The Moral Universe Arc is Long Because Political Parties Bend and Extend Justice Around and Beyond the Pale
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The legislative process, where ideas to improve society and democracy go to die.
The political process is necessary, but insufficient. Our democratic institutions are restrained and compromised for various reasons. Some of the restraints made more sense when our Constitution was initially developed. However, our democracy was undermined and compromised by slavery. The southern slave states got more than our future bargained for.
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The enslavement of millions created the byproduct of states’ rights, an individual-rights constraining aberration, and abomination. Although the separate states do provide some vital restraints on the federal government, it is hard to disentangle their benefits from the exaggerated value put on them by slavery, and the many internecine disruptions states’ rights loosed on our future.
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The Civil War was a terrible event, and states’ rights was the catalytic converter that made it possible. Its inflated value is a leftover remnant of the Articles of Confederation, and its sovereign, nation-states compact. During the 1787 constitutional convention, the Southern states demanded additional electoral power because of their peculiar institution, and its millions of extra nonvoters, a.k.a. slaves.
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The results of this power struggle were the Three-Fifths Clause that inflated slave state representation in the House, and gave each state two senators, no matter the state’s population, or lack thereof. Those two elements nearly guaranteed many things would not change fast enough, i.e. it preordained our civil war.
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It was only after the war ended, 1865, that any amendments were added having a substantial or positive effect on Black Americans and others,(13th, 14th, 15th & 24th), women (19th), the destitute, and working poor (16th). Besides the 27thAmendment, about congressional salaries, we have not ratified a new one since 1971. Therefore, amendments are clearly a very inefficient tool for changing the power dynamic.
Of our 27 amendments, not mentioned above, the first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights were ratified in 1791. The 11th reaffirmed, and refined a state power. Two are the prohibition of alcohol (18th), and the repeal of it (21st). Three have moderate to significant election value (17th, 23rd & 26th). The other four I will simplify to “basic housekeeping” (12th, 20th, 22nd, & 25th).
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By not delegating the power over slavery to the federal government, only those states directly benefiting from it had the power to determine when, or if slavery would end. Later when it could have been corrected, we dropped the ball. We should have destroyed the power of southern whites including appropriating land for former slaves, and fully suppressing their rebellion.
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The ugliest part of states’ rights was again unleashed, but in a new form, because we did not hold the southern generals and leaders accountable, and severely tax the wealthy who fought, or funded, the war against the Union. Jim Crow was able to fill in a gap our Constitution has no power to fully close up.
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More recently, this constitutional gap can be found in the ability of states to suppress the vote. The Supreme Court bent over backwards for conservatives in southern states to overturn one of the most important parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Chief Justice John “Taney” Roberts, also a conservative Republican, ruled, in 2013 on Shelby County v. Holder, to strike down the act. How is it right or just that individual states can target specific groups to place obstacles in their way, especially to vote?! It is Jim Crow 2.0.
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The over-emotionalized states’ rights idea, caused by slavery, and the Civil War, has greatly delayed, curtailed, and disrupted many societal advances. The rights of others have bent — as slowly as possible — towards justice because of the power states have, and had, over individual rights, e.g. abolition of slavery, and women’s suffrage. White supremacist conservatives can still retain their preferred caste system in many ways via this archaic power of states. Our amendment system has beenn thoroughly outmatched by political polarization.
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By the way, if you ever hear a white (supremacist) male say, women are more emotional than men, tell them states’ rights is ridiculously overvalued, and must be curtailed. See their face burn red.
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The fact that we have not had a significant amendment ratified in fifty years surely does not suggest there has been societal harmony during that time. While people of color have gained more power at the voting booth since 1965, whites have been able to hold onto significant power for the last few decades, even though whites have made up less and less of the overall population. Another way our slavery-influenced, white supremacist, states’ rights Constitution limits democratic action, trivializes civil rights, and disenfranchises diversity.
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Those democratic limitations include the distribution of senators and its electoral college sidekick of lopsided, minority rule. The conservative whites in Republican controlled states have again become much more powerful than the people, outflanking our supposedly United States.
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Every once in awhile you will hear, or see a comment like, since Democrats were the slave owners and Jim Crow politicians of the past, liberals and Democrats are the racist party of today. These are either liars, upside-down historians producing a bizarre transmutation, or people confused about change, not realizing that things do not always continue in a straight line.
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That said, in reality, until the mid 1950s to mid 1960s, most southern politicians stayed in the Democratic Party because they were more concerned about their destitute situation, and ability to garner federal funds to eradicate poverty, which Republicans could have cared less about.
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By the late 1960s, southerners were becoming more concerned about integration than poverty, and started latching onto other issues that helped them preserve segregation. The Republican Party had Goldwater jumping into the fray with his dislike of the Civil Rights Act, which garnered the attention of southern white supremacists.
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Nixon in 1968 started courting white supremacist southerners with his southern strategy. Republicans and many southern protestants switched from being pro-choice and almost unaware of, or nonplussed by gay rights, to becoming rabid opponents of these issues within a decade. Some, if not most, of this change in direction was due to their opposition to the civil rights of Black Americans, especially school integration. White christian southerners discovered by combining these new issues with their new Republican Party, and catholics partners, that they could form a viable, and hopefully, powerful political coalition.
