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Entry: The U.S. Constitution is Not Democratic -- and Why That's a Good Thing Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_us_constitution_is_not_democratic_and_why_thats_a_good_thing#17833 Post contents: It’s more than a little worrisome that all these eggheads are circling our foundation charter, whispering disparagement that it’s “small town” and “out of step” with our new imperial enterprise. From what I gather in Mr. Gutzman’s article and other reviews, Levinson seems to envision a federal government even more centralized and pervasive than today. Now, that’s not to imply that he’s out of step with current trends: The shift is toward a tightly controlled, big, mushy world where everyone marches in lockstep, free of individual thought and cultural uniqueness. Where all the high-falutin the revolutions of the past 150 years smashed on the impartial-but-pitiless riprap of reality, globalization has renewed the spirit of one-world “healing.” And one world means one, big, starkly powerful global government, with a self-anointed, all-knowing elite to guide it though the rocky shoals. There will have to be some changes made, some give and take. For instance, some cockfighting tribal chieftaincies on the other side of the world may not like the idea of free speech. And they may like women in tents, i.e., WEARING tents, top to tippy-toe. We’re already becoming accustomed to time-honored management techniques like torture and dungeon networks. In time, we’ll have to get used to other changes. Necessary - and sometimes brutal - changes. We may think it absurd that all of this – this inside/out perversion of everything we stand for – could possibly occur. But consider this: Every few years or so, some Eastern Establishment poobah or Ivy League gasbag makes a thoroughly obscene proposal which in short order becomes our standard operating procedure. They all listen to each other. The outhouse ruminations of one political priest is taken up, bandied about, applauded and fussed over, and soon become part of the rulebook for the rest of us. Alan Dershowitz advocated legalizing torture (or, at least setting up a legal framework for its use) 10-12 years ago. In fact, he was the author of the jackass "If He’s Hiding a Bomb, Stir-Fry His Ass!" procedural mechanism. Within five years of him touting this ugly idea on the lecture/talk show circuit, we were tying people to water boards. And remember Alberto Gonzalez and John Yoo in the Justice Department? They figured the war on terror rendered the Geneva Convention rules “quaint,” and – boom! – our prisoners of war are treated like cockroaches at a salad bar. So the big men on campus are now sizing up the Constitution and finding it wanting. A Harvard grandee with far too much time on his hands, Harvey Mansfield, has proposed chucking our hickville democracy in favor of Rule-By-Imperator. In an article in the Wall Street Journal last spring, he pointed out the advantages of putting a "strong man" at the nation's helm. We’re not that far away, now that government-citizen dynamic is that of insignificant speck swirling in the rending gravitational pull of a bureaucratic black hole. There may come a day when the Bill of Right may seem as far away, exotic – and captivating – as the Garden of Eden. Sent at: 2008 07 24