The Constitution is no longer practical in our country, the one thing liberals and Donald Trump have in common. Many left leaning politicians have said that there is much needed reform with the Constitution, and even Donald Trump agrees. 

The 233 year old document has some major cracks that are starting to harm our democracy. We are living in an age of technology, outrunning old policy and laws. The process of changing and amending it is way too slow causing outrage among citizens.

General civil unrest that is getting worse and worse by the day, specifically around the 2nd amendment. costing some people their lives. Gun violence is a huge problem in our country, and with the hard to change nature of amendments and constitutional principles people are suffering. 

Many supreme court cases take multiple years to settle due to the appeal process. Roe v. Wade for example, the lawsuit was filed in early 1970, the Supreme Court took it up a year later and the decision was made in mid 1973. These disputes set critical precedents or reinforce how the law is interpreted by the government, and have proved to be shaky. Roe v. Wade was overturned in June of 2022. 

Vagueness was at one point the best part of this sacred document, but now it might be its downfall. The reason most things were left with gray areas was so the Constitution could evolve with the country, but that doesn’t work if it takes decades to pass amendments. A prime example is the most recently passed 27th amendment which prevents congress people giving themselves raises in the current session. It was first proposed in 1789 as part of the Bill of Rights but was not passed and was forgotten until 1982 when it was brought up again and passed 10 years later in 1992.  Most agree that amendments are the most impactful major policy change on the country, but very rare, and now with a very polarized political climate no politicians agree on any one issue enough to come together and make meaningful change to the country that will last.

The Constitution says that federal law always supersede state and local laws, but that is only enforced when the government wants to. Marijuana is illegal under the federal government, but many states have legalized it. If the federal government decides to prosecute someone for possession or distribution of marijuana, they can even if it’s in a state where it’s legal. It’s a pick and choose situation that lays a good foundation for discrimination and oppression when officials choose so. 

2022 Midterms were another great reminder at how bad citizens are at doing their civic duty: hitting the polls. The electoral college is a very outdated system that is still in place which has many flaws that can lead to electing officials the public doesn’t want. According to the 2020 Census, the 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout in the 21st century, with a 66.8% voter turnout. This number may seem like a lot, but still a large proportion of the population is not represented, which is that elected officials and policies aren’t really an accurate representation of what many people want. Although this isn’t the Constitution’s fault, the document was built around the idea that citizens will be active in politics. Since they aren’t, the Constitution isn’t as beneficial to the people of America as it once was. 

At this point it’s hard to see how the document can do a 180 and start working for our country. The nation has reached a point where people are so polarized in politics that it is hard to accomplish anything.