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States’ rights is a major disruptor in our democratic system. The problem is in separating its damaging tentacles from its currently applicable and valuable appendages. Even after making those changes, or making other changes in the system, there is no guarantee any one or ten, will make a substantial difference. The years, decades, or generations to remake in the incremental manner we have always employed, does not bode well for a much better future any time soon.
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The problem of monstrous monopolies, billionaire bullies, money in politics, and denial of climate change, among many other forces we must contend with, puts us behind a huge political Death-Star eight ball. Biden and Harris may bring the country back to an even keel after all of Trump’s democracy destruction. They could do better than that, but the Republicans will not lay down and play dead.
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The Republicans have a different system in the House, where they keep generating new members because of the committee leadership rules. It means the House is getting younger overall, is angrier and crazier, going from Newt’s troop, to the Tea Party, Frodo’s Freedom caucus, then Trumpers, and now Q’Anon. The Senate is a comparably saner, but the disruptions caused by their House colleagues may frustrate the most moderate Republicans to leave.
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The Supreme Court is also unlikely to be of much assistance for at least the next 5 to 15 years. The five oldest are Breyer, 82 (D); Thomas, 72 (R); Alito, 70 (R); Sotomayor, 66 (D); Roberts, 65 (R). Of course, the advantage goes to the party with the presidency when a justice retires or dies, rather than the age of the justice. Either way, the conservative Supreme Court with its 6 to 3 advantage, and the other federal courts Trump bulked up with his people, will be inhospitable for many years.
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Why am I painting such a bleak future? Am I at the age where a person more often conjures up a negative, pessimistic scenario? Is it merely a hangover from the Trump Error Era? Do I have an agenda? It is likely the last one.
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I have a positive attitude about the future, otherwise I would not be able to function, let alone write an essay. Trump has been the same person from the beginning, always adding to his travesties. He has been pumping up his crowd, like a 21st century Jim Jones. Then blatantly telegraphed the insurrection. The only thing that surprise me a little was that his people actually did it. I tried to put myself in their shoes, and just felt like a clown-shoed idiot.
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Breaking into congressional chambers, running amok on Capitol Hill, beating on cops, and killing them is not something my brain has ever personally considered doing all in one despicable basket. And I have considered some stuff. Anyway, the reason I have gathered everyone here is to explain something else I have considered. Luckily, it involves no rioting in the streets, at a capitol, or even in front of Jeff Bezos’ house.
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That being said, power rules. Politicians can provide some of our power. Yet, unless totally revamped, and very soon, few things will progress much faster than they have before. Yes, we can have a more immediate, and direct effect it in our own local area; for example, I am on our local planning and zoning board. Working with a non-profit food shelf like my wife does is another great option. Unfortunately, what all of us have done is not, and has never been quite enough. Trump and McConnell have made that obvious for many years.
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We not only need to climb out of the huge hole the Republicans created; we must climb out of many holes simultaneously to end discrimination, violence in the home, and by police, stop destruction of our environment, and improve education and health substantially. Being positive, optimistic and hopeful only get us so far. It is the SYSTEM that thwarts change, generates inadequate solutions, and makes the harmed wait another generation, or another, or another.
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Rather than upending the whole system, trying to change it from the inside, or thinking that doing our own individual thing can make all the difference, we must erect a comprehensive structure that is raised high enough to overtake all these issues in one fell swoop. Imagine the rolling scaffolding used to battle high walled castles. Today, we are mostly throwing rocks against these granite walls, or more likely avoiding the rocks thrown down at us, and the boiling oil dumped on us.
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Politicians can help more, but they may be doing as much as they can. Yes, we can keep imagining them living up to our expectations. Of course, why would they do it now for you, or for me, and not years ago for someone else? Instead, we must raise up a new, competing system, before the current direction of our system razes our democracy. We will compete from another platform, allowing politicians to do what they do, while we do what we do best, as we encourage them more strongly to do better.
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This new platform or system is not pie in the sky. It will not be constructed overnight. However, the potential for it to solve more of our problems in society and government faster and better is much greater than continuing as we have been. The only way things get done is by having the power to encourage, influence, or enforce it. Power does not need to bully, or produce violence, but it must have the strength, stamina, girth, weight, and reach along with enough dedicated supporters, to be consistently respected, heard, and finally, successful.
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The We The People System can do that. It is powered by the 99%, or at least 60% of us, voters, and current nonvoters. Focused on citizens, and workers, it is a direct democracy catalyst built and managed by people and technology. The system structure can be ramped up to a major inflection point in as little as 18 months. There are many other details; though I will leave you with a quick synopsis of its main parts, and links to further reading.
While nothing is necessarily set in stone, I see some general elements that give the WTP system its reality, and structural strength. These include the jobs development platform (JDP), common watchdog rampart (CWR), single civic door (SCD), emergency logistics/facilitator (ELF), and pollution eliminator project (PEP).
Our current structure is too focused on political machinations, and pleasing and appeasing the moneyed class, which is not a surprise since that is how it began. The WTP System builds our power up together, and individually, using the system directly, or from our organizations of choice, placed on a consistently sturdier, broader, higher, more powerful perch.
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By Richard The Chwalek
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Notice how the movie makers regularly come up with scary systems, or A.I. that will someday, somehow control human…richard-the-chwalek.medium.com
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