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NO DEMOCRACY LASTS FOREVER

Erwin Chemerinsky

How the Constitution Threatens the United States

No Democracy Lasts Forever argues that the Constitution has become a threat to American democracy and must be dramatically changed or replaced if secession is to be avoided.

Deeply troubled by the Constitution's inherent flaws, Erwin Chemerinsky, the renowned dean of Berkeley law school, came to the sobering conclusion that our nearly 250-year-old founding document is responsible for the crisis now facing American democracy. Pointing out that just fifteen of the 11,848 amendments proposed since 1789 have passed, Chemerinsky contends that the very nature of our polarization results from the Constitution's "bad bones," which have created a government that no longer works or has the confidence of the public. Yet political armageddon can still be avoided, Chemerinsky writes, if a new constitutional convention is empowered to replace the Constitution of 1787, much as the Founding Fathers replaced the outdated Articles of Confederation. If this isn't possible, Americans must give serious thought to forms of secession - including a United States structured like the European Union - based on a recognition that what divides us as a country is, in fact, greater than what unites us. Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. The author of Presumed Guilty, The Conservative Assault on the Constitution, and The Case Against the Supreme Court, among many other works, he lives in Oakland, California.

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Book Published 2024-08-20 by Liveright

Comments

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky makes crystal clear how original defects in the U.S. Constitution have combined with judicial decisions to cement minority rule rather than democracy. As a result, majority-backed gun control, reproductive rights, and remedies for racial inequality are nonstarters. This book offers specific reforms that could be adopted even within the current framework. . . . No Democracy Lasts Forever is must-reading for anyone who cares about this nation and its future.

When one of the country's most distinguished and sober-minded legal scholars argues that the Constitution imperils democracy, Americans should take note. When he further argues that the Constitution is pushing us to the brink of secession, Americans should take action. Erwin Chemerinsky's No Democracy Lasts Forever offers not only a powerful indictment of the U.S. constitutional system but also a clarifying call to remake our supreme law before it's too late.

Magnificent as the Constitution is, argues Erwin Chemerinsky, it also has great flaws that ultimately may bring about the collapse of the American experiment...No Democracy Lasts Forever is a powerful and profound work of scholarship and reasoning that raises questions worth the attention of all thinking Americans.

Not the Constitution's Fault: A Review of "No Democracy Lasts ForeverHow the Constitution Threatens the United States" by Erwin Chemerinsky Read more...

Erwin Chemerinsky's piercing diagnosis of the state of American democracy centers the U.S. Constitution as the protagonist in the story of its unraveling and dares us to reimagine the document's core principles and embrace a revolutionary refounding of our country. . . . His audacious blueprint for a constitutional convention merits contemplation by anyone invested in the future of the United States?which should be all of us.

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UC-Berkeley law school dean Chemerinsky (A Momentous Year in the Supreme Court) is a prolific critic of the U.S. legal system. His timely book examines the flaws in the Constitution that he blames for the nation's current political dysfunction. VERDICT Chemerinsky's expertise enhances this examination of the Constitution and benefits readers concerned about the current state of U.S. politics.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, pushes the tradition of constitutional criticism to new heights with 'No Democracy Lasts Forever.' In this brief mix of political commentary and legal analysis, he confidently argues that the time has come to replace the Constitution entirely. His work provides a compelling critique of the current state of American democracy and its foundational document, revealing tensions within the Constitution that are often overlooked by the general public.

Is the United States in self-destruct mode? The crisis is in the Constitution. Read more...