On Friday, The New York Times published its latest op-ed calling for the end of the Constitution of the United States. The authors, Ryan Doerfler and Samuel Moyn, teach law at Harvard and Yale respectively. They argue that the Left’s progress has been stymied by constitutionalism itself. “The idea of constitutionalism,” they correctly write, “is that there needs to be some higher law that is more difficult to change than the rest of the legal order. Having a constitution is about setting more sacrosanct rules than the ones the legislature can pass day to day.” This, of course, orients the process of law toward the past: there are certain lines that simply cannot be crossed. And, as Doerfler and Moyn point out, “constitutionalism of any sort demands extraordinary consensus for meaningful progress.”
And herein lies the problem for Doerfler and Moyn: constitutions “misdirect the present into a dispute over what people agreed on once upon a time, not on what the present and future demand for and from those who live now.” The solution, they say, lies in dispensing with the Constitution entirely; the proper solution to the Constitution is in “direct arguments about what fairness or justice demands.” After all, they admit, “It’s difficult to find a constitutional basis for abortion or labor unions in a document written by largely affluent men more than two centuries ago. It would be far better if liberal legislators could simply make a case for abortion and labor rights on their own merits without having to bother with the Constitution.”
How can the Constitution be jettisoned? The authors suggest packing the Union with more states; “reorganizing our legislature in ways that are more fairly representative of where people actually live and vote”; turning the Senate into a legislative vestigial organ, without any actual power.
At least they’re saying the quiet part out loud.
The truth is that the Constitution is “antidemocratic,” in the sense that it sets up a series of limits on what a democratically elected government can do. The Constitution is a charter of limited powers, delegated by the people and the states to the federal government; neither the people nor the state governments would ever have consented to the sort of pure populism promoted by Doerfler and Moyn. The founders deplored the idea of an unfettered federal government ruled only by popular passions. That is why they put in place a system of checks and balances to forestall mob majoritarianism. They recognized a simple truth: that the best and most responsive government presides over homogeneous interests, generally locally, and that as we abstract rule away from the people, interests diverge. This means that as government abstracts away from the people, it ought to be granted less and less power.
The Left hates the Constitution for precisely that reason. To the Left, the Constitution is a mere barrier against the utopian mission to restructure human relations, and ultimately, humanity itself. In this view, large government is to be the leveling force among human beings, cramming down the views of one half of the country on the other half. Local governance is dangerous because it might lead to diversity of viewpoint and practice; federal government is the best available tool for shaping and molding. Dispense with the Constitution’s limits on the powers of the federal government, and suddenly transformational change becomes possible.
The only problem is that such a viewpoint utterly disregards the history of human relations. A government that presides over 330 million human beings with a variety of different viewpoints on core moral issues is unlikely to rule either benevolently or successfully if granted the unfettered power to flatten a multiplicity of jurisdictions and ways of life. Limits are the key to both benevolence and success in governance. Dispensing with the Constitution may sound pleasing to those who seek drastic change on the greatest scale, but drastic change of that nature typically looks more like tyranny than progress.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and Editor-in-Chief of DailyWire.com. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.”
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Our Constitution is a work of pure genius. It has stood the test of time and that the left has a problem with it, is testament to it’s greatness and integrity. Those who took the oath preserve, protect but reneged are the very one’s to hold accountable. Ironically, the Constitution protects the very treasonous vipers sho would advocate it’s demise and remains a steadfast bulwark to liberty.
Transformational change has been the left’s aim for years. This government obviously doesn’t want limits on itself, so get rid of the Constitution. They tell us that will result in some kind of Utopia. How has it worked in other countries like Venezuela?
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force!Like fire,it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master”. George Washington
“Woe to those who decree unjust statutes and who continually record unjust decisions to deprive the needy of justice,and to rob the poor of my people of their rights…Isaiah. 10:1,2
It’s long overdue for calling for the end of The New York Times.
ITS LONG OVERDUE FOR THE END OF THE DEMORAT PARTY
Convention of States action seeks to limit scope of federal power and return it back to the states…where it belongs! Check it out. Also seeks term limits and financial restraints on federal gov’t. All MUCH NEEDED.
Harvard and Yale have been Communist schools for decades.
Just see how much money they have gotten from Communist China in their endowment’s.
The law teachers are nothing but traitors. They live high and mighty under the U.S. Constitution but want to destroy it.
Shows how ignorant and stupid liberal college’s are.
For over 40 years I seen nothing but losers come out of Harvard and Yale including rest of INDOCTRINATION schools.
Don’t want to be brainwashed then don’t go to Communist liberal schools.
They know you are stupid enough to PAY OUTRAGEOUS COSTS to attend.
So not only are you being brainwashed, you are being ripped off at same time and NOT learning a thing except what color you are.
Meanwhile, overseas, kids ARE being taught A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) in Elementary schools. FACT. While ours are being brainwashed to being even more stupid so they can be SLAVES.
ALL compliments of DICTATOR Beijing biden and WOKE LOSERS.
Great article!
