Working right?

[Malla Pollack]

Jim wonders why absence of constitutional amendment is not proof that people
think the Constitution is working.  My response is that (i) Amendment is
almost impossible as a practical matter; (ii) too much is "broken" to be
fixable by any even remotely likely Amendment; (iii) people who do not think
that their vote has power are hardly likely to think that they are capable
of obtaining an Amendment which would empower them.  

 

Malla Pollack

Professor, American Justice School of Law

Visiting Univ. of Idaho, College of Law

mpollack at uidaho.edu

208-885-2017

 

-----Original Message-----
From: JMHACLJ at aol.com [mailto:JMHACLJ at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 10:23 AM
To: mpollack at uidaho.edu
Subject: Re: Working right?

 

In a message dated 11/8/2005 1:14:13 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
mpollack at uidaho.edu writes:

Yes, the constitution has set itself the task of government by the people.
About the only way of voting "against" the entire government apparatus, or
the Constitution, is to ignore it - by not getting involved.  Many people
don't vote (based on anecdotal evidence) because they do not think their
vote "counts" for many reasons - including that they no longer have the
power to make "their" representatives act in a representative fashion.  

             Whatever peoples' individual reasons for not showing up, to the
extent that citizens do not vote, the government is not by the people.

I wonder.

 

The Constitution says that it may be amended, in either of two ways that
reflect citizen participation in one way or another.  If citizens perceive
the constitutional system as broken, and if the constitutional system
provides for repair by citizens through amendment, why isn't the absence of
repair proof of the absence of dissatisfaction?

 

Jim Henderson

Senior Counsel

ACLJ

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