No Democracy Lasts Forever
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California Law School has issued a clarion call to all lawyers. No Democracy Lasts Forever faces the fact that many Americans “have begun asking whether what unites us as a country is greater than all that divides us,” which is, in large part, caused by failures in our legal system.
As lawyers make Law Day and similar presentations, we herald the rule of law and virtues of our nation’s democratic experiment. Now, however, political leaders, many from the law schools that brought forth the Felix Frankfurters and Learned Hands of jurisprudential lore, assert blatant untruths degrading time-honored values of democracy. Chemerinsky outlines opportunities to defend the virtues and principles of our system of government, which has been a ray of light to the world.
After delving deeply into the intent of the framers of the Constitution, and the negotiations and compromises that resulted, which has been amended very few times in almost 250 years, the author concludes with a question: “Can the United States be saved?”
That is a bold question. His solutions are broken down into those that do not require constitutional amendments and those that do. In both cases, the goals are:
1) Eliminate the electoral college and elect presidents by popular vote.
2) Allocate senators by population.
3) Eliminate the filibuster.
4) Abolish the gerrymander.
5) Increase the size of the House of Representatives.
6) Eliminate Supreme Court life tenure.
7) Restore laws limiting political spending and protecting voting rights.
8) Eliminate racial disparities.
9) Address the societal threats of the internet and social media.
Why the grave question and the fundamental proposed changes? Examples of Chemerinsky’s arguments are:
1) Shifting less than 60,000 Ohio votes in 2016 would have made John Kerry president although George W. Bush won nationwide by 3 million votes, and in 2020 a shift of 43,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin would have re-elected Donald Trump although losing Nationwide by 7 million.
2) The vast majority of presidential campaign time and expenditures occur in a few states.
3) National policy is established without majority support of the nation’s population.
4) National policy favored by a majority of the nation’s population is not put into effect.
5) Over $14 billion was expended in the 2020 election with $1 billion being dark money.
6) Some judicial decisions oppose the views of the citizenry and contemporary social values.
7) The dangers of false speech and the spread of conspiracy theories including involvement by foreign governments in American elections.
8) Although the Senate is split 50-50 by party affiliation, one party represents 60% of the nation’s population.
9) Population shifts have resulted in the largest state going from having 10 times the population as the smallest to 70 times the population.
Chemerinsky summarizes by stating that “solutions will not come this year or next. But they will never come at all unless we start now, acknowledge the problems and consider answers. That is why I wrote this book.”
