Clearly certain aspects of USA version 1 are no longer operative. How far along the path of decline are we? Are we headed for reform, collapse or revolution?
The Bad
In the introductory essay in the Constitution category, I laid out what I consider to be the fundamental ideas of the USA version 1 constitution; consider now the current (2022) state of these ideas:
- Individual freedom is fundamental – as one data point here, consider how quickly persuasion was abandoned for coercion in the response to Covid-19.
- Limited central government with enumerated powers – is there anything in the last, say, 15 years that the central government wished to do that it has been prevented from doing?
- Federalism – one only needs to regard the abject horror that accompanied the Dobbs decision (returning abortion policy to the states) to see that this idea is largely absent from today’s body politic.
- Separation of powers – on issues from spending to border enforcement to healthcare, Congress has ceded power to the Executive Branch, where it now resides in an unelected bureaucracy (consider, for example, how the bureaucracy became a power unto itself in nearly uniform opposition to the duly elected President during the Trump administration; this is undeniably so, regardless of one’s opinion of Trump).
- Enumerated rights: speech, religion, press, self-defense, legal due process and property rights – consider the fascistic intertwining of the Federal bureaucracy and Twitter/PayPal, etc. for speech suppression, the lack of interest in balancing religious freedom issues and sexuality/gender issues, the constant drumbeat for more draconian Federal gun laws (as opposed to, say, enhanced enforcement of existing laws), armed FBI raids on the homes of abortion protesters* et al.
- Rights enumeration does not disparage other natural rights – this one is a bit abstract, but consider, for example, how much our individual economic freedom (a non-enumerated natural right) has been eroded by the administrative state and the elite monoculture.
- Difficult but not impossible to amend – amendment is no longer necessary under the “Living Constitution” theory/practice.
For Americans “of a certain age” all this feels totally foreign. In addition, the culture shift leftward has been jarring – the Overton window of today is pretty much completely disjoint** from the Overton window of, say, 20 years ago.
The Good
On the other hand, the Dobbs decision did happen, restoring a federalist balance in one area of public policy. There have been a few recent decisions supporting the “individual right” view of the Second Amendment (DC v. Heller, McDonald v. Chicago). The current SCOTUS is more receptive to originalist arguments than any high court in many years. The overreach in public school gender/sexuality policies has resulted in elections replacing previous school boards nationwide. There seems to be finally some pushback against the ESG form of “woke capitalism” as well as some against “woke academia.”
The Ugly
So where are we on balance? Are we on a path to reform, collapse or revolution?
I wish I had a firm answer, but the evidence is “clearly equivocal” – tie a rubber band into a knot in the center and stretch it until it breaks: will the knot be on the right side or the left? That’s my best analogy as to where we are at the moment. All I can offer is a few links to insightful essays taking on some of the same ideas – specifically, Glenn Ellmers here, here and here, Victor Davis Hanson here, here, here and here, Jon Miltimore here and Joel Kotkin here.
* To be clear, these two cases did represent a potential violation of the law (one an assault in defense of another, the other a technical violation of a clinic access law) but in neither case was the person whose home was raided by heavily-armed agents remotely a threat to anyone.
It’s also the case that the clinic access law in question (in theory) protects crisis pregnancy centers as well, but no charges have been filed in any of the 175 attacks on pro-life organizations since Dobbs, while 26 pro-life individuals have been charged under that law in the same period of time. Not exactly equality under the law!
** See here for my discussion of the “sexual mores” portion of the Overton window, from a Christian perspective.