The Valentine Constitution

The Valentine Constitution is the first new complete Constitution to be written for the United States of America in the last 200 years. Consisting of nine Articles, The Valentine Constitution builds on the foundation of the far smaller US Constitution of 1789 and on the Amendments thereto.

Constitutional History

America's Articles of Confederation (1777 - 1788) could be considered America's first Constitution, while America's current constitution (1789–present) could then be considered its second, making The Valentine Constitution the third Constitution to be written for The United States.

Provisions

The Valentine Constitution consists of a Preamble, nine Articles, and a Postamble.

Preamble

The Valentine Constitution’s preamble proclaims its intentions and then derives its authority using the same sources as Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

Article I

Article I prohibits lobbying and eliminates campaign contributions and corresponding political favors; prohibits department heads from working for the corporations they regulate; dissolves the electoral college; replaces party control over elections with a neutral body; prohibits gerrymandering; limits terms of office to 12 years; makes voting mandatory and establishes preference voting and run-offs; prohibits election polling and handicapping within thirty days of any election or primary; and prohibits projections and the announcement of vote tabulations until all votes are counted.

Article II

Article II leaves the executive branch mostly unchanged.

Article III

Article III provides that the bicameral legislatures of the Federal and State governments be identical in form and in procedures; prohibits committees, seniority, caucuses, filibusters, and amendments unrelated to the bill; and requires that all votes be recorded.

Article IV

Article IV eliminates city and county governments entirely, and instead divides all powers and a single budget equally between the Federal and State governments, whose responsibilities do not overlap. The budget percentages established per budget item are close to existing percentages with increases for sustainable energy, organic agriculture and infrastructure improvements.

Article V

Article V revamps America's current court system, providing for free access for all and combining standing and jurisdiction while leaving the Supreme Court virtually unchanged.

Article VI

Article VI eliminates income tax and property tax and all other taxes, except one: a single "transaction" tax taking 5% from the buyer and seller in any and all transactions of any kind with no exceptions, tied to a single bank "accomplished from the merger of all banks into one" and operating only online and as a public utility where each citizen has a single bank account for all their banking, credit, loan and insurance transactions.

Cash and credit reporting agencies would be eliminated.

Prohibitions are placed on the expenditure of welfare checks on frivolous goods or services, and on receiving unemployment when jobs can be had.

State and Federal governments, departments and agencies are required to maintain annually balanced budgets, AAA credit ratings, and annual trade surpluses with foreign countries. 75% of the products sold in America are required to be made in America by American Citizens, and 95% of all jobs performed in America, performed by American citizens. Derivative, insider and high speed trading are prohibited; IPO's are opened to all equally; and monopoly control of any economic sector is limited to 25%.

The internet would become a public utility and America's primary marketplace where each citizen-producer-consumer would have the same rights as corporations. The wholesale retail model would be eliminated in favor of a direct-to-free-market economy. The Federal government would assist and guide and register copyrights, trademarks and/or patents on behalf of creative and inventor types, and handle all licensing for citizens and businesses.

Article VII

Article VII deals with the rights and responsibilities of American citizens and contains many of the rights already included in the current amendments to the current US Constitution but clarifies some, like equal pay for equal work; modifies others, like adding background checks for mental illness and felonies to the right to bear arms; and adds new protections: of any person from paparazzi or unwanted photos; of whistleblowers from repercussions; of peaceful demonstrators and property owners against bad apples; and of children against abandonment or surrogate parenting.

Article VII, Part II creates a new pre-12 public school curriculum focusing education on each child's gifts and aptitudes; establishes off campus mentorships, apprenticeships and part time jobs; allows the students to learn while performing, under supervision, school related construction, maintenance, cleaning, shopping, cooking, farming, waste, accounting, administration and health clinic tasks; creates a relationship class for students in each class and across grades for the discussion of problems and issues in their personal, social and business lives; requires one month of boot camp for high schoolers; provides students with a free healthful organic breakfast, luncheon, and afternoon supper at which time various students shall make varietal presentations; requires students to take a nutrition, anatomy and health and physical exercise class daily; and provides students with free basic health and dental services from a clinic located on campus.

Article VII, Part III provides for the protection of America's water and food supply by extending our international waters to 1,000 miles; except for jet travel, replaces all fossil and nuclear fuels with sustainable non toxic energy sources by 2020 and decommissions large hydroelectric dams by 2025; replaces pesticide-, nitrogen- and hormone-laden and monoculture agriculture with organic farming; prohibits the exportation of fresh water even in the form of crops; requires that all packaging be not only biodegradable but reusable; discourages immigration except for 10,000 gifted individuals and any individual adding $5 million per person to our economy; and deports all illegal aliens.

Article VIII

Article VIII requires the dismantling of all nuclear warheads, power plants and equipment worldwide. It further folds all military branches, border, Coast Guard, immigration, homeland and airport security et cetera into air, land and sea branches only except for State Guards which combine to be regional and form the National Guard and are tasked with emergency relief.

Article IX

Article IX allows passage of amendments and new Constitutions by a two thirds majority of the Federal legislature and a majority of the legislatures of the two thirds of the States, as in America's current Constitution.

Postamble

The Postamble calls for a commitment of the time and fortunes of the signers to the passage of this Constitution.

Formulation

After spending many years studying governments and developing solutions and eventually formulating many of those solutions into amendments, Valentine modernized a draft of Madison's US Constitution of 1789. First he updated certain antiquated parts. Then he applied the changes made by all the amendments added to it over the last 225 years. He was left with an unfinished document which failed to include the complicated world which had grown up around that tiny first document at a time when our government controlled only 1% of our economy and now controls 50%. Leaving the Constitution of 1789 and its amendments 90% intact, Valentine integrated his amendments to create a first rough draft of what would become The Valentine Constitution. He then began to answer the many unanswered questions and fill in the many unfilled holes which still remained in that first draft by using the many fixes he had developed during the many years before and by creating new ones.