“I have a dumb question: Since the Constitution already limits FedGub to a fraction of the monster it has become today — why would an amended Constitution make a difference?”
Easy answer, with STRUCTURAL changes that cannot be just be ignored. Since the 17th amendment, no senator has been chosen by a state legislature. Since the 22nd amendment, no president has been elected more than twice (though granted both the Clintons and the Bushes are trying to get around that with the wife and the brother).
And amendment limiting the terms of congress (or even better, an amendment allowing the states to do so, or to instituted recalls) could not be ignored.
An amendment limiting the time judges spend on the judiciary could not be ignored.
An amendment requiring that all executive agency regulation be voted on in congress before such regulations take effect, could not be ignored.
An amendment allowing the states or the congress (or both) to overrule a judicial opinion could not be ignored.
The founders struggled in their time to create “a more perfect union” and they gave the people and the states the means to perfect it even further, through the amendment process.
Excellent post!