The United States Is ‘Ungovernable’ by Design
Matt Yglesias of Think Progress took a lot of heat from the right last month for stating that America has become ungovernable. Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey said Yglesias wasn’t making these complaints when the Democrats were in the minority and obstructing judges and social security reform. Kim Priestap of Wizbang suggested that Yglesias was trying to make excuses for Obama’s flailing agenda.
Yes, Yglesias was being hypocritical. Yes, Yglesias was making excuses. Nonetheless, Yglesias was essentially right. America is ungovernable. It has been for the better part of its history.
Regarding the U.S. Senate, Yglesias complained: “It’s a system in which the minority benefits if the government fails, and the minority has the power to ensure failure. It’s insane, and it needs to be changed.”
Yglesias hit on the left’s problem, but he stopped short. Yglesias and the left complain about the bind in which they find themselves. They can spare 4o votes on any House vote, and they have a Senate majority, but they can’t get anything done. It’s as if a genius schemed against them to thwart their efforts and require impossibly large majorities to accomplish something.
A genius did conspire against the left, but their foe isn’t Karl Rove. In fact, he’s been dead for 173 years.
By fingering the system as the problem, Yglesias identified the system’s creators as the enemy and James Madison in particular. But our founders didn’t set out to frustrate any specific people. They were concerned with one big question: how does one prevent a republic from degenerating into tyranny, as all historical republics had?
While Yglesias worries about the minority ruining a Democratic stampede, Madison worried about something else entirely. In Federalist 51 he writes:
It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. …. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure.
Madison’s solution was simple.
Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority.
We like to imagine we only have two factions in America: Republicans and Democrats; liberals and conservatives. Last year showed that we have all sorts of factions within the two-party system. There’s been a lot of talk about Blue Dog Democrats, but coal state Democrats opposed cap and trade, and pro-life Democrats pushed the Stupak Amendment and guaranteed that President Obama’s rhetoric about the Freedom of Choice Act will remain empty words. Right-to-work state Democrats like Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) have frustrated efforts to pass card check.
Our constitutional system of government works — but it works to protect liberty, not allow those who want to get their agenda passed and get it passed yesterday to run roughshod over the minority. Madison warned of such a system, writing, “In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.”
It must be said that from the time of the Great Depression until the election of Ronald Reagan it was far easier for the left to “get things done.” Democrats held absurd majorities and could usually get more than enough votes to have their agendas passed. During the 48-year period from 1933-1981, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for all but four years.
Democratic hegemony allowed them to push through Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It allowed them to pack the courts with activists who shamelessly added to the Constitution, giving the left political victories they could have never won using the constitutional process of amendment through state legislatures. This includes the removal of prayer from schools and abortion on demand. While conservative Democrats could frustrate the process, liberals could always find like-minded Republicans, such as Charles Mathias, John Chaffee, and Jacob Javits, to swing the balance.
Since 1980, the Democrats have lacked the super majorities they enjoyed in the days of LBJ and FDR. They have fewer senators like Mathias and Javitz with whom they can parlay to get their agenda approved At the same time, Republicans have not been able to get their more ambitious items passed. More often than not, divided government has been the rule.
Thus left and right are both stymied by the Constitution, which was designed to frustrate change in favor of freedom. America is ungovernable because the founders never intended the lives of Americans to be governed from the federal capitol. Hamilton writes in Federalist 45:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.
The founders would tell Yglesias and other liberals that if they wanted to govern something, they should have governed their own states.
In an ideal world, we could end this column by simply re-affirming the Constitution. But the years of liberal hegemony have created problems that simply “following the Constitution” from here on out can’t solve. For instance, there is more than $44 trillion in unfunded obligations for Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlements. And there is a poisonous culture war waged by liberal lawyers in New York and California — people who are unable to cope with a boy in Alabama praying in schools or a woman in Utah not being able to get abortion on demand. Simply following the Constitution from now on doesn’t repair the damage already done. For conservatives, the challenge is to persuade a wides swath of the population to support not only our candidates, but our ideas.
