New Deal Constitutional Convention

In OTL FDR's reaction to Supreme Court decisions he disliked was to seek to pack the Court and to get rid of Senators who did not like that idea.

He failed and he lost popularity- notably in the 1938 mid term elections.

Suppose he had Persuaded Democrats in the States to call for a constitutuional Convention to give the Federal Government a wider role.

Might fairly radical amendments have been proposed, and if so would they have been ratified?
 
----Suppose he had Persuaded Democrats in the States to call for a constitutuional Convention to give the Federal Government a wider role.

Might fairly radical amendments have been proposed, and if so would they have been ratified?---

It wouldnt be very likely that they would pass especially in Dixie. Any threat to "states rights " in that region was a threat to Jim Crow and white supremacy and would have be stiffly opposed- only on th basis of principal of course. :rolleyes: To actually enshrine New Deal theories in the Constitution would as you suggest have ultimatley lead to a much more expansive and likely liberal Federal government and society and possibly could have tied the US more closely to Europe. In regard to the Supreme Court- FDR's idea wasnt good at the time. These days due to longer life spans I really wish the Supreme Court had a retirement age- say 70.That way no one president would be able to so greatly influence the court depending on how many members retired or croaked during his term. That reality is 1 reason why it should be imporant to progressives for Bush to lose in November-John Paul Stevens probably wont last another presidential term.
 
Constitutional Amendments

We already had amendments that gave black people rights. We just didn't enforce them.

1. Shift from gold to a commodity dollar. Maybe a basket of metals like steel, copper, or silver, instead of a gold based dollar. Deflation would have ended, as would the depression. We would have exported our gold reserves and that would have inflated away the depression in the rest of the world. Maybe in time to prevent the election of Hitler, but I doubt it. If we had still had to fight WWII a huge stockpile of metals would have meant that we would not have run so short of alloys.

2. 24 year term limits for Supreme Court Justices, so the liberals could elect and appoint more of their own. That's the sleeper one.

3. State legislatures to have districts drawn by population. Before 1960 they were frequently drawn to over represent rural areas.

4. Maybe the Feds could have passed yet another amendment guaranteeing black people a right to vote. Possibly it would actually have been enforced.

5. A social security amendment. We had a political change that made it possible, but an amendment would also have worked.
 
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