5. The Constitution can only protect democracy if people protect the Constitution<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
David Becker said the Constitution has proven remarkably durable over nearly 2 1\/2 centuries, but only because people continue to defend it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Constitution is incredibly resilient,\u201d Becker said. \u201cBut ultimately it\u2019s still just a piece of paper and it requires hard work to enforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Delaware County, said Congress has ceded its own constitutional role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been growing abdication of congressional authority to the executive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Conservative commentator Ramesh Ponnuru called Congress \u201cthe sick man of our constitutional system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt tempts the courts and the executive to fill the vacuum to take the power, but it wouldn\u2019t be possible if Congress had the institutional self-respect to insist on its own prerogatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cthe real heroes of our democracy in these challenging times\u201d for continuing to \u201ccall balls and strikes\u201d despite political pressure and threats.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to get a judge killed,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to dial down the toxic rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n
The summit concluded with author Roxane Gay returning to the same theme from a broader perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cChecks and balances only exist if people are willing to live by those guidelines,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5. The Constitution can only protect democracy if people protect the Constitution Although panelists frequently invoked the Constitution,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":184362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,7837,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,24003,68,2969],"class_list":["post-940229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-democracy","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-university-of-pennsylvania","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116933139308678227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}