Ted Turner Amendment

BEYOND THE ERA:  THE TED TURNER AMENDMENT

The Feminist movement has for decades attempted to get the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) ratified as part of the U.S. Constitution, and came very close (but no cigar) in the early 1980s.  It was passed but never ratified, falling a mere three states short of the required 38 states, and thus never made it into the Constitution.  Originally written by Alice Paul in 1923, it reads as follows:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification. 

While I and the TSAP believe that we should keep trying to get the ERA ratified, as it is an important step in the right direction, I believe it does not go far enough and that Women need to aim higher.  As Germaine Greer famously said, "if your goal is equality, your standards are too low".  After all, this is of course a blog about Matriarchy, not mere "equality".  Thus, I would support an additional amendment as well, which I call the Ted Turner Amendment (TTA), named after the famous tycoon who was quoted as having supported the idea of men being barred from public office for a hundred years.  My version of the TTA would thus read as follows:

Section 1.  The __th article of amendment [i.e. the ERA] to this Constitution is hereby further amended by adding to the end of Section 1 the following:  "...except as otherwise noted in subsequent amendments to this Constitution."
Section 2.  No males shall be permitted to run for or occupy any elected public office in any capacity at the federal, state, or local levels, except that those males elected prior to ratification of this amendment may finish out their current terms unless removed by recall or impeachment.
Section 3.  For appointed public offices at the federal, state, and local levels, no males shall be permitted to serve in any capacity higher than deputy level, and at least 50% of deputies (and below) shall be female.
Section 4.  The Congress and the several States shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 5.  This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification, and shall sunset no earlier than one hundred years after the date of ratification.

Of course, this amendment has a snowball's chance in hell of actually passing until Women occupy at least 90% of Congress and other elected positions of power in this country.  Passing and ratifying the Ted Turner Amendment would only finish the job after Women have already gained enough power to take over completely.  Clearly, they have to start somewhere, but once Women break the crucial 50% barrier then it becomes much easier to reach 70%, then 90%, and finally 100%.

I would also like to add that it should be required for all corporations to have at least 50% Women on the board, and all corporations above a certain size (say, X million dollars in gross receipts) must have 100% Women on the board or have to pay a 90% tax on every dollar above the limit, with no loopholes.  But these provisions can be added later on after the TTA passes.  Do these things and everything else should work itself out overall.

This blog is primarily from an American perspective, but truly we shouldn't forget about our friends on the other side of the pond.  In fact, British Women may actually have an easier time taking over their country since the UK doesn't have a written constitution (aside from the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta).  Also, since the men over there are already disarmed for the most part (guns are basically illegal for all civilians over there), that would make it even easier still for Women to take over.   The USA, on the other hand, is the land of 300 million guns, most of which are legally owned and primarily by men (though plenty of such guns are owned by Women).  So we may perhaps actually see the UK become a Matriarchy several years sooner than the USA does.  But surely one of those two countries will be the first to do so, mark my words.  Japan, of course, is also famous for being a "gunless society" even more so than the UK, but they are currently still significantly more patriarchal and traditional than most of the West, and would likely be one of the last countries in the world for Women to take over.  But when they finally do so, I predict men would likely surrender much more quickly than in other countries.