Contrary to much of the often-heated rhetoric we hear at times, the American Constitution was not adopted for the purpose of limiting the power of the federal government. We already had, under the Articles of Confederation, a federal government of limited powers. The Constitution was adopted for the purpose of increasing the power of the […]
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Lincoln vs. Douglas: Debating the Founders’ Legacy
Abraham Lincoln’s fame in the 1850s owed mainly to his provoking a public quarrel with Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas over the correct interpretation of the American founders. As the nation grew increasingly divided over the future of slavery, Lincoln and the new Republican Party sought to prevent the expansion of slavery into federal territories […]
The Cost of Losing Faith: Lincoln’s Lasting Lyceum
Justice, or the call for it, defined much of our political landscape in 2020 as it also defines the early days of 2021. A violent permutation of that call resulted in a police station being burned down, billions of dollars in property damage across the country, and a mob storming the American Capitol with the […]
Beyond the Electoral College: Toward Communitarian Democracy
Following the failed insurrection of January 6, 2021, the Electoral College’s sacred role in ensuring the legitimacy of our presidential elections was widely hailed. But that insurrection was occasioned by what had long been understood as a minor, ceremonial element of the College: the counting of ballots cast by electors and certified by state officials. […]
Constitutional Ruminations
The following essay is a response to pieces by Sanford Levinson, George Van Cleve, David Wilkins, and Citizen US as part of our Symposium on Constitutional Reform. When the political scientist John Roche described the founders of the 1780s as a “reform caucus” in action, he captured a truth that has proved elusive in […]
