The Virgin Constitutional Convention of 2018

 

Public faith in US government has plummeted in the past sixty years. There are three common theories for the "failure" of the 1787 Constitution. One says that it was constructed for a different planet. Nine out of ten lived on small farms. Education was for the privileged and communications difficult. Not only did early presidents not "run" for office, they didn't even give campaign speeches.

A second view: The 20th century gamed the 18th. Party machines, lobbyists writing the actual language of bills and vast armies of election mechanics trained in the fine arts of propaganda & pander – all combined to null Founder assumptions.

A third take is that the founding plan steered clear of the defining center – left intact were the vagaries of the independent-minded states. As Thomas Paine hammered in his Rights of Man, the key to a successful system lies in its treatment of the individual. Is the citizen a key actor or is he or she just a cipher in a lottery-like system?

The delegates in 1787 rightfully calculated that they must not step on the prerogatives of jealous states. By not disturbing existing politics, the Constitution was ratified by a bare 306 to 274 in Massachusetts, Virginia and New York.

There is, of course, a forth view – that the troubled state of so many democracies isn’t really about words scratched on parchment. When a people accept the substitution of “contribution" for “bribe” and when they shrug at liars because “everyone does it,” founder designs may matter little.

It only took a century for congress to become the butt of jokes. A poster child of the senate was a Rhode Island fellow who entered from the middle class in 1881 and exited worth $300 million in today’s money. It wasn't long before presidents began to resemble kings. Because the courts were often corrupt and legislatures failing, the people began to fall back on wishing that one man could make things whole. State ballot initiatives were introduced, although few ever thought it a good idea to have complex public policy decided by popularity. It was just that citizens could not figure a way out of a failing system.

Over the past half-century confidence in government has plummeted from three-quarters satisfied to less than one in five. Reform is constantly sought, but almost never delivered. A perfect example of such failure: Common Cause. Started in 1970, it focused on the cost of campaigns and congressional transparency. Despite a huge membership, it was a feather in the storm. Factoring inflation, campaigns now cost ten times more.
As for transparency, the recent passage of an 11,000 page, dirty-snowball tax bill, unread and un-analyzed, was a mockery. It recalls the warning of John Stuart Mill that any legislature with a controlling agent can become a mere “wheel of tyranny.”

Discontent Spreads

Both the Economist Index and Freedom House have detailed the decline of world democracy in recent decades. Despite optimism near the close of the 20^th century based on events like the fall of the Soviet Union, Arab Spring and Asian attempts, most have fired blanks.

Given fault lines in old democracies and problems in the new, it's time for something fresh.

Virgin Constitution Project
One of the most interesting questions of our time is this: What would a virgin constitution look like if a new, advanced nation were to spring into existence? There have been roughly 500 new or newish national plans written since 1787. Their median lifespan? A modest seven years. The most “liberal’ of the early 20^th century was Germany’s. Within a decade it was mocked by the rise of Hitler.

 

I’m suggesting a Virgin Constitutional Convention be held in October of 2018. Instead of using locals defending their rice bowls, its delegates will be top writers and public philosophers from around the world. They will spend three weeks, on-line, designing a basic structure based on modern realities, not abstract notions.

 

Several ideas are being considered to boost public interest. One is a pool of media interests tied to the project. Absent that, major science societies could host. Another idea is using a fictional nation like Franklin21, forged from North America. This allows readers to consider real world problems troubling modern democracies, like urban vs. rural or economic disparity. Under a more nurturing system, would a tribe in the far North feel more integrated with Los Angeles than they now do with Ottawa?

Here’s where you come in. Contact me if you want to nominate a delegate, have ideas useful to the project or want to help out in some way. We have little to lose in a world of troubled democracies.

 
David Dietrich adultdemocracy@gmail.com

 
David Dietrich has blogged anonymously for political invention since 1995. His sites have included Hard-Q of the Week and Y for President. He writes from Temecula, California.

Next Entry: Establishing the Virgin CC Organizing Committee