Limited Government

Is the US Constitution obsolete?

The modern Republican emphasis on “limited government” was, in fact, a guiding principle in the architecture of “checks and balances” originally designed to prevent a “dictatorship of the majority”. The Constitution basically acts as a “governor” [sic] to prevent volatile or reckless change; it has worked very well through centuries of “business as usual”, and it continues to play that role very effectively today.

The problem is that we are now faced with crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and Global Climate Change that can only be effectively addressed by just the sort of rapid and radical changes that the Constitution was designed to prevent.

No doubt every historical crisis has elicited similar warnings, and then proven less than fatal after all; but the data is pretty convincing this time. If the price of Limited Government turns out to be the collapse of civilization and the extermination of our species, the last survivors may wish we’d privileged Liberty a little less.