DEAR CANDIDATE

         Literally hundreds of people have registered with the Federal Election Commission as candidates for President in 2016. At this writing only 22 of them are being touted as serious contenders.

         Two days ago, I sent each of those 22 candidates a letter by certified mail, asking them to answer these twenty-three questions:

CANDIDATE SURVEY ON CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

1.    Do you favor the calling of a convention to propose constitutional amendments as provided in Article V of the United States Constitution?                                                               YES   NO

2.    Do you favor repeal of the 23^rd Amendment and restoration of Maryland and Virginia citizenship to residents of the District of Columbia?                                                                  YES    NO

3.    Would you favor an amendment to require non partisan nomination of Supreme Court Justices?                                                      YES   NO

4.    Would you favor term limits for Supreme Court Justices? YES NO

5.    Would you favor an amendment prohibiting the Supreme Court from rendering any opinion expanding or diminishing the powers of the government or the rights of the people?                       YES   NO

6.    Would you favor establishing a constitutional ratio of constituents to members of the House of Representatives?                      YES   NO  

7.    Do you favor a constitutional requirement that House of Representative districts be drawn along county or municipal boundaries?                                                                         YES   NO

8.    Would you favor an amendment prohibiting voting for more than one member of the House of representatives?                       YES   NO

9.    Would you favor an amendment requiring members of the House of Representatives to reside in their districts?                        YES   NO

10. Do you favor an amendment limiting all Bills in the Congress to a single subject, clearly stated in the title?                      YES         NO

11. Do you favor the repeal of the 17^th Amendment and a requirement that voting in the Senate be by States?                               YES   NO

12. Do you favor term limits for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate?                                      YES   NO

13.  Do you favor the “Jefferson Amendment” prohibiting Congress from    borrowing on the credit of the United States and requiring monetizing the national debt?                                                               YES   NO

14. Do you favor setting a constitutional limit on the power of the Congress to coin money?                                              YES         NO

15. Would you favor an amendment authorizing the Congress to levy a single, one time ad valorem tax on assets in case of an emergency?                                                                                  YES   NO

16. Do you favor an amendment that would credit all payments of State and local taxes against 50% of federal taxes?                   YES   NO

17. Do you favor an amendment prohibiting the Congress from mandating any action by State or local governments?          YES         NO

18. Would you favor an amendment prohibiting the Congress from appropriating any money to be paid to the States or to local units of government?                                                            YES   NO

19. Do you favor the transfer of all unsold federal lands, except those dedicated and maintained as parks or otherwise authorized in the Constitution, to the States in which they are located?       YES   NO

20. Do you favor an amendment prohibiting the deployment of the National Guard or State Militias outside the United States except in the conduct of a war formally declared by the Congress?     YES   NO

21. Would you favor an amendment forbidding the President from ordering the killing of any person except an enemy defined in a formal Congressional declaration of war?                             YES   NO

22. Do you favor an amendment that would authorize Congress to prohibit the desecration of the American flag during a war formally declared by the Congress?                                        YES   NO

23. Do you favor an amendment defining the word ‘person’ as used in the Constitution as an identifiable human being?                 YES   NO

It will be interesting to see if any of the candidates who say they want to fix the mess in Washington are in favor of really doing something about it.

Or is their only solution to a dysfunctional government summarized in two words: “Elect me”?