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Originally Posted by bobkoure
To start? The part about a black man being counted as 3/5 of a white.
And before you say it, yes I understand that it came from a compromise and that it gave the South disproportionate political power and was a reason that slavery persisted (not as big as the cotton gin, though).
I'm not 'way hot on the electoral college, either.
On the other hand, there is a lot to say for changing nothing - just to sidestep the issue of unintended consequences, although I can't think what they might be around changing 3/5 to 5/5.
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Last time I checked my vote counted as a whole man. Hummm 13th thru 15th Amendments. Yep they are my friends.
The cotton gin and other technical advances would have eventually ended the economics of slave labor.
The electoral collage may seem somewhat undemocratic at first however; you should read the federalist papers see No 68.
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Originally Posted by bobkoure
My wife teaches English as a second language - and sometimes we have students from her school as long term guests (started as a dorm room shortage emergency but now we just like having 'em around). Our most recent guest was from Colombia, had degrees in law and was clerking for one of the justices in their supreme court. They're in the throes of changing their constitution and it was very interesting to have an ongoing conversation comparing constitutional law in different countries (their current one is based on the French system and they are attempting to meld it with the US one) particularly as it was not an academic conversation but one focused much more on practical consequences. I'm no lawyer, but was glad to be the sounding board.
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I think if you read the federalist papers, you will find that every article in the constitution was well debated. Men who debated every form of government from Direct Democracy in Athens to British Parliament wrote the US Constitution. None of them trusted the masses, a central power or one another and all assume human beings ultimately made decisions based on self-interest. All those premises find their way into the structure of our constitution.