Needed Changes in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution-Part One By Harsha Sankar

Needed Changes in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution-Part One   By Harsha Sankar


The US Constitution is not a perfect document. It is in need of minor changes. The 12th Amendment for example needs to be changed.

The fundamental reason for the change is simple. When the US Constitution was written, the States were sovereign Republics. After the 14th Amendment was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, the States and their governments were converted into franchises of the USA and the federal government. The united States of America became the United States of America as people became federal citizens.

Correctly or incorrectly, this is the type of governance the American People accepted. In America, there is so much emphasis in the happenings of the White House and Congress because America became a "Top-Down Society" after the Civil War. In other nations, such as India, it is a "Bottom-Up Society" because local politicians wield the most amount of influence.   

Because the federal government is now at least the sovereign governmental authority, the manner of the choosing of Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors should change as well. The states should no longer have the total discretion to make law that governs its choosing. Instead the federal government needs to pass laws that governs how these electors are chosen. The US Constitution needs to be changed to reflect that. 

Cliff Notes Version: Governance fundamentally changed after the American Civil War. The federal government gained supremacy in regards to governmental authority. People were no longer citizens of the state but rather they became citizens of the nation. The uSA became the USA after the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868.

The original American Constitution cited that state legislatures were to pass laws that govern the choosing of presidential and vice-presidential electors. Since that document was fundamentally changed after the Civil War, the federal government should be given the authority to pass laws that govern the choosing of these electors instead.