by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
Larry Sabato starts his list of constitutional reforms with a set of changes surrounding war powers. In essence, Sabato proposes enshrining something similar to the War Powers Act into the Constitution. It's not clear to me that procedural issues are the main reason we got into Iraq (and are staying there); it feels like public hysteria, and a willingness of the GOP to politicize foreign policy, and the equating of "defunding the war" with "opposing the troops" are larger culprits. Outside of that, though, it would seem good for the country if the President actually sought a declaration of war before a land invasion, and required a two-thirds vote in the House. Such requirements would not have prevented the escalation in Vietnam, but might have given skeptical Democrats enough leverage to force the President to do a little more international coalition building and take seriously Democratic suggestions on how to manage the postwar period.
His new book has a website, if you're interested.
