On the U.S. Constitutional Crisis, Countermeasures and Way Out

     On the U.S. Constitutional Crisis, Countermeasures and Way out

--- From Analyzing the Six Stages of American History

Wu Chenmou

The Constitutional Crisis of the U.S.

    The history of the United States might be roughly divided into the following six stages: From 1620-1776, it was the Mayflower Era. Then, from 1776-1861, the nation's independence and the expansion of territory happened. Next, from 1861-1933, the great nation realized primitive capital accumulation and a significant rising. After that, from 1933-2016, the U.S. dominated the whole world. This period can be divided into two phases. Before 1964, it still maintained the traditional electoral system. After 1964, it began to implement the universal electoral system. However, starting in 2016, the United States has been falling into an era of a constitutional crisis.

    The first historical development stage was from 1620-1776. In 1620, the Mayflower, a wooden sailboat, set off from England into the Atlantic Ocean. After 66 days of the tough trip, it finally landed on Cape Cod in northeastern America. On November 11, 1620, the 41 adult men had signed a political statement at the Mayflower broad before the sailing ship landed. That magnificent document is known as <The Mayflower Compact> in American history. At that historical moment, a new chapter in human history opened since the wooden sailboat arrived on the continent.

    The second phase happened from the period 1776-1861. The United States was established by 13 states, which had declared independence on the East Coast; subsequently, it expanded to 48 states and reached the West Coast. After that, it has basically formed today's territorial scope and constitutional system. American social elite developed the Christian faith into the mainstream of American culture. Because it had made a solid cultural foundation for the United States' development,  the U.S. became a famous modern civilized country.

    The third stage began with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. The United States has developed from a farm economy to an industrial economy. It was from a regional power country to the world's most massive power; thus, it surpassed Britain. By the end of the 1920s, before the Great Economic Crisis broke out, the U.S. had developed from an agricultural economy to the world's largest country by a comprehensive national strength. After World War I, it finally completed its original accumulation as the most massive power nation in the world.

    The fourth stage of America's history began with the Great Depression in the 1930s. After the disaster, the United States had developed from the first power to a superpower; hence, it led and dominated the world's political and economic orders. The federal government adopted a series of economic policies, which were under the leadership of President Franklin Roosevelt, which were Relief, Recovery, and Reform. So it was also called the "Three R New Deal." By the middle of the 20th century, the United States had followed the traditional meritocratic voting system for nearly two hundred years. In that period, it can be regarded as a golden age of the United States, which was leading the whole world order.

    The fifth stage started with the promulgation of the "Affirmative Rights Act" by the U.S. Congress in 1964. During that period, American society eliminated apartheid and discrimination, implemented referendum elections, and proudly became a beacon of democracy for all countries worldwide. After 188 years of the nation's foundation, it finally realized the legal status of "Everyone is equal", which was stipulated in the "Declaration of Independence" and the "U.S. Constitution." That was huge historical progress in American history. In recent decades, a large number of immigrants poured into the United States. Because of the diversity of cultures and religions, the high growth of the ethnic population has undergone massive tremendous changes. As a result, mainstream American society's inclusiveness and assimilation have been weakened yearly. 

    The sixth stage of the U.S. might be regarded as the September 11 Incident in 2001 as a watershed in American history. In this article, the author starts the year with Donald Trump's winning the presidential race in 2016. However, the U.S. electoral system's serious flaws have been exposed as early as the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton received 2.86 million votes higher than Donald Trump; conversely, Hillary lost 74 Electoral College votes less than Trump. It had laid a huge hidden risk for the disputes in the 2020 election. Nowadays, in order to please the rabble voters, the presidential candidates have to disregard the principles and recklessly promise various benefits that the government cannot afford. The evils of human nature lure a large number of rabble voters to vote for their selfish profits. Starting in 2016, the United States has entered into an era of a constitutional crisis.

    Since the end of World War II, many countries in the communist world have committed a fatal mistake: In the communist society, whether hard-working or lazy, no matter how much or fewer people had done, the governments achieved absolute equality benefits. History has shown that complete equality benefits in the economic field had led to widespread hunger and slavery in the later historical periods. Similarly, there is a mistake of absolute equality of voting rights in the free world's democratic area. Since the mid-1960s, the U.S. fiscal deficit has been beginning to rise rapidly and overwhelmed for a few decades. In recent years, the federal government has repeatedly shut down due to the lack of funding.

    While eliminating apartheid and discrimination, all American citizens enjoy equal rights. That was a huge historic step forward. However, at the same time, there were no regulations for the voters who were lazy people, mediocrities, and other rabble. Of course, it's absolutely! Fairness and justice should equal citizens' right to vote.

Meanwhile,  the voting rights of tickets should be equal absolutely? For example, supposing a lazy person who does not work and pays taxes and an honest laborer who pays a lot of taxes legally; however, both of them have absolutely equal voting rights. Obviously, in that case, it should be unfair to the taxpayers.

    For example, in the future, the citizens' voting rights might be based on how much taxes they have paid in the past four years.  There should be one of the criteria for measuring their tickets' voting rights in the next election. How many contributions have been made to the country, such as performing military service, etc., ought to use as another standard for reference? Assuming that a president, governor, or rich person paid very little taxes in the four years, at the next election, on the same ticket, his voting rights might be far less than a working-class person whose taxes were more than theirs.

    Until today, The 2020 U.S. election has not come to an end yet. Many electoral problems have been exposed, from pre-election campaigning to post-election protests. The history lessons remind people that every citizen's voting rights are absolutely inalienable, but once the voting rights of tickets are different, those can effectively ensure that those who have paid taxes legally and who have contributed to the nation should have more voting rights in their tickets. As a result, the whole country's total vote would be more politically meaningful, more legally effective, and could reflect mainstream public opinions with the greatest common divisor, which are more in line with the democratic aspirations and the spirits of constitutionalism.

    Once democracy exceeds a special limit line, its institutional decline will be inevitable. Whether the constitutional crisis can be reformed in time will undoubtedly determine the United States' future historical destiny. In short, voting is valuable, but an absolutely equal vote might turn democracy into a farce; democracy is a correct system, but democratic elections without threshold standards would be a disaster.