Anniversaries are more than a celebration; they are a time of reflection.
1. John Bagot Glubb, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival (1976; repr.: Rosemary Glubb, 2002), 2–3, 24–25.
The historian John Glubb famously claimed that the average lifespan of an empire is about 250 years, an ominous number as America celebrates its own 250th anniversary.[1] As our beloved nation reaches this important milestone there are plenty of achievements and traditions to honor, but there are also numerous challenges that we face as a people. Congress seems paralyzed, unable to address the many critical issues that loom on the horizon. Our judiciary branch has gone rogue, battling the president at every turn. The executive is hindered severely by a deep state which seems dead set to deny necessary change. Could it be that our system of government has run its course, or is there a solution to this intransigence that is in keeping with the traditions of the nation?
The truth is that the American government has changed radically over the years while maintain the illusion of continuity, a flexibility installed into the Constitution by the founders themselves. This truth, while uncomfortable for some, may show us a way to maintain our nation while addressing the critical issues that threaten to consume us. In what follows, I want to show how the United States has not had only one set of guiding principles, but five.
One Nation Under Five Republics
2. Mencius Moldbug [Curtis Yarvin], “The Iron Polygon: Power in the United States,” Unqualified Reservations, May 13, 2007.
Americans are taught to think of our nation as one continuous government, but upon careful examination we will notice several distinct periods in the life of the republic. As the political theorist Curtis Yarvin has suggested, the French number their republics to better understand when and how these changes took place, and it is helpful for us to do the same with the United States.[2] The nation has held a single identity, but there have been revolutions inside the form, maintaining the same basic structure externally but radically altering how the government actually functions. Exploring these changes is key to understanding how we arrived at our current situation.
1. The Articles of Confederation (1781–1789)
The Constitution was not the first governing document of the United States; that distinction belongs to the Articles of Confederation. The Articles created a weak central government on purpose with the intent of leaving the states more like independent nations who cooperated on a regular basis than a unified country. Several of the Founding Fathers were frustrated by the limitations of this government and envisioned America as a player on the world stage with a large mercantile empire. Those Founders replaced the Articles with the Constitution, ratifying the new governing document without technically dissolving the old one.
2. The Original Constitution (1790–1865)
From its adoption in 1790 until the Civil War the Constitution governed the second American Republic. This is the government most conservatives still believe they live under today. When people reference the powers and principles of the founding document, this is the period they are thinking of despite the fact that it has changed radically since. Even though the Constitution had created a far more centralized and powerful government than the Articles, it was still too weak for the liking of many politicians. Battles over states’ rights, nullification, and slavery continued until tensions rose to a fever pitch. As the country expanded westward, the admission of every new state became a battle between pro and anti-slavery elements leading to events like Bleeding Kansas until those disagreements culminated in the Civil War.
3. The Modified Constitution (1866–1932)
After the Civil War, half the country was living under military occupation and the government was trying to address the status of freed slaves. Congress rammed through three new amendments, including the Fourteenth Amendment, which radically changed the nature of the country. Even if one believes the tactics for securing the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment were justified, it is hard to deny that the extraordinary nature of the methods used would never have been accepted in any other scenario. The Fourteenth Amendment, in addition to creating the disaster of birthright citizenship, also introduced the equal protection clause, which has been used as a blank check for the expansion of federal power. Despite the centralization caused by the Constitution, before the passage of the new amendment most states still operated with a high degree of autonomy. After the equal protection clause was enshrined, it became clear that states had lost most of their rights and that the federal government could override state sovereignty at any time.
4. The New Deal (1933–1964)
Sworn into office on March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most transformative presidents in the history of the United States—not to mention the longest serving (1933–1945). In addition to leading the nation through World War II, Roosevelt revolutionized the government with The New Deal. The nation’s longest serving president built a modern bureaucratic infrastructure, giving the government sweeping powers to intervene in Washington and across the states. Vast amounts of power were consolidated into these new intuitions that now form the deep state, and it is increasingly obvious that this web of organizations wields more power than any individual politician. It forever changed how the nation operates and what “democracy” looks like in America.
5. The Age of Entitlement (1965–Present)
3. Christopher Caldwell, The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020).
The current American republic is defined by a simple piece of legislation that became its own separate constitution. As Cristopher Caldwell outlined in his critical book, The Age of Entitlement,[3] the Civil Rights Act began as a limited piece of legislation aimed at fixing a very real wrong visited on a particular segment of society.[4] Once a legal exception was created that allowed certain people advantages in order to right historic wrongs, it became an arms race to see how far and fast those exceptions could be expanded.
4. For an introduction to Christopher Caldwell’s important book, see Bradley G. Green, “One Constitution, or Two? Reviewing The Age of Entitlement by Christopher Caldwell,” Christ Over All, July 31, 2023.
Over time court rulings and additional legislation have transformed the Civil Rights Act into a powerful secondary constitution that overrode the written document. The Civil Rights Act became America’s de facto constitution, even as de jure constitution remained in place. As a result, the Civil Rights Act allows the government to interfere in the operation of local governments, school, business, churches, and in many cases private organizations—all in the name of stopping racism, a never-ending quest that provides never-ending power to the federal government.
What Does It Mean?
As we can see, despite there only being one official change of governing documents in the history of the United States, the way the Constitution has been understood over the years has been radically altered. In some cases, this came with formal amendments like the Fourteenth Amendment, but in many scenarios the simple creation of a bureaucracy or the passage of legislation radically changed how the country was governed.
The good news is that by maintaining the appearance of continuity, the United States has lasted 250 years. The bad news is that most people do not realize how much America has changed, or how these Revolutions have come into being.
Armed with this knowledge, however, we can have a better perspective on our governing document, both its great strengths and its limitations. And if America is to survive another 250 years, then we must be clear eyed about how the constitution has been changed, and what is possible when a dedicated group of people who understand the political realities of our nation care enough to make necessary changes again.
