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 era. 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 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.

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

The answer should be obvious, and the metaphor should be clear. We must face reality. Just as the USS Constitution cannot serve the American People as it once did, neither can the US Constitution serve us as it once did. The Constitution was created for a pre-industrial nation of 3 million Americans, yet we live in a post-industrial nation of 350 million citizens. Our political system, the one built atop the foundation of our Constitution, is undeniably corrupt and/or grossly negligent. Until we regain control of our government, 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. An 18th century government cannot satisfy the needs of a 21st century population.

To be clear: this is not a call to sink the USS Constitution or to shred the US Constitution. But we cannot continue ignoring the perilous state of our American civilization, nor can we 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 geopolitics, and the longer we pretend it can, the worse off we will be.

The only genuine solution is to 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. Anything less is inadequate to the severity of the situation. We do not want or need a violent insurrection or a bloody rebellion; we need a nonviolent, digital, diplomatic, democratic revolution to begin the process of transitioning to the third version of our American democracy. Anything else leads to continued decay.

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 goal 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. This congregation is the best of all possible options open to us.

Because unlike last time, we can 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. This Convention would not just be a political solution to a political problem, it would be a cultural solution to our alarming, growing cultural divide. By combining executive direction, specialized expertise, public feedback, and digital technology, we can design the best government in the world.

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