The End O'The World

Now is no time to panic...

Some Guy over at Ezra Klein's place cites a piece by Matt Yglesias that say the Constitution will "cease to be operative at some point in our lifetimes."  He then mentions some guy in the Carter Administration who wanted a more Parliamentary system.  Friday night someone else I know was talking about how the American system was doomed.

I don't buy it.

Governments, to use the poli-sci language, are made up of people.  They come and go.

Regimes - and the Constitution constitutes a regime - are very hard to change.  And the longer they stay around, the harder they are to change.  Institutions are sticky, they aren't changed lightly.

The Guy over at Kleins and Yglesias seem to think a new Constitutional Convention would be easy.  Puh-lease.  The only reason to call an amendment convention would be to get around Congress.  So, for campaign finance reform it would make sense.  But add the stupidity that passes for public discourse this day and could you imagine the sort of nincompoops that would attend this thing?  It would not be the "demigods" of Philadelphia, it would be people who read all of Glenn Beck's books.

Look, parliamentary systems are very appealing in times of crisis.  They can act emphatically.  But there are appeals to the presidential system, too.  One being there inherent conservatism.  And there defense of the people's freedoms.

It's just too hard to look at what's happening today as being worse than the 1970s, with Vietnam, Watergate, stagflation and racial tension.  But some people are insistent in seeing the crisis of their day as being the WORSTEST CRISIS EVAH!

So, in a few years, when unemployment is at 6% and falling and almost everyone has health care and Obama is at a summit with the democratically elected president of Egypt (is Shakira eligible?), my guess is that the cries for a new constitution will seem quaint.