The Constitution Cannot Be ‘Reformed’ or ‘Restored’

The cave is filling with water. Time to swim out. (DN 1.20)

Cover page | Preface | Introduction 1 | Introduction 2 | Introduction 3 |

(Part I) Why: 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.10 | 1.11 | 1.12 | 1.13 | 1.14 | 1.15 | 1.16 | 1.17 | 1.18 | 1.19 | 1.20

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Chapter 1: WHY

1.20 — There Is Nothing to Return to, Part 2

The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results.—12-Step program aphorism

Before we can move on once and for all—both in this book, and in our real forms of social and political organization—we must first eliminate all hope of going backwards. To this end, I have frequently returned to Lysander Spooner’s inescapable logic that the American Constitution has either authorized its own perversion or has been powerless to prevent it.

Directly above, we discussed the very strong case for the former: that the Constitution is nothing like the way it is described in its gauzy hagiography, and is in fact quite unworthy of our reverence or our obedience. But let us pretend, for the sake of argument, that the latter is true: that it has merely been perverted.

If this were the case—if it was powerless to prevent its own perversion—then why do we cling to a belief that it will be different a second time around?

And how could we possibly even get to this hypothetical second time around?

I do not think this is a goal we should want to undertake, for reasons I have already made clear, but let us imagine, for a moment, that our goal is to win enough political victories within the system to enable us to return to some hypothetical purer state of that system. What would it take to achieve such a goal?

#1

We would have to win such massive electoral victories that we could do what has never been possible in 235 years: wind back the clock.

We would have to absolutely overwhelm any and all political opposition, and then use that power to repeal every gigantic program, roll back 200 years of statist judicial decisions, massively reduce the size and scope of government, and achieve a dozen other things that have never happened in our history. Do you see any possibility that even a fraction of this would be possible?

Let us pretend, for a moment, that it is. We would then also need multiple constitutional amendments to even begin to reform and repair the Constitution’s many deficiencies. That is an even bigger hurdle: 2/3 of both houses of Congress plus 3/4 of state legislatures (or a national convention).

What makes you think that even one amendment would be possible, let alone the dozen or so others we’d need? People on “our side” (please accept that term as useful shorthand) blocked the closest we've ever come to just one such amendment (the Eagle Forum scuttled the balanced budget amendment in the 90s).

The perversion of the Constitution has been a one-way trip since the beginning. We have never been able to muster nearly enough political power to force a stop to that slide, let alone to wind back the clock. What possible reason could we have to believe now that we would able to muster even a fraction of the power that we would need to accomplish even a fraction of those aims?

#2

Assuming the nearly impossible feat above is somehow achieved, how could it possibly be maintained?

All the same political opponents are still going to be there, doing what they've been doing for the last 235 years. We cannot banish them. This means that even if we were able to accomplish the nearly impossible, we would have no expectation of being able to maintain it for more than five minutes before those forces would all take it back in the wrong direction again.

#3

Now, think about those forces.

It's not only socialists, communists, and other leftists—it’s statists of every flavor under the statist rainbow…

It's the cowards who crave a strong government. It’s lazy people. People who envy others. People who want something for nothing.

It’s control freaks. It’s crony capitalists. It’s the psychopaths who love to rule, and the sheep who blindly follow.

Our numbers are tiny in comparison to the forces arrayed against us. It doesn’t much matter whether the Constitution was designed to empower those people or not. It does. It empowers them over us. Their numbers are greater, which means they will always win so long as we languish under a system like this.

The Constitution is like a ratchet. It clicks forward a notch (toward its own perversion), but it is not able to click back. Ever. This is true for any republic or democracy.

Clinging to the belief that we can get around these realities is understandable. Most of the people on our side have a great deal invested in that belief: A lifetime of hope, of focus, of activism. Of fervent passion.

I get it. I was there myself. Letting go of it caused genuine psychic pain. But we must let go, because we are the only ones who understand true liberty.

The cave we are in is filling with water. We are the only ones who have even a prayer of understanding that the tide is never going to go out. That we need to brave the long, scary swim away from the familiar. That we have to stop desperately gasping at an ever-diminishing pocket of air.

We cannot stay here. We cannot go back.

The only way out is forward.

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Let’s take this swim together!