Today’s insight to American history and politics from the Beck crew was that the process of amending the Constitution has dropped off in recent times, somehow related to Progressives and Woodrow Wilson. (in response to Byron from Connecticut who claimed to be a lifelong liberal Democrat converted to a Conservative by Glenn) [Doesn’t that sound like opposite of the profile of a “seminar caller”?]
After Pat Gray botches the description of how the process works (“3/4 of the states adopt it and then call a convention”), Glenn adds in:
“Today is Constitution Day. Here’s the biggest problem with that. We have been convinced we […] don’t amend the Constitution. That’s a new idea. The Constitution was meant to be amended. and we amended it and amended it, and we did it – then during the Progressive era – all of a sudden they stopped amending the Constitution. They realized that is was much better if you do it through the referendum, like Proposition 8 – it’s much better if you encourage Democracy”
“They” in that thought appears to be “The Progressives”.
Referendums are done by only a handful of States, and has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution.
Prop 8 was to define marriage as between a man and a woman, which passed and was and is being opposed by the Progressives. Prop 8 IS a Constitutional Amendment (to the California State Constitution), not a law That’s a very odd example to pull out of the air.
How well does the basic observation match the facts?
Constitutional Amendments by decade
10 amendments in Bill of Rights adopted with the Constitution in 1791
1792-1800 – 1 (Sovereign immunity)
1800-1810 – 1 (changed VP to be same party as President)
1811-1820 – 0
1821-1830 – 0
1831-1840 – 0
1841-1850 – 0
1851-1860 – 0
1861-1870 – 3 (post civil war changes)
1871-1880 – 0
1881-1890 – 0
1891-1900 – 0
1901-1910 – 0
1911-1920 – 4 (income tax, women’s suffrage, prohibition, election of Senators)
1921-1930 – 0
1931-1940 – 2 repeal prohibition, change date of Congress to January
1941-1950 – 0
1951-1960 – 1 (term limits for president)
1961-1970 – 3 (DC in electoral college, poll taxes, Presidential succession after JFK was shot)
1971-1980 – 1 (18 years old vote)
1981-1990 – 0
1991-2000 – 1 (congressional pay raises)
2001-2010 – 0
So (not counting the bill of rights since their adoption coincided with the approval of the Constitution)
# made by the “Founding Fathers” – 2.
Before Woodrow Wilson – 5 amendments in 119 years
During Woodrow Wilson – 4 amendments in 8 years
After Woodrow Wilson – 8 amendments in 90 years.
So where is the pattern that backs up the Beck/Gray version of history?
(Stu did make an attempt to rein this in, but gave up under the combined Glenn/Pat onslaught)
Hey look – it’s a Rodeo Clown !
Et tu odi Beckum Stonum?
Beck needs to get more sleep, and send Pat Gray on assignment for a month to Alaska without a phone.
As I was researching that, Glenn got a phone call from someone saying much the same thing I’ve been saying, but knowing Glenn has a “Dump” button and controls the volume control (and I would never claim to be a Christian).
Glenn revealed several interesting things – his company did market research to see what he could talk about and not cause the audience to leave. The only solid answer he got was – if you talk about religion, people will leave. He’s made the decision to overrule his focus groups and plow right on in.
Looking at it a little differently:
11th, 12th: initial amendments to tweak the constitution, by the Fathers, mostly intended as tweaks to the system to make it run better.
13th through 15th: Reconstruction Amendments– pushed by socially progressive Republicans in an effort to bring legal equality to former slaves.
16th through 19th: Progressive Amendments– These were the first to really make a major change in the way the government works. Again, it was pushed by progressives (though Democrats this time). Ending one-vote-one-household in the name of women’s suffrage, ending equal taxation so they can tax the rich at a higher rate than the poor, outlawing alcohol, and stripping the state legislatures of their rights to elect senators (a key tenet of the federal republic system of government) and handing that to the people.
20th and 21st: Depression Amendments, made to accommodate the poor economy
22nd: The term-limits amendment, a tweak in the spirit of the 11th and 12th
23rd through 26th: This is an interesting grab bag. The 23rd, depending on your view of it, can be viewed as an activist amendment (as DC was never intended to be a permanent residential location) or a tweak (as people eventually did end up living there), the 24th clearly was in the spirit of the Reconstruction Amendments, the 25th was a tweak, and the 26th was either in the spirit of the Reconstruction or Progressive amendments.
(The 27th was part of the Bill of Rights but got held up about 200 years.)
One thing you’ll notice is that most of the ones that aren’t simple tweaks to fix a glaring problem in the operations of the government– were pushed by progressives. For this, Beck is clearly off the mark. Progressives have clearly been more eager to use Constitutional amendments to change society than conservatives have.