5. The Constitution can only protect democracy if people protect the Constitution
Although panelists frequently invoked the Constitution, many argued that the document itself cannot preserve American democracy. Its survival, they said, depends on whether elected officials, judges and ordinary citizens are willing to uphold the principles it embodies.
David Becker said the Constitution has proven remarkably durable over nearly 2 1/2 centuries, but only because people continue to defend it.
“The Constitution is incredibly resilient,” Becker said. “But ultimately it’s still just a piece of paper and it requires hard work to enforce.”
Current and former members of Congress who participated in the conference argued that the legislative branch also bears responsibility for the move away from constitutional norms.
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Delaware County, said Congress has ceded its own constitutional role.
“There’s been growing abdication of congressional authority to the executive,” she said.
Conservative commentator Ramesh Ponnuru called Congress “the sick man of our constitutional system.”
“It tempts the courts and the executive to fill the vacuum to take the power, but it wouldn’t be possible if Congress had the institutional self-respect to insist on its own prerogatives,” he said.
As for the judiciary, Jeh Johnson, who served as the secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, said federal judges have shouldered much of that responsibility in recent years, calling them “the real heroes of our democracy in these challenging times” for continuing to “call balls and strikes” despite political pressure and threats.
However, Dickinson College President John E. Jones III, a former U.S. District Judge warned that the increase in attacks on judges threatens not only individual jurists but the judiciary’s independence.
“We are going to get a judge killed,” Jones said. “We’ve got to dial down the toxic rhetoric.”
The summit concluded with author Roxane Gay returning to the same theme from a broader perspective.
“Checks and balances only exist if people are willing to live by those guidelines,” she said.
The discussions were moderated by University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt, The 19th Editor-at-Large Errin Haines, veteran political journalist Heidi Przybyla, CNN and SiriusXM host Michael Smerconish, WHYY Vice President of News and Civic Dialogue Sarah Glover and WHYY’s Cherri Gregg. Other panelists included League of Women Voters CEO Celina Stewart, Partnership for Public Service President and CEO Max Stier, former U.S. Reps. Jim Gerlach and Glenn Nye, National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru, and author David Brooks. Together, they explored topics ranging from the rule of law and election administration to misinformation, civic participation, congressional authority and political polarization.