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Crisis in the Constitution
By lynmiller-lachmann on 2017-09-04 14:29:11
Today is Labor Day, the uniquely U.S. holiday to celebrate the gains of working people through unions. Unfortunately, the
hard-won gains of the early and mid-20th century are being lost in a process that began in the 1970s and accelerated in the
Reagan years. Today, the Labor Day weekend seems more an excuse for markdowns on consumer goods -- with retail
workers not getting the time off -- and the endpoint of a summer season that began with Memorial Day.
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"Ire
FAULT LINES
IN THE
CONSTITUTION &
kkkkk :
THE FRAMERS,
THEIR FIGHTS,
AND THE FLAWS THAT
AFFECT U3 TODAY
CYNTHIA LEVINSOW &
SANFORD LEVINSON
he loss of unions, and with them the middle class status of industrial and professional
workers, has contributed to our current crisis, as dispossessed people seek scapegoats for their loss of privilege. We have
seen the "crabs in a bucket" mentality in places like Wisconsin, where those who have lost their unionized private-sector
jobs and lost ground economically as a result, voted to deprive their public-sector compatriots of union representation and
benefits. But the situation gets worse, as so many white working people who have lost their status have -- like their
counterparts throughout history both in the U.S. and elsewhere -- voted for leaders who seek to blame the Other for growing
inequality and lack of opportunity. And rhetoric has turned into action, with last month's events in Charlottesville, Virginia,
where hundreds of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists descended on the peaceful college town; one drove a vehicle into
a crowd of peaceful counter-protestors, killing one and injuring 19 others. The President's response: to blame "many sides"
and to cite the "good people" who raised their arms in Hitler salutes. After the events in Charlottesville, I called my senators
and Congressional representative to urge them to push the 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a means of removing
the President from office. Section 4 of the 25th amendment reads:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of
such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the
powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office
as Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the
powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the
executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the
President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration
that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide
the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-
one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days
after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is
unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same
as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Failing to denounce a terrorist act, and sending signals in support of the terrorists because they are white supremacists and
his supporters, demonstrates an inability of the President to “discharge the powers and duties of his office.” I live part of
each year in Lisbon, Portugal, and in May 2016, I had the pleasure of dinner with one of my favorite authors for young
people, Cynthia Levinson, and her husband, Sandy, when they visited Lisbon. At the time, Cynthia’s biography of Hillary
Rodham Clinton had recently come out from HarperCollins. The book had garnered great reviews and was selling well, with
bright prospects for future sales. She and Sandy, an esteemed Constitutional scholar who had testified to Congress, were less
optimistic about their work-in-progress — an examination of the major flaws of the Constitution and how it has measured
up in comparison to 20th century constitutions in places like post-apartheid South Africa and the new democracies of
Eastern Europe. But now the tables have turned. No one’s buying a biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Fault Lines in
the Constitution: The Framers Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today, published by Atlanta-based Peachtree
Publishers, is the book we needed yesterday as we face our current crisis. As we see in places all over the world, including
those eroding democracies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, constitutions are only as good as the willingness
of elected leaders to obey them and the willingness of citizens to challenge them when they don’t (or not put people
uninterested in rule of law in positions of power in the first place). However, as Fault Lines in the Constitution points out,
the U.S. Constitution has some unique features that have turned into major bugs. Not the least of these is the Electoral
College, which for the second time in a still-young century has made the second-place popular vote-getter President.
Another problematical Constitutional provision is laws on voting that vary from state to state and that since the Civil War
have often been used to disenfranchise people of color. Today, this growing problem potentially turns the Democratic Party
into a near-permanent opposition party. Like harsh and targeted voting restrictions, gerrymandering has turned the party with
the most votes, the Democrats, into the opposition party. And like the Electoral College, Congressional gerrymandering
along with the two Senators all states receive no matter their population, favors small states and more conservative rural
areas. The Levinsons write:
Usually we think of elections as opportunities for voters to pick their leaders. But when politicians have the
power to shift district boundary lines to suit themselves, they can preselect the voters who will put them into
office.... When politicians know that members of their own party control the chances of winning the next
election, they have little incentive to compromise with members of the opposition party. If they do compromise,
members of their own party might challenge them in a primary...
This has created a vicious cycle leading to less accountability and greater extremism. In many districts throughout the
country — and from what people who live there have said to me, the district that encompasses Charlottesville is an example
— carefully-selected voters have elected Congressional representatives whose words and actions have in turn emboldened
extremists living within the district and made others feel unsafe. Political scientists have written about the tendency of
liberals and other Democratic voters to congregate in cities (some of which, like Austin Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah,
have in turn been sliced up to maximize GOP representation), and while a number of factors may drive more left-wing
voters to cities, isolation in hostile exurban or rural areas in which elected representatives contribute to the hostility is
certainly one of them. It played a role in my husband’s and my decision to move from a suburb into the city of Albany in
2005, and I have heard from other people stranded in these deep “red” areas that they are moving or planning a move to
safer ground. Of course, politicians on both sides are guilty of taking advantage of gerrymandering. The flip side of
lawmakers who feed off of and egg on right-wing extremist constituents is corrupt Democratic lawmakers who enrich
themselves and their families because they know they will never be voted out of office in 80-98% Democratic areas. Fault
Lines in the Constitution has just been published, and the authors have set up a website to discuss more recent events and
how the Constitution might address them. One mark of a crisis is that fundamental principles that we have taken for granted
are now under discussion and debate, and it’s important for all of us to inform ourselves.
