Peaceful Political Revolution in America

Welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America Podcast.In the last episode, we talked about our frozen republuc, and how to our detriment, it has not been improved upon in over 230 years. It was designed to be an unbreakable contract between Americans, protecting sectoral rights and the individual accumulation of wealth and property. The slavocracy wanted protection from the intrusion of the north. They did not want their lavish and profitable lifestyles interrupted. Their constitution, the southern planters in particular, was to remain fixed.  It was never meant to be changed.We also discussed some of the reasons why our constitution has become even more rigid over the past century. I'm going to continue the discussion today about our American political system with Dean Steven Taylor on his book,  A DIfferent Democracy. A comparative study of the American political system with other more modern and more effective democracies from around the world. This kind of comparative analysis you might suspect would be common, but on the contrary, it is actually quite rare, even within the broad spectrum of political science. The American system of government is thought of as exceptional and as such it is studied in its own distinct light, apart from other democracies around the world. Not only did our constitution prove victorious in WW2,  it also gave rise to the post-war boom and the great middle class, or so it seemed. America was prosperous and thriving. Infused with the spirit of victory while other nations struggled to rekindle their devastated homelands by creating new and more effective  democratic governments, America sank into another constitutional coma. We turned our backs on the kinds of constitutional changes that would empower the democratic spirit in America as if the economic spirit was all that mattered, and we remained captured by a political system no living American would think logical in today's world.There are many democratic institutions and dynamics which could make our government much more effective and fully democratic. Those more democratic institutions however are completely dismissed by organizations like the NCC and the ACS. Many of our best constitutional scholars seem either uninformed or dismissive of the democratic achievements of the 20th-century in Europe and elsewhere. To them, the American constitution has some kind of immortal standing. It cannot be challenged, even with empirically established facts.The concept of American Exceptionalism is a big topic and I am not sure I can get through the first chapter of A Different Democracy in one hour, let alone the entire book, but to put us on the trail and set our minds to the hunt is Steven Taylor, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Troy University in Alabama.  He is also co-author along with Matthew Shugart, Bernard Grofman, and  Arend Lijphart, on A Different Democracy. The American government is a 31 country perspective.  Welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in American Podcast, it’s great to have you here!

Welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America Podcast.In the last episode, we talked about our frozen Republic, and how to our detriment, it has not been improved upon in over 230 years. It was designed to be an unbreakable contract between Americans, protecting sectoral rights and the individual accumulation of wealth and property. The slavocracy wanted protection from the intrusion of the north. They did not want their lavish and profitable lifestyles interrupted. Their constitution, the southern planters, in particular, was to remain fixed. It was never meant to be changed.We also discussed some of the reasons why our constitution has become even more rigid over the past century. I'm going to continue the discussion today about our American political system with Dean Steven Taylor on his great book,  A DIfferent Democracy.  A comparative study of the American political system with other more modern and more effective democracies from around the world. This kind of comparative analysis you might suspect would be common, but on the contrary, it is actually quite rare, even within the broad spectrum of political science. The American system of government is thought of as exceptional and as such it is studied in its own distinct light, apart from other democracies around the world. Not only did our constitution prove victorious in WW2,  it also gave rise to the post-war boom and the great middle class, or so it seemed. America was prosperous and thriving. Infused with the spirit of victory while other nations struggled to rekindle their devastated homelands by creating new and more effective, and more democratic governments, America sank into another constitutional coma. We turned our backs on the kinds of constitutional changes that would empower the democratic spirit in America, as if the economic spirit was all that mattered, and we remained captured by a political system no living American would think logical in today's world.There are many democratic institutions and dynamics which could make our government much more effective and fully democratic. Those more democratic institutions however are completely dismissed by organizations like the N.C.C. and the A.C.S. Many of our best constitutional scholars seem either uninformed or dismissive of the democratic achievements of the 20th-century in Europe and elsewhere. To them, the American constitution has some kind of immortal standing. It cannot be challenged, even with empirically established facts.The concept of American Exceptionalism is a big topic and I am not sure I can get through the first chapter of A Different Democracy in one hour, let alone the entire book, but to put us on the trail and set our minds to the hunt is Steven Taylor, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Troy University in Alabama.  He is also co-author along with Matthew Shugart, Bernard Grofman, and  Arend Lijphart, on A Different Democracy. The American government is a 31 country perspective.  Welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in American Podcast, Dean Taylor,  thank you so much for joining this conversation.

