James Fallows and me on the U.S. Constitution, NBD

James Fallows, responding to my question on his Reddit AMA yesterday:

[…]our political system is uniquely resistant to change. Our Constitution is harder to change than most other countries’ – and is getting quite old now. If “the Founders” were around today, they would never come up with something like today’s Senate. They were practical-minded people, and they would have seen it as unworkable that (a) a state with over 30 million people had the same representation as one with half a million people, (b) the modern abuse-in-practice of the filibuster makes it possible for an entrenched minority to block majority will. I don’t have the cite here, but a very valuable piece in the NYT a few days ago pointed out that no other countries are copying our Constitution. It no longer makes sense.

I cleaned it up a bit.

And here’s the NYT piece he references: ‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World. One highlight:

In a television interview during a visit to Egypt last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court seemed to agree. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” she said. She recommended, instead, the South African Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the European Convention on Human Rights.

Thanks to James for pointing my mind in new directions, and thanks to everyone who voted for my question.