The left may grumble about the unfairness of our system of government now that they can’t get their way on everything they want. But conservatives know our system of government works even when it frustrates us.
“They can spare 41 votes on any House vote, and they have a Senate majority, but they can get anything done.”
Did you mean ‘can’t’ get anything done?
This article is flawed in its premise. The majority can certainly get things done. It’s the Far-Left who are a minority, who cannot get their things done, because no one else wants them.
I think Jon Stewart said it best. “The Democrats have a supermajority, and complain that they can’t get anything passed. Yet Bush and the Republicans, who had bare majorities throughout, were able to do anything they f—ing wanted.”
The problem is, people conflate the Far-Left with the Democrats. They are NOT the base of the Dems. They are the base of the Marxists. They are camouflaged as Dems.
We should have 3 major parties in this country: Conservative Republicans (right-of center)40%; Democrats (somewhat left-of-center to slightly right-of-center) 40%; and the Far-Left Collectivists 20%. I call it the small-government Right, the large government Left, and the total-government Leftists. The Far-Left is simply a very vocal, very ruthless and determined, minority.
Reagan had little trouble governing, because he ACTUALLY represented the MAJORITY. Thus, the term “Reagan Democrats”. The only ones who hated him were the Far-Left. His re-election in 1984 was the greatest landslide in history – 525-13… or 40-1! He carried every State but MN(and missed that by some 383 votes), and of course, the stupid D.C.
The Leftists are the MINORITY.
Repubs in Congress and the Senate have never learned how to govern even when they had control of one or both houses. The closest we came to being able to govern was with Gingrich in 1984 with the Contract.
Over the years since, however, if we had a majority, we governed like WE were in the minority. We always allowed the left to dictate what was getting to the floor, allowed bipartisanship to denude our power, allowed the left to hold up passage of bills and appointments, etc.
I agree with Graham that the left has built its power base today on those six decades when they controlled America, but it is our weakness and lack of fortitude that has allowed the left to take the country down this road to destruction.
Thank you so much for this article. I’ve been telling my friends this fact for years; That the governing is upside down. Washington has become the god-father to the states by making them dependent on funding for any purpose. State Senators, Representatives and governors, are responsible for maintaining their respective States Rights.
Resorting to the Constitution as it was intended would create chaos. It cannot be done in any one generation. And there are few courts ready to undertake this challenge.
But to remain the great nation we have become, there is no alternative. The Liberal, Democrat, progressive movement must be curtailed in order to sustain our great nation.
Great piece, succinct. True in political bent.
There is one dynamic you did not delve into, the single sole sovereign entity, We The People, the constitution was not designed for parties or factions or agenda, it was created with establishing absolute supremacy of the people as the governing power.
All the attempts to circumnavigate the tenets of the 3 documents of Liberty are illusionary in their existence, if people believe they are legal and lawful they are, thing is there is a paradigm that is gaining momentum, it is called Will of The People, and make no mistake you and everyone else who by your ignorance of who is the true sovereign are in for one hell of a surprise, because We don’t believe in any of this crap foisted on us for decades any longer. We understand in ever increasing numbers that the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence is our governing road map, design to protect us, not men and woman who have failed utterly in their singular job of due representation of those who personally elected them in the first place, those who have broken the faith, broke the trust, broke their oath to it and us.
You have no comprehension of the might and right of We The People, nothing nor anybody can withstand the revolution of a people aroused, the power relegated to us can and will change any damn thing we desire and deem proper as defined in our founders intent and written word.
Discarding the chains of indenture and gerrymander, the oppression of the elite class, imposed agenda and doctrine, the self appointed power of corruption and greed, tyranny and demagogue’s, all are grist for the mill of Liberty and Self Determination.
This is OUR country, we want it back, and no one but We People are having a say in it.
This is what is called Liberty and Self Determination, I dare any one to tell me and my friends and Countrymen different.