Welcome back to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America Podcast.Thomas Paine believed that Americans must control their constitutions of government, that they should revise and update it every generation. But the Framers, subverting Paine's vision of a democratically controlled government, intentionally left out of their Constitution any process through which the people could do just that. As Jerry Fresia points out in episode 3, that was because their Constitution was designed to prioritize the individual accumulation of wealth and property over the well-being of society as a whole. The Framers did not want that system to be changed. In fact, as we are about to find out, they really did not want the system to even work, and peaceful political revolution was to be repressed at all costs.In the previous episode, we discussed the kinds of changes we could make to our constitution which would make it more effective and democratic. We also noted that Americans, unlike in any other country, have an unusual reverence for their Constitution.  As a consequence, our Constitution has remained frozen for over 230 years. Before we can even begin to think about making changes to our Constitution, like the ones we discussed in episode 4, we need to understand more about this rather bizarre reverence Americans have for their Constitution. For that, I’ve asked Daniel Lazar to talk with us about his book, The Frozen Republic.There are more than a few big changes to our National Charter that are widely considered to be more effective and democratic than the ones we use today. We have talked about many of them already, yet those democratic improvements are essentially being ignored, even rejected by Americans, because Americans are captured by the very political system they are supposed to control. Americans don’t think about changing their constitution, or making a better one, because they blindly believe it is perfect and therefore impossible to improve.Americans are largely unable to think rationally about the dysfunction of our political system or to express peacefully how it might be changed.  We no longer understand how political systems even work, and we are afraid of each other. We no longer even want to control our constitutions of government. We’d rather suffer the intolerable consequences of a system driving us all over the edge than to dare to imagine we could create a better political system than the one we have inherited. It appears our constitution now controls us. We must obey it rather than critique it, and apparently, Americans prefer this kind of bondage to exercising their right to control their systems of government and to protect their liberty from the tyranny of the past.Daniel Lazare is a journalist and the author of The Frozen Republic (1996), The Velvet Coup (2001), and America’s Undeclared War (2001). He is currently working on a book about the politics of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and he has been a long outspoken critic of the almost religious reverence of our Constitution, and he is here today to explain why.Daniel, welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in American Podcast, it's great to have you here!

Welcome back to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America PodcastI thought I'd jump ahead a little and discuss some of the basic changes we could make to our constitution which would actually make it a more democratic system of government.  In this episode, I have the genuine pleasure to interview one of the leading experts on democratic forms of government. His seminal book, Patterns of Democracy is probably the best analysis in comparative democracies available today. We all need to know why.Arend Lijphart's research focuses on comparative politics, elections and voting systems, institutions, and ethnicity and politics. His work has had a profound impact on the study of democracy and he is widely considered the leading authority on consociationalism. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration (1977), Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries (1984), Power-Sharing in South Africa (1985), Electoral Laws and Their Political Consequences (1986), Parliamentary versus Presidential Government (1992), Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies (1994), and Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (1999; 2nd ed., 2012). Lijphart has received numerous awards throughout his prestigious career in recognition of his groundbreaking research, including the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, AaronWildavsky Book Award, and honorary doctorates by the University of Leiden, Queen's University Belfast, and the University of Ghent. He was elected to serve as president of the American Political Science Association in 1995 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, and the Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Most recently, in 2010, he received the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeritus Award in recognition of his unique and extensive contributions to the University of California, the discipline, and the world. He is also an acquaintance and I am especially happy to be having our first official Zoom meeting since we began exchanging emails almost 3 years ago.  Welcome, Arend to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America Podcast. It's so wonderful to have you here.Top Fixes to Our Constitution, in order of discussion:Change Presidential System for Parliamentary System Proportional Representation or Mixed Member Proportional ElectionsGerrymanderingStatehood for D.C. and Puerto RicoMandatory VotingAbolish the Electoral CollegeUniform National Voting StandardsExpand the Court to 17 Justices, Term LimitsAbolish PrimariesFewer ElectionsTerm limits for JudgesAbolish the Senate

Welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America Podcast If Bernie's regular castigation of the elites felt justified to you, you'll find this episode especially interesting. Today, I'm going to be talking about the people who gave us our constitution, the Framers. Who were they? What were their intentions? What kind of political system did they create?  Does it explain the vast influence of the elites in our society today? In his book, The Hidden History of American Oligarchy, Thom Hartmann writes, "If you were looking for a date when the American Oligarchy started, it would be January 30, 1976. But our guest Jerry Fresia will explain to you why that's not quite true. It actually started on September 17, 1787. It was an overcast day in Philidelphia, the cool temperatures heralding the arrival of autumn as the Framers concluded their deliberations over the new Constitution.Jerry Fresia's rather astounding book, Toward an American Revolution, could be titled the people's history of the U.S. Constitution. It is filled with stunning details about the Framers. Most of those facts have been buried away or happily forgotten by the American public. To our detriment, Americans have never fully come to terms with our Framers. In many ways, we have replaced their legacy with a more convenient fiction. Who were the people who created our constitution and gave birth to the world's greatest superpower?There's a lot to unpack when it comes to the people who wrote our constitution, so let’s get started with an intense discussion about the untold history of the Framer's Constitution. Jerry Fresia is a political scientist and renowned artist. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has taught at numerous US colleges and universities. He left academia in 1989 and settled in San Francisco to pursue a career in painting. He has written extensively on both art and the political-economy of the United States. He currently lives in Bellagio Italy where he is best known for his remarkable Plein Air paintings of Lake Como.https://www.amazon.com/Toward-American-Revolution-Constitution-Illusions/dp/0896082970

Harvey J. Kaye, a Professor Emeritus and author, delves into the revolutionary impact of Thomas Paine on American democracy. They discuss how Paine’s ideas shaped self-governance, moving beyond independence to a peaceful political revolution. Kaye highlights the relevance of Paine's vision in today’s struggles for democracy and labor rights, underscoring the need for civic engagement. The conversation also critiques the current political dysfunction and emphasizes the resurgence of the labor movement as a crucial element in navigating America’s democratic future.

I want to begin the Peaceful Political Revolution in America podcast with a discussion about Thomas Paine. His ideas, more than any other American, shaped the destiny of not only 1 revolution, but 3. You might say Thomas Paine is the father of peaceful political revolution. It's difficult to overstate how important Paine's message was to our nation, and to Americans, today. His legacy may be a bit obscure to most Americans, but my guest Gary Berton will bring you all up to date on the essential Thomas Paine. Gary is the President of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association in New Rochelle. He is retired from Iona College where he was the Coordinator of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and an adjunct professor in Political Science teaching courses on Thomas Paine.  If you want to understand what political revolution in America means, you'll want to get to know Thomas Paine, and for that, we need to have a conversation with Gary Berton.Gary, welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America podcast. How are things in New Rochelle?

Welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America Podcast. In this podcast, I will explore the origins of peaceful political revolution and connect the dots between the Age of Enlightenment and the American political system. I will explore what political revolution means and decipher why the convention of 1787 was so unique.Our founding as a nation was remarkable, yet we often forget or take for granted just why it is so remarkable and why it is so important to understand our political history. We will take a unique stroll through our past and uncover the spirit that holds this nation together. It turns out, it's us. "We the People" is not just another expression. Without that, there is no political revolution. So why could what happened in 1787 matter? What can our own history tell us about political revolution in America? We will address these thoughts and many more in the coming episodes. Stay tuned and please share this podcast with your friends and subscribe.