages. But it appears the structure of our Constitution is this: Our representatives work for us and if we don't like anything they do? We can change it by majority vote. That's what popular sovereignty means. We are the bosses. We are in control. We have the ultimate say. Turns out that's true; we just didn't know it. Constitutional scholars have only recently rediscovered this and it is completely unknown to the activist community.
I mean think of that? Think of how many people want to limit inequality. It's certainly way over 50%. So, that's more than enough. But nobody knows it.
The case is made thoroughly and persuasively, in this law review article (warning: 53 pages, pdf). It seems clear to me that the Founding Fathers didn't drop the ball. We did. What more can you give people than ultimate say? What more can you give people than control of the supreme law of the land? We could change it all at any time by simple, majority vote. And we could do so peacefully and legally.
But, of course, the good news is that we can fix it. However, first, we have to rediscover the principle of popular sovereignty. Yes, it's 53 pages, but read it. It says WE ruined the world. We were supposed to be updating the constitution all along and we totally slacked. It was our only fucking job. So, read the article. It's linked above, but I'll include it here for good measure.
http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/...