At what point do Americans rightly see that our country needs a Constitutional overhaul?
The “First Branch,” Congress, has been plagued for 30 years with unbridled gerrymandering, essentially uncontrolled illicit influence peddling fed by weird ideas of “freedom of speech” that empower bribery, and a culture that rewards manic partisanship over any real efforts to govern. Congress cannot even seem to consistently pass appropriations bills, we face repetitive threats of economic chaos in the face of debt default or government shutdown, and Washington spends far more than it takes in and so risks our national solvency.
We are seeing the fruits of these problems in the chaos surrounding the position of Speaker of the House. Kevin McCarthy focused intently on appeasing those in the Republican Conference who are most ideologically rigid and most suspicious of him. Those outliers are able to hold their seats because they face little need to move to the political center. Why? Because they represent heavily gerrymandered districts. For whatever reason, among which is probably the power of far-right money, McCarthy neglected to build strong enough relationships with Democrats, who unsurprisingly saw no reason to cast their votes in support of his speakership.
The “Second Branch,” the presidency, has seen two presidents since 2000 elected with a minority of the popular vote, a virtually unchecked authority – uncontemplated by the Constitution – to commit the nation to overseas wars, and, lately, clear evidence that the only remedy for abuse of presidential power specified in our national charter, impeachment, is ineffective.
The third of those problems is perhaps the most alarming. Even after he attempted to blackmail the leader of Ukraine for political dirt that he could use against President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. before the 2020 election campaign, Donald Trump managed to escape accountability. Failure to impose any on him can be supposed to have contributed to Trump’s willingness to encourage the attacks on the U.S. Capitol that occurred Jan. 6, 2021.
The “Third Branch,” our judiciary headed by the Supreme Court, is plagued by obvious indicators of possible corruption among several justices, astonishing arrogance among those politicians in robes, no meaningful check on the Supreme Court’s power to upend Americans’ lives, and no practical method to fix the justices’ constitutional errors.
ProPublica’s recent reporting on the financial shenanigans of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have provoked some bluster among Senate Democrats, but no meaningful action to impose even the most fundamental ethics requirements on the Court has occurred. Nor has Chief Justice John Roberts shown any apparent willingness to lead his colleagues to a solution that would improve public confidence in the nation’s most exalted judges.
It is long past time to have a serious national conversation about these problems. Yesterday’s events in the House make more clear than ever that our dysfunctional federal government simply is not structured to fix the many problems we have or to manage the challenges of this new century.
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House Chaos is One More Sign That Constitutional Repair Must Come
At what point do Americans rightly see that our country needs a Constitutional overhaul?
The “First Branch,” Congress, has been plagued for 30 years with unbridled gerrymandering, essentially uncontrolled illicit influence peddling fed by weird ideas of “freedom of speech” that empower bribery, and a culture that rewards manic partisanship over any real efforts to govern. Congress cannot even seem to consistently pass appropriations bills, we face repetitive threats of economic chaos in the face of debt default or government shutdown, and Washington spends far more than it takes in and so risks our national solvency.
We are seeing the fruits of these problems in the chaos surrounding the position of Speaker of the House. Kevin McCarthy focused intently on appeasing those in the Republican Conference who are most ideologically rigid and most suspicious of him. Those outliers are able to hold their seats because they face little need to move to the political center. Why? Because they represent heavily gerrymandered districts. For whatever reason, among which is probably the power of far-right money, McCarthy neglected to build strong enough relationships with Democrats, who unsurprisingly saw no reason to cast their votes in support of his speakership.
The “Second Branch,” the presidency, has seen two presidents since 2000 elected with a minority of the popular vote, a virtually unchecked authority – uncontemplated by the Constitution – to commit the nation to overseas wars, and, lately, clear evidence that the only remedy for abuse of presidential power specified in our national charter, impeachment, is ineffective.
The third of those problems is perhaps the most alarming. Even after he attempted to blackmail the leader of Ukraine for political dirt that he could use against President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. before the 2020 election campaign, Donald Trump managed to escape accountability. Failure to impose any on him can be supposed to have contributed to Trump’s willingness to encourage the attacks on the U.S. Capitol that occurred Jan. 6, 2021.
The “Third Branch,” our judiciary headed by the Supreme Court, is plagued by obvious indicators of possible corruption among several justices, astonishing arrogance among those politicians in robes, no meaningful check on the Supreme Court’s power to upend Americans’ lives, and no practical method to fix the justices’ constitutional errors.
ProPublica’s recent reporting on the financial shenanigans of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have provoked some bluster among Senate Democrats, but no meaningful action to impose even the most fundamental ethics requirements on the Court has occurred. Nor has Chief Justice John Roberts shown any apparent willingness to lead his colleagues to a solution that would improve public confidence in the nation’s most exalted judges.
It is long past time to have a serious national conversation about these problems. Yesterday’s events in the House make more clear than ever that our dysfunctional federal government simply is not structured to fix the many problems we have or to manage the challenges of this new century.
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Hank Lacey
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