In many ways, the US Constitution is
like an operating system that tells a computer how to run. The
Constitution tells the government how to run. Its task is far more
important than an operating system, like Microsoft Windows. If
Windows fails, it usually causes no more than a minor inconvenience.
When the Constitution fails, it affects people's lives dramatically.
The Framers, the colonial Americans who
wrote the Constitution, had some experience writing similar
documents. Both James Madison and George Mason helped write the
Virginia Constitution of 1776. The Framers understood how
Constitutional law worked. They did not understand how Constitutional
law could fail.
Software operating systems make the
computer work. The authors frequently do not consider what will make
the computer fail or how to escape from a failure. The Constitution
shows the same kind of blindness. The Framers believed the government
would work. They did not see how it could fail. They all belonged to
a class of well-off gentry. Many in the South held large estates that
were run by slaves. The northern framers were professionals—doctors
and lawyers and businessmen. These men tended to think alike. All
alike believed that they were the elite who should govern the new
country.
The framers wrote a document that is
particularly ill-suited for our country today. We have numerous
contending classes. Each class believes it has a right to participate
in government. In the past few years, the former ruling class has
been pushed aside and its members are having difficulty accepting
their new role. In 2012, Mitt Romney, whose father ran for president
in 1960, believed that he would win because he belonged to the
governing class.
The governing class, composed primarily
of white males, has grown accustomed to receiving preference, in
political office, in jobs, in salary, and in a whole host of other
ways. This class is recipient of many government programs, including
the farm subsidies that go almost exclusively to them. The class
never received food stamp benefits, which accounts for its support
for the former and hostility to the latter.
The old ruling class viewed the
election of Barack Obama as symbolic of their loss of prestige and
power. They regarded the presidency as rightfully theirs. The class
considered anything that was not traditional—such as
African-Americans owning homes and receiving medical care—as a
threat to them. For these people, conservatism means preserving their
status and prerogatives.
For the ruling class, conservatism also
means moral prerogatives. They vehemently oppose legalization of
abortion, legalization of marijuana, and gay rights. They see the laws governing these
things as the end products of moral struggles that they fought hard to win. They are
appalled to watch their America fade away.
But the old America is fading away, and
faster than anyone predicted a few years ago. The Republican party
has become the party of old, white men. The younger generation today
grew up in an integrated society. The young are much more in touch
with what is going on throughout the world, and the world is coming
to our doorstep.
Past waves of immigrants took at least
a generation before they integrated into white American society. The
society of those days forced them to conform through discrimination
and a tightly knit ruling class. The ruling class is faltering. The
new Americans are demanding their rights even before they become
citizens. Groups of Americans who never participated in politics
before are learning that their votes make a difference.
What we are watching is the last
flare-up of a dying system and the birth of a new one. Birth pangs
are always painful. Let us hope most of our troubles are behind us.
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