[RaceBannon]

I am asking this as a serious question, although it sound smarmy

They aren’t following the Constitution now, why will they all of a sudden follow the Constitution if we pass these amendments?

[crosdaddy]

I asked that same question a couple days ago on a different thread( same topic). Not sure anyone actually had an answer.

[Publius]

They do follow the Constitution now. They honor the Living Constitution, the Constitution symbolized as a Tree, the Constitution whose meaning evolves with time even though its words never change, the Constitution of penumbras and emanations.

That's what new and carefully honed language is intended to stop.

[cotton1706]

“I am asking this as a serious question, although it sound smarmy

They aren’t following the Constitution now, why will they all of a sudden follow the Constitution if we pass these amendments?”

As an honest answer, I think structural changes they won’t be able to ignore. For example, congressmen can’t just serve for three year terms if they want to. They have to serve for two. They can’t get around that provision of the constitution. The president still appoints supreme court justices and the senate must confirm. And the senate serves for six years. These are structural parts of the constitution that cannot be gotten around. If an amendment is written in such a way as to be ironclad, those elected will have no choice but to obey it. How that’s done, and how proposed amendments are to be worded, that is up to the convention.