Luke Pickrell is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a contributor to the Democratic Constitution blog.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais last week dealt a major blow to the Voting Rights Act. The ruling underscores the many antidemocratic features of our political system and the need for a new, actually democratic constitution.
Our current system for elections to the House of Representatives systematically enables gerrymandering and helps trap the Left inside the Democratic Party. We need proportional representation.
Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington’s police force this week is adding insult to the injury of the United States’ long denial of equal political standing to the capital’s residents.
On this day 60 years ago, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. Its protections have been rolled back in recent years — and our fundamentally undemocratic Constitution is to blame.
The US government is already preparing massive celebrations of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for next July 4, the country’s semiquincentennial. It’s high time to scrap the antidemocratic system the framers bequeathed to us.
Many liberal commentators are invoking the Constitution as a bulwark against Donald Trump’s attacks on civil liberties. The truth is, our nation’s antidemocratic founding document has allowed the authoritarian right to entrench its power.
As the deep problems with the United States’ antimajoritarian institutions become clearer by the day, a growing chorus of voices is taking aim at our country’s exceptionally undemocratic Constitution.
The National Constitution Center will host the first presidential debate next week between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The event will surely celebrate the US Constitution — but the Constitution isn’t worth celebrating.