If you think I am wrong you best put your ear to the ground and listen for the growing revolution rising from the roots of America.
Change is coming allright, change that puts the fear of God in hearts of traitors and treasonous ones.
You’re right about at least one thing: It’s the Constitution that is the cause of the peevishness of Yglesias and people like him.
The Supreme Court’s rebuke to McCain-Feingold could portend much more. The opinion warns that the Court will not blindly follow absurd precedent simply because the stooges who came before them got there first. Some have swooned on dreams of applying this rationale to Rowe v. Wade. But what if the Court instead has commerce clause jurisprudence in mind? Social Security would be unconstituional! The Dept. of Education would be unconstitutional! These are just a couple examples. Think it through and you’ll see how much of the socialist agenda enacted over the last 80 years would be undone by the Court simply rejecting the absurd judicial distortions of the commerce clause and interpreting it as it was undeniably written and intended. Dare we hope that is what the Court has in mind?
To MT Top Patriot’s point about federalism, here is a goal for us to shoot for to restore the proper balance to our federalism, which was corrupted horribly by the 16th Amendment:
Amendment 28. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, Congress shall have no power to lay or collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts or Excises, or otherwise raise revenue, except as provided for in this Amendment. Congress, by two thirds majorities in both Houses, may propose a lump sum Tax. Any such proposed Tax shall become law only upon signature of the President and ratification by the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States. Each State’s respective share of the lump sum Tax shall be calculated by multiplying the aggregate amount of the lump sum Tax by the number of Citizens domiciled in the State divided by the number of Citizens domiciled in the United States, with the remainder being assessed to the Territories and Properties belonging to the United States. Each State shall have sole power to determine how to raise its portion of any such Tax, and each State is free to disregard any attempt by Congress to direct or in any way influence that determination, provided that Congress may directly Tax the Citizens of any State that fails to remit its portion of a Tax. Every such Tax shall expire automatically, and have no further force of law, forty-eight months after becoming law.
I can dream can’t I.
I like ungovernable. I like the Constitution. I also like the unspoken and unwritten “freedom to be left alone.”
Re: #2
Of course the US is GOVERNABLE. What Yglesias misstates is that he wishes for RULE (i.e., “…running the country”, that popular phrase these days).
Not that a statist philosophy cannot prevails for 120 years with the right machinations…
The US is governable but unfortunately it’s people have become unable or unwilling to govern or be governed. At the time the Republic was born people believed in freedom, for they knew what it was like to not live free. They believed in sacred honor because they knew to whom that honor was pledged and they believed in liberty, because they knew what it was like to live under the yoke of bondage.
Today everyone is free but many are enslaved. Drugs, alcohol, sexual depravity, personal and financial irresponsibility are taking prisoners at an alarming rate. Many want government to take over so that they will be FREE to sink to the level of their incompetence. That way they can spend quality time watching American Idol or Survivor, just make sure there are beers in the fridge and Cheetos on the table and no one will get hurt.
We have met the enemy and he is us.-Pogo
Yes, the genius of separation of powers and cheques and balances is a government which is supposed to not work. Gridlock, the modern term, would normally insure a limited government and therefore expansive liberty. EXCEPT that the Progressives at the beginning of the 20th century and the New Dealers, especially, decided to do an end run around this mechanism by setting up the administrative state in which Congress creates agencies which contain Executive, Legislative, and Judicial powers. This melding of powers, rather than separation of powers, has created a monster which now grows like topsy no matter how much we all complain.
God save our Republic.
The Constitution was written when we were only a few years old as a country and a number of states were reluctant to join. Some were especially afraid that the country would take away teir right to hold slaves. The Constitution still reflects that fear. But to actually run a country, we have found that we would violate or ignore, occasionally amend some of it from early on. Some of it, like a National bank just seemed like common sense. Our hiistory proved that Jefferson’s dream of a country of farmers, rather than merchants was just that, a dream. Getting back to strict construction, is kind of like the country getting back to that old-time religion. For better or for worse, it ain’t happening, except for a few selected jabs by a particular President or Supreme Court.
