维护共和国
纵观其历史, the United States Constitution has led a dual existence as one of the country’s most prized—and most criticized—documents.
在他们的新书中， 维护共和国: A Defense of American Constitutionalism, Professors of Political Science Dennis Hale and Marc Landy examine why the Constitution has come under fire, 无论是来自著名的政治家, 作家, 权威人士, and academics or ordinary American citizens—and 他们解释 why that criticism is misplaced.
总的来说, the complaints about the Constitution stem from frustration with perceived obstacles to achieving political or legislative aims, 兰迪和黑尔说. Depending on the specific issue, suggested remedies include doing away with the U.S. Senate, the Electoral College, the presidential veto, and/or federalism, or reforming the U.S. Supreme Court to make it more democratic—all of these decried as elements of an obsolete or undemocratic Constitution that hampers the process of governing.
正如作者所指出的, actions have sometimes replaced words in diminishing or bypassing the Constitution, including by presidents—from Truman embarking on the Korean War without any congressional approval to Reagan’s Iran-contra scandal to Obama’s executive order granting working papers to illegal immigrants, 以及拜登的投票改革法案.
维护共和国 认为,, 通过有效地限制权力的行使, the Constitution is simply doing the job it was created to do: providing for a free government. The Constitution is the difference between a country in which the people rule, 在那里人们可以做任何他们想做的事, 黑尔和兰迪说, and the restrictions it sets on American political life is not a problem, 而是一个问题的解决方案.
“我们觉得, 根据我们读到或听到的, 批评者并没有真正理解宪法, 或者更广泛地说, 宪法的构想,黑尔说。. “They don’t like the shape and substance of the Constitution, 他们想要改变它, 或者干脆把它扔掉. 问题是，他们没有任何东西可以替代它.”
宪法批评者, 说兰迪, 常常把它归咎于“那些不是结果的事情”, 或者是错误, of the Constitution”—namely the problems inherent in a modern state: size, 多样性, 而需要一个共同的, 国防.
维护共和国 黑尔和兰迪合著的第一本书是什么, who have collaborated as editors on two volumes of essays as well as articles for Real Clear Politics/Public Affairs and 克莱蒙特书评. Friends since their undergraduate years at Oberlin College (“We’ve been in each other’s hair ever since,正如兰迪所说), the pair joined the 电子游戏软件 faculty within three years of each other in the 1970s. To watch them converse is to see two people whose differing sociopolitical views—Landy tracks to the left of Hale—don’t lessen their obvious mutual respect for one another, or their ability to hold civil conversations and find common ground.
虽然他们在同一个部门工作了几十年, 黑尔和兰迪说, their writing partnership didn’t truly coalesce until they wound up in adjoining offices several years ago. When a raft of Constitutional criticism flowered from within academia and the media, 两人开始谈论这件事, 然后决定把它写下来.
“我们坐在丹尼斯的办公室里:我说话，他打字,兰迪回忆道。, characterizing their co-authorship as a “Rodgers and Hammerstein” type of collaboration.
Landy and Hale include a clarification and a caveat early on in 维护共和国: Although their book is not an attempt to investigate every potential threat to the constitutional order, 他们承认唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)提出的存在主义问题, as reflected by his continual overstatement of his powers while president and his refusal to accept the 2020 election results. 然而, they argue that his presence in American politics is the end-product of numerous attempts down through U.S. history—including some from what would be considered a liberal/progressive standpoint—to circumvent or lessen constitutional oversight.
为这次历史回顾设定一个背景, Hale and Landy analyze the concept of modernity and how it applied to the age and milieu in which the framers of the Constitution lived. 受到霍布斯等哲学家的影响, 洛克, 孟德斯鸠, 休谟, 制宪者“既雄心勃勃又现实,” the authors write: “They accepted human beings as they were and sought to construct a political framework for a modern republic grounded in human nature, considering both its strengths and weaknesses—paying special attention to the particular strengths and weaknesses of Americans.”
宪法的关键, 兰迪和黑尔说, 它建立了一个共和国吗, not a democracy—perhaps an underappreciated nuance but an important one, in that a republic guards individual rights against the will of the majority.
“The Constitution creates a government meant to be balanced but intentional in its parts,黑尔解释道. “In a republic, you need more than a simple majority to get things done. The Constitution builds incentive to reach and broaden coalitions.”
在21世纪的大部分时间里, 因为美国政治变得越来越两极化, the capacity—and even the willingness—for opposing parties to compromise has waned, to the extent that Congress has become merely an arena for partisan bickering and virtue signaling, 黑尔和兰迪说.
而不是规定具体的解决方案, Landy and Hale devote the book’s final chapter to “thinking constitutionally”—a recommendation that citizens attain a true understanding of the Constitution and its aims, 哪一个是促进自由, 正义, 平等, 繁荣, 安全, 公民礼让. 这意味着要有长远的眼光, 他们解释, and realizing that what may have been regarded as landmark political achievements, 比如新政或伟大社会, ultimately contributed to the diminution of the Constitution, 以及美国有效管理自身的能力.
“We didn’t have to become the most powerful nation on Earth after World War II, 但结果就是这样,黑尔说。. “很明显, 获得这一地位带来了一系列独特的政治问题, 社会, 以及其他挑战, 作为一个国家，我们一直在努力解决这些问题. But ultimately, the Constitution is the best safeguard against making choices we’d come to regret.”