I will tell you what I want destroyed, annihilated, put out to pasture, sent where the wood vine thwineth: the FBI and all departments of government. GONE, GONE, GONE!!! Those piss ant b*stards in government can then go find themselves a real job where they are not making life difficult for citizens. JOIN Convention of States and make this happen.
what a bunch of BS these college profs. spout out……
Yes. Let’s get rid of the Consitution. Then we can get rid of states rights. Then when can get rid of states all together and just make it all one big country.
Then the Elites can decide for everyone else how they should live i.e. what they eat, how they prepare their foods, which pans they should use to prepare foods (already going on in our local schools), where they can live (government apartment projects}, what vehicles we drive (elelctric only), if they can buy ammo (without ammo, guns are useless), if they are allowed to own property, how they farm, no cash, only digital currency {Elites will control our bakc accounts)etc.
These people are total control freaks. They think they can control the world! WHAT FRIGGING IDIOTS! If the people of the world would unite, the Elites will all be killed.And to be sure there are countries out there right now who do not want this to happen, Russia and China for sure, mideastern countries too. This will lead to a world war!
ALL leftists and Democrats are positivists who do not believe in any higher power, cause, or ideal beyond what comes from the mind of the inherently evil humankind.
Nor do they comprehend that attempting to make major alterations could cause something similar to that which resulted in the constitution in the first place.
Yesterday on the Fox show “Outnumbered” Kat Tempf made a comment that I am paraphrasing, the constitution wasn’t for the time but was written to restrict the evil.
Without the Constitution, Animal Farm becomes a reality, no longer fiction!
Those who wish to destroy the Constitution should themselves be destroyed!!!
Despite the anti-God haters, there IS a Higher Law. If we keep getting further away from it (HIM), we will be a s***hole country just like most of the rest of them! As Reagan said, “We are one nation under God, if we deny God, we will be one nation gone under.”
Direct arguments about what fairness and justice are resulted in lenin and stalin erasing tens of millions of their middle class, national socialism liquidating people seen as obstacles to ‘progress’ and mao doing the same on an even larger scale, ‘rightsizing’ china for a glorious future. All three examples used absolute power and a one party state to ‘get things done’. The demon party is trying for absolute power right now and most of us still slumber, dreaming that ‘this too shall pass’. Pass it will, but only after terrible damage to humanity.
Under Communism the People HAVE NO RIGHTS unless their Leadership GIVE them some. . . . Just check the “RIGHTS” of the general populace in Russia, China, Venezuela and ALL so-called Communist countries! . . . Their ONLY RIGHT IS TO SERVE THEIR LEADERSHIP!
I wonder what the NY Slimes will do, if they succeed in destroying the Constitution, when they want to print something and the government says they can’t. Suddenly, they’ll realize their freedom of the press is gone.
They are trying to destroy the very thing that “feeds them”. Such morons.
Traitors and seditionist. Anti American. Go live some where else.
George Soros is such a Socialist and anti-American, why can’t we just deport him back to wherever he came from. He is a billionaire out to help destroy the United States of America and the U.S. Constitution. He funnels millions of dollars to all these anti-american groups. It would be interesting to find out just how many other countries he has tried to destroy with his millions of dollars.
Is that DUFUS & MORON
My response is simple, if Ryan Doerfler and Samuel Moyn don’t like the Constitution let them move to a country that better satisfies them! The millions of Constitutional Americans aren’t going to surrender to two who disagree with us! And why does anyone care what the New York Crimes has to say about anything?
The continue to call it “ An Experiment “. Two hundred and fifty years later, they still call it an experiment. Sorry, idiots but as long as you stick your head where the Sun doesn’t shine. You will always say and without being responsible for you actions. That is a good sign , you are a human with good character ????
The founders of our country were well aware of our dependence on God This fact allowed them to create a framework for our government in which we have the freedom and liberties that we enjoy today. If we replace these guidelines with a human made opinion poll we are going to find out just how quickly a country or a civilization will perish.
Seems to have done good fir 250 years . Why change. ??
We the People Let this Happen.. tell me I am wrong..
why dont they just go somewhere else why destroy our country what did we ever do toyou?
JUST ANOTHER PRIME EXAMPLE OF HOW CANCEROUS, libs, ARE they ARE THE ENEMY OF OUR NATION AND they ARE WINNING
For those who want to destroy the Constitution, I would like to take them to the desert, stake them to the ground over a red ant hill, pour syrup on their bodies and play John Philip Sousa over a loudspeaker to drown out their screams while raising the American flag so that is the last thing they see and hear. Who is with me?
The Constitution is our protection of our Freedom. Without its protection tyranny/communism/socialism will destroy our lives. We need to weed out the so-called educators who promote these. Our educational system needs to be updated to teach the basics: English..Math..American
This is the real purpose of the “The Nuke and Pack Party”. The general idea is if they can nuke the filibuster, while Biden is in office, and then pack in 10 Supreme Court Justices. The Constitution would not have to be abandoned because it would say what those 10 new Justices declare it says.
Once they can nuke and pack, they can disqualify their opponents and have the court rule they won all 435 seats. And while that would be politically dangerous, if they did it via nuke and pack, it would be legal.
