Ruined by constitutional illiteracy
Legislative gridlock is a pejorative to describe the Constitution's checks and balances at work
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) conceded changes to the House Rules to diminish the Speaker’s authority to steamroller legislation through the chamber without a fair opportunity for Representatives to debate or propose amendments. These concessions have given birth to mainstream frets over legislative gridlock, i.e., an inability to reach the consensus constitutionally necessary for the enactment of new laws. Thereby hangs a tale of constitutionally illiteracy as alarming as mistaking the heliocentric theory of the universe for the geocentric.
The objective of the Constitution is to optimize liberty—the opportunity to march to your own drummer without domestic predation or foreign aggression. That objective is advanced by multiple constitutional checks on majority rule to prevent the nation from descending to democratic tyranny. Thomas Jefferson observed in his Notes on the State of Virginia, “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for…173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one.”
The Constitution features nine (9) major checks on simple majorities.
Congress is divided into two chambers, the House and the Senate. Legislation must be approved by both bodies.
House members serve for two years whereas Senate members serve for six.
House members represent districts with roughly equal populations. Senators represent entire States with vastly discrepant populations.
House members are allocated among the States based on population. Each State is represented by two Senators irrespective of population.
Legislation is subject to a qualified presidential veto which can be overridden only by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate.
Treaties negotiated by the President must be ratified by a two-thirds Senate majority.
Appointments of principal officers of the United States by the President require Senate confirmation.
Constitutional amendments require two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate and approval by three-fourths of state legislatures.
Electoral votes are allocated among the States according to a formula that favors thinly populated States over the densely populated, i.e., the number of electoral votes equals the sum of a State’s House delegation plus its two Senators.
These nine checks and balances together operate as a structural Bill of Rights to protect the people from encroachments on liberty to advance light and transient causes supported by simple majorities.
The Constitution worries about too many laws, not too few. James Madison, writing in Federalist 62, denounced a mutability in the laws as deterring investment and enriching lobbyists speculating on public measures.
The Declaration of Independence and Constitution eschew “democracy” for good reason. Mr. Madison observed in Federalist 55, “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, a collection of them all would still be a mob.”
Congress should be judged not by how many laws it passes, but by how well it promotes and honors individual liberty.
Every civics textbook in the country must be rewritten to restore this foundational truth.
A constitutional amendment would be required to enshrine democracy as the summum bonum. But no one yet has had the audacity to claim wisdom and statesmanship superior to the Constitution’s architects.