Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, promoting his very patriotic book “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States,” recently penned an op-ed and appeared on MSNBC to float the idea that we need to toss out the United States Constitution — arguably the most eloquent and functional if imperfect governing document ever written, which every Western nation has modeled their own on — and replace it with something a little more Democratic™.
Here the psychopathic cross-eyed nerd — who would be the first to go in the kind of French Revolution-style chaos he’s fomenting, like Piggy in Lord of the Flies — explains.
Via Los Angeles Times (emphasis added):
“No matter the outcome of the November elections, it is urgent that there be a widespread recognition that American democracy is in danger and that reforms are essential. No form of government lasts forever, and it would be foolhardy to believe that the United States cannot fall prey to the forces that have ended democracies in many other countries.
Although the causes are complex, many of today’s problems can be traced back to choices made in drafting the Constitution, choices that are increasingly haunting us. After 200 years, it is time to begin thinking of drafting a new Constitution to create a more effective, more democratic government.
Signs abound that American democracy is in serious trouble. Confidence in the institutions of American government is at an all-time low. The Pew Research Center has been tracking public trust in government since 1958. It has gone from a high-water mark of 77% in 1964 to our contemporary 20%.* A poll in September 2023 indicated that only 4% of U.S. adults said the American political system worked “extremely or very well.” A recent Gallup poll had only 16% of Americans expressing approval for how Congress is performing its job.
Especially individuals in their 20s and 30s are losing faith in democracy. A Brookings Institution study found that 29% of “young Americans say that democracy is not always preferable to other political forms.””
First of all, “democracy” is a broad term that means different things in different contexts. When it’s used generally, it just means rule by the people, and in that sense is the antithesis of authoritarianism of various stripes.
But when it’s used as a specific governing model, direct democracy, of “pure democracy,” is a euphemism for mob rule. This is not what the Founders intended, because anyone who has read Lord of the Flies understands enough about human nature to foresee the outcome.
Second, the reason no one trusts the government is because it’s run by crooked totalitarian bastards — not because of academic concerns over the nuances of the Constitution.
But they’d rather not talk about any of that on MSNBC or any corporate state media, because they are functionally the state.
Continuing:
“There is an alternative to a spate of separate amendments: starting fresh by passing a new Constitution. It does not take much reflection to see the absurdity of using a document written for a small, poor and relatively inconsequential nation in the late 18th century to govern a large country of immense wealth in the technological world of the 21st century.
It may seem strange and frightening to suggest thinking of a new Constitution at a time of great partisan division. But that existed in 1787; in many of the states, the Constitution was just barely ratified.”
Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
Follow his stuff via Substack. Also, keep tabs via Twitter.
For hip Armageddon Prose t-shirts, hats, etc., peruse the merch store.
Support always welcome via the digital tip jar.
Bitcoin public address: bc1qvq4hgnx3eu09e0m2kk5uanxnm8ljfmpefwhawv
