AS the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.
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Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.
As someone who has taught constitutional law for almost 40 years, I am ashamed it took me so long to see how bizarre all this is. Imagine that after careful study a government official — say, the president or one of the party leaders in Congress — reaches a considered judgment that a particular course of action is best for the country. Suddenly, someone bursts into the room with new information: a group of white propertied men who have been dead for two centuries, knew nothing of our present situation, acted illegally under existing law and thought it was fine to own slaves might have disagreed with this course of action. Is it even remotely rational that the official should change his or her mind because of this divination?
Yeah, it's our "obsession" with the Constitution -- that old thing foisted by dead white men -- that's the problem. Let's just scuttle it and go adrift, make up the rules as we go along. The obvious problem with such an approach -- so obvious that even a law professor ought to be able to grasp it -- is that without the Constitution, we'd be at the mercy of the whim of the moment, and there are at least as many idiots as smart people coming up with those.
Yes, I know this is "only" a law professor, but he's out there shaping young minds, and there are plenty of people in government who think exactly like he does, including the former law professor in the White House.