It still has the stablizing effect of keeping things from changing too fast, which has to be a good thing. Slow change is the conservative strength of the country. Going to war rapidly, but legislating slowly seems like an odd combination, but it has worked for us…more or less.
I suppose we will survive the phenomenon that China now appears to own us. They need us to survive or else who will they sell to? but our regaining true economic strength, not internet bubbles, or housing bubbles is difficult to envision right now.
8. But why shouldn’t the Federal government have the authority to charge fees for things like travel documents?
Who governs the USA? Big money and large corporations. They manipulate the feeble minds of the fast-food mentality population.
But the Internet will shift the concentration of power. Why do you think the Chinese censor freedom of expression? This will be the next battle here. Fortunately, the Constitution protects some rights . . . until big money changes the Constitution, if they could.
Mythbuster, The Government does supposedly have the authority to charge fees for travel documents under the Interstate commerce provision of the Constitution. This does not prove that the USA is governable. It is merely a means for the government to collect revenue to fulfill their constitutional duties, like National Defense. One problem is that for too long the people have allowed the government to interpret the Constitution as it sees fir. For example, the Constitution says that Congress has the authority to establish a postal service. It does not say that Congress has the authority to operate it. That clause was not designed in the hope that the postal service would run in the red. The only laws that the USA needs are those that tell us what we should not do in order to avoid chaos and promote harmony, not to favor special interests.
Holy Cow! I actually agree with Vivo! lasufrg[oijg Oops sorry, I think I fainted for a moment and face planted on the key board.
The only addition I would make would be to add big unions and environmentalists to the list.
I get the impression that the US is nearly impossible to govern well. I’m no expert, and I am an outsider, but I do have the luxury of not being fed jingo from a young age about anything being the “perfect system”.
And don’t get me wrong – the US federal system isn’t alone in being a bit broken. There are far worse systems, for sure.
I think the US’ problem really is the adversarial separation of legislature and executive. I know it’s great in theory, but in practice it appears to lead to incredibly compromised solutions to fundamental problems. As a solution to a mythical “tyranny”, you end up with endless crocks of systems that have been nobbled by special interests, and vast barrels of pork that break your coffers.
I don’t actually care – it’s your problem, not mine. I’m living in a country that’s brilliantly governed. There’s certainly room for ideological argy-bargy here in oz (no, that’s NOT canada) but we have a financial system that works – it barely even blinked at the last two financial meltdowns that came our way (yours and the south-east asian one). Our banks haven’t stopped posting health profits since yours melted down. We have a health system that works. We have a central bank that hasn’t put a foot wrong in a couple of decades. We have a legal system that works, security agencies that don’t seem to miss things, roads that get built properly, bridges that don’t fall down. We rank well up the list in the economic competitiveness rankings, way down the bottom in the corruption indexes – year after year. Our press does its job fairly well (in practice). We generally trust our police (these days) and our border security is apparently first-rate. In practice, despite regular labor governments, our workforce is less regulated than the US’ is in many states.
And all without any separation of executive and legislative. And NO bill of rights – and hopefully we’ll never have one.
ROOT OF ALL USA’S PROBLEMS: A MISTAKE IN THE CONSTITUTION.
SOLUTION: NATIONAL REFERENDA
This article makes good points. the founders put in checks and balances. But when you see our “representatives” (who are our servants) constantly on a warpath against us, wasting our money, and we have to meekly beg our servants to stop their war on our nation, we know something is clearly wrong with our system.
The problem is that there are no binding national referenda in the United States. Many other countries have it, but not the US. Therefore America’s secret shame is that we do not have a real democracy! That is why American democracy is a joke.
