Our politics are getting pretty fatalistic (in case you didn’t notice).
An anonymous conservative penned an essay called “The Flight 93 Election” in September 2016. He offered an allegory in which the country was the hijacked airplane that crashed on 9/11, voters were the heroic passengers, and Hillary Clinton was the Islamic terrorist at the controls.
The author, who turned out to be Michael Anton and who ended up working for a time as NSC spokesman, urged readers to do something drastic and charge the cockpit. Elect Donald Trump, or let Hillary Clinton crash the country. The essay encouraged wayward Trump supporters and perhaps helped him win the election. Now, liberals want their own Flight 93 essay, and David Faris, author of It’s time to Fight Dirty, will give it to them. But with a twist.
Faris doesn’t want to storm the cockpit. Faris doesn’t liken the country to a hijacked airliner. The political scientist is more likely to think of the nation as an aircraft carrier instead. The professor wants to break into the constitutional engine room.
During an interview with Vox, Faris argues that Democrats are “engaged in a policy fight” while Republicans are winning a “procedural war.” He points to the blockade of Obama Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, as the GOP’s most egregious war crime.
“They didn’t violate the Constitution. They violated the spirit of the Constitution. They violated the norms that have allowed these institutions to function normally for years and years,” Faris says.
And unfortunately for the Left, he continues, voters are ungrateful ingrates who don’t reward politicians for benevolent policies like Obamacare. So, to take control, Faris says it is time to break into the guts of the ship and start re-engineering.
What is on his to-do list? Split up California to gain more Senate seats. Grant statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, to pad their congressional numbers. And once in control of the upper chamber in particular, trash the filibuster and pack the courts with liberal judges.
“We’re in the midst of a slow-motion unraveling of democracy in this country. If we don’t return the favor with some of this procedural war stuff, the only other option is to continue watching the other side do it,” Faris concludes. “That’s not an acceptable option in my opinion.”
But that’s not very original, in my opinion.
If Faris wants to wage constitutional warfare, go for it, dude. Just don’t make it extra-constitutional (don’t turn the ship of state into a socialist submarine or into an authoritarian airplane). His proposals may be unconventional, but they don’t seem unconstitutional on their face. Turns out, the Constitution is an extraordinarily flexible document that provides procedures for its own update.
Progressives tried pulling some of those levers to recreate the country in the early 20th century, with varying levels of success. If Faris wants to tinker with our experiment in democracy, fine. Others will counter. Arguments will be had. The nation will be just fine. But before grabbing his tools and heading to the engine room, Faris has to admit one thing: Our system of government is pretty damned resilient.
When the Founding Fathers put together the Constitution, they built it with an eye to rapacious human nature, the ever-present risk of populist egomaniacs, and the general danger of the state itself. They checked it. They balanced it. They made it slow and inefficient on purpose. Two centuries later, that worst-best form of government is still functioning. The institution has endured war, famine, and yes, it will survive President Trump.
Talk about existential crisis makes for good Vox-style clickbait, but poor political science. Trump has been checked by the judiciary, even by the Supreme Court justice he nominated. The Trump agenda has stalled in Congress, even though Republicans control both chambers. And Trump has been poked and examined and prodded every this-way-and-that by a muscular, if not overly aggressive, press. So, is Trump a blowhard? Perhaps. A terribly effective dictator? Not at all.
The system that Faris believes needs updating has actually been working well the whole time, and his own proposed solutions prove it.
So, go ahead, create new states. Amend the Constitution, if you must. But a quick word of caution: This constitutional system is functioning, yes, but it is currently under enormous strain. So, tinker with care.
