A House Without A Backdoor
The Founder's Flaw
If one has the courage to get an X (formerly know as Twitter) account, they will undoubtedly read people’s lamentations about well documented government failures. Of course, the amount of government failure you hear about depends on which party is in the White House; Republican failures will be more likely to be trumpeted nationally due to the left leaning media. However, Democratic Party failures are also broadcast, dissected and debated in the right wing media. The back and forth is everywhere, one side blaming the other for failure and visa versa. But what of citizens who just want government to perform?
The nation’s Founders who wrote and provided our beautiful Constitution performed a miracle on behalf of the former British subjects: they enshrined natural rights and common sense restrictions on the government. They took us a long way: a Republic of representative government where the r’epresentatives would set law and policy is a reasoned way for the nation. The founders were most likely concerned about a direct democracy because of the fear it might lead to mob rule.
We are lucky that the Founders had the foresight to be concerned and created a representative government. The problem is the power balance between the elected representatives and their boss (the people) dramatically favors the representatives and disfavors the represented. Our founders vested all law making in Congress with the sole limitations of the presidential veto. Later, during the Madison administration, the Supreme Court insisted on Judicial Review to ensure legislative actions are not in conflict with governing Articles and Amendments of the Constitution.
Under our present system, American citizens simply have one task: to vote for the people they want to represent their interests. All other law and rule making activity is relegated to Congress. The problem with this arrangement is two fold:
Congress gets to exempt themselves from rules that apply to other citizens
Congress gets to build legal barriers to others who want to remove them from office or legitimately compete against them directly
Direct self-exemption by Congress creates the very corruption that most Americans are looking to address by term limits. There are a number of examples of this historically such as the Franking Privilege where Members could send letters through the mail to advertise for themselves, paid for by the taxpayers. Also, Congress is absolved from tort law (which applies to everyone) by the judicially created Sovereign Immunity exclusion.
Self-exemption by Congress to their fiduciary responsibility for the nation is another area where a big problem exists. Congress has a preference of sacrificing the long term prospects of the country for short term election success because of the incentives created by the Founders. If the people can only elect others in their place, yet not challenge the incentives or implicit assumptions of how government works, the nation may continue on its path to self destruction economically, if not in other ways.
The Founders did not give Americans much of a backdoor: there is not much opportunity for people to navigate around the federal government to adjust the incentives; either those that derive from the system the Founders created or those sustained by the myriad of protections that Congress and the judiciary distributed to themselves. The only process available is the Convention of the States, a long shot attempt to convince the state legislatures of 34 states to force a convention.
Without the ability to go around and control Congress, Americans will continue to sacrifice their nation. Congress will continue unsustainable spending, strengthen government, exempt themselves from laws and taxes, and devour the private sector with government spending and debt. A back door is needed for the house.
What do you think? Leave a comment and provide your opinion.