The constitution gave all the power to the 3 branches of govt. and assumed they will keep an eye on each other (“checks and balances”). The three branches have become corrupt, usurped power, and all three branches figured out that it is better to conspire, mug and terrorize the nation and totally ignore the owners, the US Citizens. To keep ultimate power in the hands of the people, the founding fathers put in the second amendment. The second amendment, which assumed that millions of armed citizens can easily ouster an illegal and anarchist govt. with equally armed thousands of soldiers, is effete because modern armies have weapons that can kill thousands at a time, so the people will be crushed in any violent uprising against a criminal government.
So they keep passing evil laws the against our country, the public and against our will.
But there is a solution to this govt’s war on the nation. It is a constitutional amendment to allow national referenda, so people can pass good laws in the national interest themselves. These laws will supersede laws passed by Congress and cannot be overturned except on constitutionl grounds by a supermajority of both houses and unanimous vote of the Supreme Court. The people can then still pass it by 66% vote. Some believe that this right to amend the constitution is inherently vested in the American public. Others suggest an actual amendment.
We can pass a national referendum that all laws that affect the nation as a whole, such as raising taxes, large welfare programs, foreign aid, immigration, bailouts, and raising the debt ceilings, etc. can become law only if finally approved by the people. We will solve 90% of our problems this way.
For eg., see:
http://ni4d.us/index.htm
http://www.iandrinstitute.org/National%20I&R.htm
We Americans need to call radio talk shows, etc. and promote this idea and get the process started soon.
#17 Michael – Hilarious! ACtually, I agree with vivo time to time. Much of it depends on how much Lefty material he’s been reading. When he thinks for himself, he starts to get things right. I’ve always said he has potential. If people will quit dismissing him and lumping him in with other Lefties, he will actually come around.
#18 Matthew – A very good argument. One thing missing, however, is perspective. You are far removed in the land of Oz. The U.S. has been under concentrated assault by the Progessives for a century. They’ve been actively trying to tear us down. Our system works, but it is constantly being sabotaged. If we fall, they WILL come for you eventually. “First they came for my neighbor….”
#19 James – Sorry, but no. I hate Democracy. It is a terrible system, which always devolves into tyranny. A Republic is the system for me, thank you.
wish they would have made it MORE UNGOVERNABLE…i don’t think it is working as it was intended to…still TOO MUCH GOVERNING GOING ON! too many cooks and kooks in the kitchen for my taste…
i know this is an old thread…but not to me, since i just found it…maybe someone will still read these comments…and resurrect the debate…let’s go for #40!
(first) i would like to aggree with #20 marc’s response to #19 james…i can talk because all my ex’s live in W.A. at least one ex-spouse and many ex-inlaws.
anyway…true true true, marc…they WILL be after the land of oz as soon as the tornado wipes up kansas…i’m sure that’s part of ‘the plan’ already…and i do love the land down under despite that one bad kangaroo i happened to find down there.
(second) i would love to hear a healthy exchange of thoughts and ideas about the role money plays in the corruption of our system. to me, it is likely the achilles’ heel of our system. if we could just find a way to make it impossible for financial gain to be a part of the legislative process…i can’t think of a way other than the simple outlawing of lobbyist which is far too simplistic.
if it weren’t so lucritive to “serve” in our government, then we might have more service to others and less service to self. it just seems like the sticking point in the most simplistic of analysis, maybe there is no way to rise about this without a genuine rise in the “consciousness and conscience” of mankind. don’t want to be all unicorns and rainbows, though i do love rainbows…but i keep seeing the common denominator of financial gain at the root of almost every problem, if not there, then certainly as a major factor.
and i can’t for the life of me, think of a way to once and for all get that ingredient totally out of the soup. i’m not talking about capitalism…i LOVE healthy capitalism, i love prosperity when it comes from honest ingenuity and hard work…
but government is just too darned lucrative. to me, any method i can think of which would root the financial rot out of the apple pile is just about as effective as making it illegal to do anything illegal…(what?) yup, that’s exactly what i meant to say.
talk amongst yourselves…i have a blockage in my idea factory that i cant’get past on this one~~~