Qualifications for Election

Back in January of 2023, I wrote a post lamenting the dearth of detailed qualifications for those who would serve in our nation's highest offices. The Constitution contains only minimal qualifications for federal officers: age, citizenship status, and (for Senators and Representatives) residency. As I noted at the time, they represent a pretty low bar under which the unqualified can limbo, and we need some better guidelines to prevent (or, at the very least, hinder) the venal, the incompetent, the traitorous, the criminal, and the just-plain-crazy from occupying the nation's highest offices.

In that post, I offered a proposed Constitutional amendment to fix this lamentable situation, and I also sent copies of it to the President, both my Senators, and my Representative ... all of whom thanked me for my interest and went on to the next fund-raising event.

Well ...

Now we've had an election which has resulted in Der Furor, a vengeful and incompetent buffoon, being elected for a second time. He is now busily nominating for positions of great responsibility a scrum of oddballs, conspiracy theorists, criminals, billionaires, and various combinations thereof, whose main qualifications are slavish devotion to Der Furor and looking good on Fox News. It's horrifying to think that the only thing standing between some of these people and the maiming of the republic is a Senate and a House full of drooling sycophants afraid of Der Furor and of their base.

It's probably too late to fix the problem now, but I thought I'd go ahead and update my proposed Constitutional amendment just in case the nation survives the next four years and we want to prevent future electoral catastrophes ...

A Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Qualifications for Election to the Presidency/Vice Presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives, and for Appointment to Positions of Responsibility Under the Executive Branch

Amendment XXVIII

Section 1.

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 2, is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

No person under twenty-five years of age and a citizen of the United States for less than ten years at the time of election shall be eligible for election to the House of Representatives. A person elected to the House of Representatives must have been a legal permanent resident of the district in which elected for at least five years prior to the date of election.

No person who is ineligible for award of a Top Secret security clearance, according to the requirements defined by the the Department of Defense as of the date of election, shall be eligible to serve as a Representative. 

Section 2.

Article I, Section 3, Clause 3, is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

No person under thirty years of age and a citizen of the United States for less than fifteen years at the time of election shall be eligible for election to the Senate. A person elected to the Senate must have been a legal permanent resident of the state in which elected for at least five years prior to the date of election.

No person who is ineligible for award of a Top Secret security clearance, according to the requirements defined by the the Department of Defense as of the date of election, shall be eligible to serve as a Senator.

Section 3.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

No person under thirty-five years of age and a citizen of the United States, whether native-born or naturalized, for less than twenty years at the time of election shall be eligible for election to the office of President or Vice President of the United States.

No person who is ineligible for award of a Top Secret security clearance, according to the requirements defined by the the Department of Defense as of the date of election, shall be eligible for election to the Presidency or Vice-Presidency.

Any person seeking election to the Presidency or Vice-Presidency shall submit to the Judiciary Committees of both Houses of Congress and, through such mechanism as the Department of the Treasury may direct, to the people, full and complete copies of federal and state tax returns, both business and personal, for the ten years preceding the date of election, this action to be completed a minimum of six months before the date of election.

Section 4.

The following is added as Article II, Section 2, Clause 3:

Individuals nominated by the President for positions of public trust requiring confirmation by the Senate shall submit to the Judiciary Committees of both Houses of Congress and, through such mechanism as the Department of the Treasury may direct, to the people, full and complete copies of federal and state tax returns, both business and personal, for the ten years preceding the date of appointment, this action to be completed not later than one month before the start of confirmation hearings. 

Individuals nominated by the President for positions of public trust requiring confirmation by the Senate must be successfully adjudicated for award of a security clearance at the level designated for the position, according to the requirements defined by the Department of Defense. This adjudication must be completed prior to the individual's assumption of the position.

Section 5.

The current Article II, Section 2, Claus 3, dealing with recess appointments, is deleted in its entirety.

Section 6.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

*****

Of course, this has not the slightest chance of ever being adopted, but a guy can dream, can't he?

Have a good day, and come back on Friday for the announcement of the Right Cheek Ass Clown for December ... the next-to-last Ass Clown Award for 2024. You won't want to miss it!

More thoughts then.

Bilbo