{"id":41348,"date":"2019-05-09T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T10:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=41348"},"modified":"2019-05-08T14:39:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T18:39:49","slug":"a-majority-of-americans-want-to-change-our-system-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2019\/05\/a-majority-of-americans-want-to-change-our-system-of-government\/","title":{"rendered":"A Majority of Americans Want to Change Our System of Government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Americans have become so disenchanted with Washington that a majority<\/em> (54%) believe that our system of government needs \u201cmajor changes.\u201d\u00a0 And a significant minority (12%) believe that we should scrap what we have and replace it with something completely different.\u00a0 They want to change not just the government, but the system<\/em> of government\u2013the Constitutional order of the last 230 years.<\/p>\n

Those are the findings of a study\u00a0<\/a>by the University of Chicago Harris School for Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.\u00a0 (Go here<\/a> for the full report.)<\/p>\n

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The desire to change our system of government cuts across political affiliations.\u00a0 Among Democrats, 61% want big changes.\u00a0 But so do a majority of Republicans (52%).\u00a0 Among Independents, over a fifth, 22%, want to scrap the whole thing.<\/p>\n

Few Americans feel that they can trust their government.\u00a0 Only 2% say that they trust the government \u201call of the time.\u201d\u00a0 Only 12% say that they trust the government \u201cmost of the time.\u201d\u00a0 Half (50%) believe they can trust the government \u201csome of the time.\u201d\u00a0 And over a third of Americans (36%) believe they can \u201cnever\u201d trust the government.<\/p>\n

The poll shows that Americans are dissatisfied with how the government is handling every issue they were asked about (terrorism, the economy, crime, borders, etc., etc.) and every governmental function (protection of rights and liberties, conducting elections, checks and balances).<\/p>\n

Nearly a third of Americans say \u201cthe government can\u2019t work well no matter who is elected,\u201d with Republicans being more skeptical about that (38%) than Democrats (16%).<\/p>\n

Such disenchantment with the government spans all races, ages, incomes, and educational levels.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the study does not go into the details of what these legions of dissatisfied Americans would like to change and what kind of system they would prefer.\u00a0 But this data does help account for why socialism has suddenly come into vogue and why Bernie Sanders keeps calling for \u201cRevolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when the grousing is bipartisan, that is usually a signal that different things are meant by the different sides.\u00a0 As with the pollster\u2019s question that the media makes so much of \u201cDo you think the country is headed in the right direction?\u201d, some think the country is becoming too conservative, while others think it is becoming too liberal.\u00a0 But both will agree that the direction is \u201cwrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today Republicans tend to be angry at Congress, while Democrats are in a state of \u201cResistance\u201d against the President. Both might well say that they are in favor of \u201cmajor changes\u201d to our system of government.\u00a0 Perhaps a new Warren G. Harding will someday usher in a \u201creturn to normalcy<\/a>,\u201d which will calm things down and mitigate our national cynicism.<\/p>\n

But while skepticism about the government is surely healthy for free citizens, it is an ominous sign when the citizens of a democracy no longer have confidence or respect in the governments they elect.\u00a0 Yes, we have a democratic republic rather than a pure democracy, but republics too go away\u2013and are voted away\u2013when the people get too frustrated with them.\u00a0 This happened with the Romans, who threw away a rights-protecting, checked-and-balanced constitutional republic that lasted nearly 500 years\u2013over twice as long as ours\u2013in favor of an absolutist Empire that could \u201cget things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The desire for a government to \u201cjust get things done,\u201d without the formality and slowdowns of a representative political system, is the attraction of authoritarianism.\u00a0 The last act of democracies\u2013as has happened time and time again (in ancient Greece, in republican Rome, in revolutionary France, in pre-war Germany)\u2013 is to vote in their Dictator.<\/p>\n

Our constitutional system was designed precisely to limit and slow the government\u2019s action, to keep it from dominating the people, and, at the same time, to prevent it from giving in to their passions.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it could also deal with problems that needed addressing.\u00a0\u00a0As constitutional law scholar\u00a0\u00a0James Huffman<\/a> points out, the checks and balances set up in the U.S. Constitution were designed to require compromise and consensus.\u00a0 Today, though, our political culture in both parties has a winner-take-all mentality:<\/p>\n

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To be sustainable, democratic government must be an iterative process of compromise, not a winner-takes-all competition for power. The goal must be broad consensus, not garnering a simple majority of votes. A narrow victory at the polls should be cause for humility, not a victory dance in the end zone.<\/p>\n

When Barack Obama was elected he let Republicans know that elections have consequences. Republicans, in turn, made it their mission to block every Obama initiative. When Trump was elected, he claimed total victory, while Democrats immediately raised the prospect of impeachment and declared themselves the resistance. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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But if the consequence of each election is that the victorious party believes it gets to run roughshod over the interests of the losing party and the losing party understands that its mission until the next election is to resist every initiative of the majority party, we are doomed to a future of partisan warfare, disruptive transfers of power, and neglect of the important and necessary work of government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The American people are right to be frustrated with their government.\u00a0 It really is dysfunctional and ineffective.\u00a0 But rather than throw out the Constitution and try something else that is almost sure to be worse, perhaps we could recover authentic Constitutionalism.<\/p>\n

Is part of the problem that Americans need to adjust their expectations for the national government, embracing a more limited notion of what the government should be doing?<\/p>\n

Those of you who believe the system needs changing, what would you change?\u00a0 Could the existing system be salvaged with just some tweaks\u2013and, if so, what are those tweaks?\u2013or do you agree that it is hopeless?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustration:\u00a0 \u201cThe Storming of the Bastille\u201d By Jean-Pierre Hou\u00ebl \u2013 Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France, Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=106405<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans have become so disenchanted with Washington that a majority (54%) believe that our system of government needs \u201cmajor changes.\u201d\u00a0 And a significant minority (12%) believe that we should scrap what we have and replace it with something completely different.\u00a0 They want to change not just the government, but the system of government\u2013the Constitutional order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":41555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19,36,42],"tags":[8330,240,567,1751,8327],"class_list":["post-41348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-government","category-politics","category-social-science","tag-attitudes-towards-government","tag-authoritarianism","tag-constitution","tag-political-theory","tag-systems-of-government"],"yoast_head":"\nA Majority of Americans Want to Change Our System of Government<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A majority of Americans across the board want "major changes" in our system of government. 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