4.8 • 14.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In More Perfect's final episode of the season, listen to liner notes for two amendments that contemplate the still-unfinished status of our Constitution. "27" is an album that marks a particular point in our history: this moment when we have 27 Amendments to our Constitution. What will be the 28th?
Maybe it will address our nation's capital. The capital has been a bit of a Constitutional anomaly for much of our nation's history — it's at the heart of the democracy, but because it's not a state, people in Washington D.C. have been disenfranchised almost by accident. The 23rd Amendment solved some of the problem — it gave D.C. the right to vote for president. But it left much of D.C.'s representation questions unanswered. D.C. still does not have voting representation in Congress. Instead, D.C. sends a "non-voting delegate" to Congress. For this liner note, More Perfect profiles that delegate, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and her unique approach to fighting for power in a virtually powerless role.
The song for the 23rd Amendment is by The Mellow Tones, a group of students from D.C. high school Duke Ellington School of the Arts, along with their teacher Mark G. Meadows. The chorus, "Why won't you count on me?" reflects on the continued disenfranchisement of our nation's capital.
The final amendment of the album, the 27th Amendment, put limits on Senators' ability to give themselves a pay raise, and it has arguably the most unusual path to ratification of all 27. The first draft for the amendment was written by none other than James Madison in 1789, but back then, it didn't get enough votes from the states for ratification. It wasn't until a college student named Gregory Watson awakened the dormant amendment centuries later that it was finally ratified. The 27th Amendment song is by Kevin Devine and tells Watson's story.
In Season Three, More Perfect is taking our camera lens off the Supreme Court and zooming in on the words of the people: the 27 amendments that We The People have made to our Constitution. We're taking on these 27 amendments both in song and in story. This episode is best listened to alongside "27: The Most Perfect Album," an entire album (an ALBUM!) and digital experience of original music and art inspired by the 27 Amendments. Think of these episodes as the audio liner notes.
You can listen to all of the songs on "27: The Most Perfect Album" on YouTube and watch music videos from the album.
Follow us on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @moreperfectpodcast, and X (Twitter) @moreperfect.
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0:00.0 | perfect the most perfect album final episode for those of you who maybe you're just |
0:04.6 | too I don't know why you would just be tuning in on this one but let's say you are |
0:07.6 | what we are up to is we are taking the 27 amendments to the US Constitution these stodgy words that are so important that define our rights as Americans |
0:17.4 | but they're so hard to read no one knows what the hell they are we didn't even |
0:22.1 | us who have been reporting on court cases for three years. |
0:25.0 | I had never read Amendment 23, I just hadn't. |
0:29.0 | I couldn't have told you what it is. |
0:31.0 | So, make a long story short, we decided to put together an album. |
0:35.6 | To reanimate these crucially important words through the power of music and in the podcast |
0:42.1 | we're offering little liner notes to the songs. |
0:44.0 | We're telling stories about these amendments, about where they came from, what they mean to us now. |
0:48.0 | And we have two amendments left, two songs to go with each of those two amendments and we will begin this |
0:55.0 | final episode with the one I just mentioned. |
0:58.0 | 23rd Amendment Presidential Vote for DC. |
1:01.0 | W-A-S-H-I-N-G, T-O-N-B-B-B-B-E-N-T-O-N, T-O-N-B-B-D-C. |
1:06.2 | The district constituting the seat of government of the United States |
1:10.1 | shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct a number of electors of |
1:14.4 | president and vice president equal to the whole number of senators and |
1:18.1 | representatives in Congress to which the district would be entitled if it were a |
1:21.7 | state if it were a state if it were a state if it were a state |
1:25.3 | okay we arrive at amendment 23 all those words just a second ago what they amount to |
1:30.5 | is simply this 23rd Amendment gives the citizens of the District of Columbia, |
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