Will We Save the American Constitutional System?

Abstract

Democracy, Inc., has plunged the American democratic-capitalist system into crisis. Donald Trump’s election is symptomatic of our degraded constitutional order. The Roberts Court conservatives and neoliberal ideologues bear much responsibility for our national predicament. But the framers also made mistakes. White men, mostly Protestant and wealthy, they relegated black slaves to the status of property. Blinded by racism and a desire to protect property interests, the framers poisoned the American political-economic system with a disease that still infects the nation. More broadly, the framers did not appreciate the degree to which the wealthy, people largely like themselves, could threaten the liberty and property of others, including the poor. To be sure, the framers designed a Constitution that, they believed, could overcome self-interest in general, not only the self-interest of the poor. But the framers, flawed like other people, failed to recognize the degree to which their own passions and interests obscured the rational pursuit of their goals for the nation.

What can be done? We must undo the current emphasis on the private sphere and slighting of the public sphere. Certainly, overturning Citizens United would help. Beyond that, the pros and cons of calling a new constitutional convention are discussed. Also, the new Roberts Court should strike off in a different direction, repudiating many of the early Roberts Court decisions. The nation needs to reject Democracy, Inc., and return to the framers’ balance between the public and private spheres.