Due Process could be defined as the President said “I warn you” …
And they WOULD do this, because if they nuke and pack and do not set it so it is impossible for any one but them to win? The Republicans would use their new power to repack the court, over-rule everything that court decided, and cancel every legislation that Congress passed.
And THEN the Republicans would disqualify any one but them ( at least in the Dems minds they would — they wouldn’t ). So the Dems are only doing it as a per-emptive strike to make us a one-party system to save democracy!
This is why from this moment on in this election cycle every Senate Candidate across the nation, but especially AZ, GA, NH, NV, PA and even Colorado and Washington should never refer to their opponents as members of the Democrat Party but ONLY as “The Nuke and Pack Party”.
Every time those individuals try to change the subject off inflation, crime, border security, etc by bringing up abortion, gun control, etc just respond “there you go again spouting the issues of The Nuke and Pack Party”.
Why? Because how do they want to handle abortion? Nuke the Filibuster and pack the court.
How do they want to deal with gun violence? Nuke the Filibuster and pack the court.
What has Senator Warren stated? “Give me two more Senators and we will nuke the filibuster and pack the court” meaning she already has commitments from all 48 sitting Senators to do so.
The Democrat Party line solution to EVERYTHING is to not work with the other half of the country for a solution none of us like but all of us can live with. Nope. It is to grind the other halves face in to the dirt by nuking the filibuster and packing the court.
This article and everything about this Election cycle is really a one issue cycle.
Do Americans want us to figure out how to work together? OR nuke the filibuster and pack the court. Because that is the ONLY process any incumbent Democrat is willing to consider.
Give the Constitution to Nasty Nancy Pelosi; she likes to rip important papers up into pieces.
What an awful person.
The writers of the Constitution had wisdom that was God inspired and providentially directed. Read how the Founding Fathers produced and ratified this amazing document and you will understand. Those who want to jettison it are phenomenally ignorant— one might say, Satan inspired and demonically directed. As someone else commented, throw out the Constitution and the whole country will collapse before you can say “progressive”!
How many people see these comments? The left is managed by oligarchs and senior bureaucrats who arrogantly view their lesser citizens like farm animals. We are the property of the superior ruling class, just like in modern China or medieval Europe.
Great article!!
It would be nice if AMAC would remove their ‘stop inflation’ post which encourages changing the constitution via a Constitutional Convention which is backed by SOROS.
thenewamerican.com/socialists-and-soros-fight-for-article-v-convention/
jbs.org/concon/
The 1st and 2nd Amendments to the Constitution acknowledge rights from natures God and are unalienable. in·al·ien·a·ble
[inˈālēənəb(ə)l]
ADJECTIVE
Our Constitution is a result of centuries of oppression experienced by the families of those who founded America. It is priceless and unique in man’s history and must be preserved or amended carefully and legally!
7 Ways Biden’s Student Loan Bailout Is Immoral
washingtonstand.com/commentary/7-ways-bidens-student-loan-bailout-is-immoral
The Bible has nothing good to say about those who practice lawlessness, whether they defy God’s Law (Matthew 7:23, Matthew 13:41, Matthew 24:12, Romans 6:19, I John 3:4) or man’s (Matthew 22:21, Romans 13:1-7). “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” the Bible says (I Peter 2:13-14) — and it does not exempt the president from this divine commandment of obedience to the law.
The whole point of the Constitution is to protect the populace from tyrants and single rule, such as the left’s ideology. The framers were wise to allow change in the Constitution by means of amendment. If the left wants changes, push for an amendment. If the majority agree, then it will happen.
Interestingly, schools across the US have stopped teaching American Civics. How can anyone under 40 ever understand something they were never taught. Authoritarianism didn’t work for our forefathers and they saw firsthand that mod rule was only as good as emotions allowed. They knew true freedom could only be achieved when all people are secure with the same rights for everyone and to keep government from total control. Yes, 51% is a majority, but 49 % are subject to an emotional responce and too many times, irrational reactions. Without a balance 49% are persecuted; however with Constitunal rights a balance is achieved and maintained. America has that and whether you think American politics are right or wrong, just look at our boarders! These people at our boarders understand unprotected rights and mob rule democracy, socialism and comminisium! They understand the hatred of mob rule! They are looking at the security and protection that our constitutional rebublic provides.
Progressive ideologies hate freedom. Adherents talk about rights, mostly rights that don’t exist in the real world but only in their elite world. What they really want more than anything else is governmental control over every aspect of your life. Remember, progressives don’t care about you; your’re expendable, they care only about building a Godless and lawless world that they control. Let’s begin to change this in November. Reject the democrats!
Interestingly also is that we have none other than first- or second-generation citizens (some naturalized, and some born here), who serve in the US Congress who do not like the US Constitution. They are always complaining and hint of changes.
Despite our many mistakes, it’s our Constitutional Republic attitude of free capitalism that made the U.S. the great nation it became. We’re now under attack by Progressives within and foreign who want to destroy our Republic of the U.S.