Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen


Fault Lines In the Constitution: Unseen Until Too Late?

August 06, 2019

It’s not perfect. Much as we’d prefer to see the 1787 Constitution as a rock solid always-dependable foundation, our guests argue there are fault lines that we can not see but are always there. In their new book Fault Lines in the Constitution, The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today authors Cynthia and Sanford Levinson point out that Trump’s belief in his authoritarian legitimacy doesn’t come out of nowhere. The move toward executive power over the legislative and judicial branches has been constant since WWII. Democracy is highly inefficient and most of us prefer that. Serious problems stand in the way of a genuinely functioning democracy: The structure of the US Senate for one example. We are not powerless, we do have options, challenging though they remain. What we can do now is up for intense debate.