As rift between left and right widens, calls for a Constitutional Convention abound

Law Professor Lawrence Lessig of Harvard is one voice calling out to the left and right to consider this possibility:
http://chronicle.com/article/An-Unconventional-Meeting-of/129048/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

[Source: Wikimedia Commons]

The original Constitutional Convention occurred in my home town of Philly from May 14 through September 17, 1787. The impetus was the failure of the original Articles of Confederation to produce a unified nation. The document that emerged was a wonder of its time in many ways. Also it was fatally flawed, as we well know, by failing to resolve the slavery issue. Only a Civil War solved that divisive issue... and resulted in several key Amendments to the original document. Even then, although the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery and the 14th was intended to secure due process and equal protection of the law, it took the Civil Rights Movement to sweep away the last vestiges of slavery.

This is all be way of saying that it's not easy to change the Constitution and it's even harder to get it right. Still, given the divisiveness that required a Supreme Court decision to resolve the 2000 presidential election, and which has only intensified since then --- witness the Tea Partiers in Congress, who are making it so hard for the two parties to do any bipartisan work --- a hard look at the supreme law of the land may make some sense.

Others who think so include:

http://www.noslaves.com/content/its-time-call-constitutional-convention-2011

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Constitutional-Convention-2011/114454695236222

http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/27340/