Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Toward A More Perfect Constitution
September 27th, 2007
By HOLLY IN CINCINNATI, Copy Editor
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Like almost all Americans, I grew up believing in the Constitution–every bit of it. But having chosen American politics as my primary passion in life, over decades of daily thinking about the issues that confronted the nation, I gradually began to see that parts of the system were no longer working very well, that the day-to-day, incremental political process was inadequate to fix the root causes of the system’s dysfunction. In this, I was encouraged by the bright young people in my classrooms, who asked good questions, pointed out wrongs that needed righting, and were unwilling to accept “that’s how we’ve always done it” as the final, correct answer.
The Constitution’s brilliance and originality have inspired millions around the globe to seek a better society where they live. Much of the Constitution’s superstructure needs no fundamental fix, including the separation of powers into three branches, the system of checks and balances (with a few exceptions), and the Bill of Rights. The fault is not with these basics, and it’s important to stress one fundamental truth from the outset: the framers of the Constitution did not fail us. Our forefathers designed the best possible system that could be achieved at that moment in time.
Bit by bit, in response to superb student critiques as well as my own–and the public’s–growing doubts, I began to construct an alternate universe for parts of the American system. The ideas comprising this universe are at the heart of this new book, A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country.
By no means are my proposed reforms a repudiation of the founders’ principles. I believe that Washington, Madison and Jefferson would be the first to insist that the words in the Constitution are not the final word, and they would encourage us to start thinking about constructive changes in the constitutional framework. At the very least, we’ll be better off for having thought carefully about the Constitution. More people may even read it! Chief Justice John Roberts recently commented, “Nobody reads [the Constitution]. We talk about it a lot. We have cases about it. But to actually sit down and read it doesn’t happen that often–and that is a very rewarding exercise.”
The following is an adaptation of the first chapter from A More Perfect Constitution, that I prepared especially for the Crystal Ball and provide exclusively to you, our dear readers. For more information on the book, the ideas, an opportunity to offer comments and even a forum for suggesting your 24th idea for change, visit amoreperfectconstitution.com.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 3:02 pm and is filed under House of Representatives, US Constitution, Political Philosophy, Senate, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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