U.S. Insight

The United States was founded in 1776 with The Declaration of Independence. That founding was further formalized in 1789 with the signing of the U.S. Constitution to replace The Articles of Confederation, which proved to be inadequate to the needs of the new nation. 

Following the U.S. Civil War, some 80 years later, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were added to our Constitution and were of such impact on freedoms that they became what is known as the Second Founding.

And now, in the midst of our 250th year, we are in another crisis of identity and existence! Our Constitution has proven to be, once again, inadequate to the needs of the nation. It is a document that well enumerates the freedoms we enjoy, sets forth the structural outline of our government and legal system and some of the actual operational aspects of our government. However, it is often not detailed enough in the finer aspects of what can and should be done in the day-to-day functioning of our government. It allows the two Houses of Congress to each have a large self-defining role in their procedures, which have been abused. Likewise it gave both the executive and judicial branches some measure of latitude, which has been pursued now to extremes. The Constitution as written depends to a significant extent on “norms” of behavior and actions. This has proven to be a notable weakness! Where details are not specified, both in actions and consequences, people will find “work arounds” that allow them to do what they want. This may have been the best compromise possible in 1789, but it is no longer up to the challenge of the 21st century!

This is where we are today. Congress has abdicated its role of governing and yielded virtually all of its power to an overbearing, out of control, executive with autocratic tendencies. The federal courts have mostly held the line, but the Supreme Court has significantly lifted restraints on the President, voting, etc. and has no effective counterbalance to offer and no power to enforce its rulings; worse yet, its rulings may in the future be ignored by the President. Our 1789 Constitution cannot be relied upon to carry us through this challenge. We need a third founding!

This time a few amendments are not going to be sufficient. While preserving the freedoms of the original Constitution, the rest of the framework of our government and legal system needs to be substantially overhauled to first prevent the bypassing of the requirements and limitations of the Constitution with much more specific dos, don’ts and consequences and secondly to address the many changes that have occurred in the 250+ years since the first founding. The United States, and the world around us, are vastly different than they were in 1776 & 1789 and this needs to be reflected in a new constitutional document. In recent decades the U.S. has fallen prey to a number of existential dilemmas, excessive debt, abdication of responsibilities and uncontrolled actions causing climate change, abandonment of the rule of law and unauthorized acts of war that are not and, perhaps, cannot be addressed by our current government. This, therefore, is our chance to clean up our messes and to make any structural changes we’ve learned would be beneficial while ensuring that future changes can more easily, but not casually, be made. (Amendments are currently impossible to initiate or ratify due to hyper-partisanship.) Public servants and leaders are needed, not posturing, preening politicians!

If we don’t grasp this opportunity while we can, we may decline to the point that no new founding/correction is possible!

Additional Thought (Written some time after the above)

As I have written here and elsewhere, we need a new Constitution. The 1789 Constitution we have is a framework, based on many compromises (some malicious and/or self-serving), on which we built a republic.

We have now demonstrated and proven that we cannot continue to function as a republic, holding up the ideals espoused in 1789, with only a framework document and “norms”. We have twisted and subverted the framework to suit ourselves and to allow us to do as we please all the while pretending to abide by and honor our Constitution. It has now, in our 250th year, became a sham with a would-be autocrat as President and a captive Congress largely ignoring our founding document in all but name.

Failure to replace our Constitution will leave us at the mercy of future unscrupulous leaders who will want to extend the current lack of restrictions. Failure to enact a constitution with much more specificity will not protect us from future internal harm and evil. Only a markedly more specific and detailed constitution has a chance to protect us from ourselves, if we will honor it. That remains as the question. Can we muster the courage and clarity to write a new document and will we honor it? Or are we too far gone?

That answer is likely to be clear sooner rather than later.