Citizens of the United States,

Have you ever heard of the USS Constitution? It is a four deck, 44-gun frigate built in 1797. It is the most decorated warship of its age, winning battles against the French, the British, and the Barbary pirates. Today, it is the oldest commissioned warship in the world still in service. She is, without a doubt, a national treasure.

Now, let me tell you about the USS Gerald R. Ford. It is not only the largest aircraft carrier in the world, she is the largest warship ever built. It has 25 decks and carries 75+ aircraft. It is nuclear powered, has next generation radars, electromagnetic launch systems, and surface-to-air missiles. A single one of these ships carries more firepower than most national air forces.

Now. If you had to go into battle tomorrow, which ship would you rather be on? The 100,000 ton aircraft carrier? Or the 18th century frigate?

Of course, we are not really talking about ships. They are a metaphor used to prove a point. We are really talking about our government. Just as the USS Constitution cannot serve the American People as she once did, neither can the US Constitution serve us as she once did. Our political system, the one built atop our Constitution, is either deeply corrupt or grossly negligent, and until we regain control of it, life for all of us just gets worse: the cost of living will keep rising, the culture war will keep intensifying, and the rule of law will keep breaking down. Our existing government simply cannot satisfy the needs of a modern civilization.

We must organize a modern Constitutional Convention. Not an amendment, not an Article V Convention of States; a full-fledged, bona fide, reboot-the-Republic Constitutional Convention. We do not want or need a violent insurrection or a bloody rebellion; we need a non-violent, digital, diplomatic, participatory revolution to begin the process of transitioning to the third iteration of our American democracy.

Just as a ship is designed by a collection of specialists (electricians, engineers, etc.), so too should our government be designed by a collection of specialists (economists, political scientists, etc.) who consider the needs and preferences of the crew (all American citizens). The plan is to assemble the best minds in the Union to debate and design the next iteration of our democratic experiment, just like we did in 1787.

But unlike last time, we must take advantage of the awesome power of modern technology to broadcast the discussions of our delegates so that “We the People” can criticize, comment, and cheer from the comfort and safety of our homes. A digitized Convention would reveal the will of the American People in unprecedented detail, allow our foremost experts to educate the nation on the mechanics of modern governance, and provide a unifying cultural experience for the nation. By combining executive direction, specialized expertise, and public feedback, we can design the best government in the world. This Convention would not just be a political solution to a political problem, it would be a solution to our alarming cultural divergence. If structured and executed correctly, this Convention could act as a reunifying narrative for the American People.

To be clear: this is not a call to sink the USS Constitution or set fire to the US Constitution. But we can no longer ignore the perilous state of our American civilization or continue pretending that a system as broken or corrupt as ours can self-correct. Our Constitution has stood watch for two and a half centuries, it has earned the dignity of an honorable discharge. It cannot survive 21st century geopolitical competition, and the longer we pretend it can, the worse off we will be.

The goal is not to make our Union great again, the goal is to make our Union greater than ever. A digital Constitutional Convention would become our generation’s greatest achievement, restore the Republic, and create the most democratic Constitution in the world. So let’s do that. Let’s close this dark chapter in our history and begin a new one: the American Renaissance.

“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made... institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
Thomas Jefferson