Jennifer Szalai, whose image is above, writes for The New York Times. On Saturday, September 7, 2024, a column by Szalai appeared in the "Arts" section of the hard copy edition of the newspaper that was delivered to my front lawn. The "Arts" section, I thought, was a somewhat incongruous location for Szalai's commentary, since her column is focused on our "politics." Here is a link to Szalai's column, as it appears online: "The Constitution Is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous?" Click the following link if you'd like to read what the Constitution actually says.
I have written a lot of blog postings about our Constitution. In all of my commentaries, I have generally tried to celebrate (and elevate) the Constitution. I certainly agree that the Constitution is not a perfect document. But is it dangerous? I am going to disagree with that proposition!
Szalai's column notes, right off the bat, that "The United States Constitution is in trouble." Why is the Constitution in trouble? Well, because it is being attacked from all sides. Szalai notes that Donald J. Trump has called for the "termination of all rules, regulations and articles [that constrain the powers of the president] even those found in the Constitution." Liberals, however, according to Szalai, are also not happy with the Constitution. They claim that "Trump owes his politrical ascent to the Constitution, making him a beneficiary of a document that is essentially antidemocratic and... increasingly dsyfunctional." Erwin Chemerinsky, the Dean of the Berkeley Law School, is cited as the person who asserts that the Constitution is "dangerous." Here is a summary of what Szalai has to say:
The eminent legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, worried about opinion polls showing “a dramatic loss of faith in democracy,” writes in his new book, “No Democracy Lasts Forever”: “It is important for Americans to see that these failures stem from the Constitution itself.”
Back in 2018, Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley’s law school, still seemed to place considerable faith in the Constitution, pleading with fellow progressives in his book “We the People” “not to turn their back on the Constitution and the courts.” By contrast, “No Democracy Lasts Forever” is markedly pessimistic. Asserting that the Constitution, which is famously difficult to amend, has put the country “in grave danger,” Chemerinsky lays out what would need to happen for a new constitutional convention — and, in the book’s more somber moments, he entertains the possibility of secession. West Coast states might form a nation called “Pacifica.” Red states might form their own country. He hopes that any divorce, if it comes, will be peaceful.
The prospect of secession sounds extreme, but in suggesting that the Constitution could hasten the end of American democracy, Chemerinsky is far from alone. The argument that what ails the country’s politics isn’t simply the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court, but the founding document that presides over all three, has been gaining traction, especially among liberals. Books and op-eds critiquing the Constitution have proliferated. Scholars are arguing that the Constitution has incentivized what Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt call a “Tyranny of the Minority.”
The anguish is, in some sense, a flip side of veneration. Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us; a growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.
The major concern outlined above, and expressed by Chemerinsky, seems to be that the Constitution does not ensure "democracy." There may well be some truth to that charge, but let's be clear. Democracy should be seen as a "tool," not as an objective in and of itself. In fact, as outlined in one of my earlier blog postings, pursuing "democracy" as our main and overriding goal can lead us directly into dictatorship.
The "objective" of what is sometimes called our "American experiment" is to establish an effective system of "self-government." That is what we are aiming for. That is what we need to be aiming for.
And if we're not happy with how things are going, the responsibility is on us to make the changes we need to make. Giving up on our Constitution is not going to help!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!