A Cheer for the Constitution
Barkan, Joanne
It's 1987. We're celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution, and the Reagan administration has done much to make the occasion relevant. With a fine sense of...
...Perhaps the media went after this story more aggressively because they felt duped by the administration's line of no arms to Iran and no negotiations with terrorists...
...Or maybe the administration simply went too far...
...The malfeasance of the Reagan administration should be prosecuted to the fullest, but there's much to be done beyond Contragate...
...It's disturbing to see how small a portion of the media coverage of Contragate is devoted to the question of democratic government...
...138 They would have the president acknowledge his little slip-up with the law, apologize in one of his shuffie-and-shucks routines, and then back to business as usual...
...The imperfect mechanism that's meant to uncover the scoundrels and their misdeeds seems to be working...
...We're more likely to hear about "the dangers of crippling the presidency...
...Replacing immoral policies with democratic and humane ones is the task of citizens and mass movements and public opinion—all those forces in society that put pressure on officials and policy shapers...
...Supporters of the proposal claim that it wouldn't affect the separation of powers too much...
...In preparation for this year's anniversary, a committee of some three hundred government and party officials, labor leaders, lawyers, and scholars undertook a five-year study of the Constitution...
...We could...
...They also worry about being blamed for "losing Central America to the Communists...
...But what about permanent damage to the Constitution...
...The committee issued its report in January and recommended some substantial changes, one of which would allow members of Congress to serve in the Cabinet and in other positions in the executive branch...
...There's even a chance that during the course of the investigations, the assumptions underlying Reagan's foreign policy will come into the debate...
...Why did it take so long for the president's policies to create a scandal...
...Perhaps winning a majority in the 1986 Senate elections boosted Democratic confidence...
...So when does a law become big enough to bother about...
...So Happy Anniversary, old Constitution...
...Then there are the conservatives in both parties who hope to limit the crisis and thereby salvage the substance of the administration's foreign policy...
...Unless the populace continues to see these obligations as inviolable and unless we can count on the constitutional separation of powers to provide a mechanism for investigating and prosecuting the abuse of power, government by law is jeopardized, and our democracy is undermined...
...Those who argue the save-the-presidency and the let's-get-onwithbusiness lines actually have other concerns...
...It's doubtful that anything will come of this recommendation...
...And the issue of democracy...
...We know there should have been a major upheaval before now...
...The first has to do with the focus of the Contragate investigation...
...If we Americans were a bit older and wiser, we'd know that all governments engage in these petites improprieties...
...And we're not sure we can count on this one being investigated to the fullest...
...A certain number of illegal policies—even when combined with record-breaking levels of arrogance and incompetence—may still be "within bounds...
...Obviously, no line can be drawn dividing the mandatory from the optional...
...It's easy enough to argue that it's a bourgeois charter focused on property rights, a charter whose drafters included slaveholders...
...But the same anticommunist rationale did not apply in Iran, and so the scam exploded...
...The Democrats and Republicans will have more on 139 their minds in the coming months than upholding the Constitution...
...Imagine the current investigations getting under way with several high-ranking senators also serving in the State and Defense Departments...
...The illegal mining of Nicaragua's harbors and illegal funding for the contras preceded the revelation of arms sales to Iran, and these policies were no secret...
...But beyond that . . . . Finally, it's possible that there was enough passive acceptance of the "Reagan doctrine" to allow the administration to carry on as it pleased in Central America...
...They see it as a sorry anachronism and believe that what we really need is a constitutional convention that would start from scratch...
...Two nagging questions remain...
...Why is the furor so belated...
...The Republicans don't want the messy scandal to spill into the upcoming electoral season...
...No SENSIBLE PERSON claims that the Constitution is a perfect document...
...Where do we draw the line, saying that beyond this limit even a president must obey...
...Nothing in the Constitution prohibits the president or Congress from supporting murderous dictatorships around the world or exploiting the economies of destitute nations...
...Even if the various counsel and committees ferret out every violation of the law, is it possible that the content of Reagan's foreign policy could remain intact...
...The Democrats worry about being blamed for harassing a popular president...
...the public could lose interest in the scandal or begin to feel that Mr...
...If we push this investigation too far, we'll do permanent damage to an office that's already been weakened...
...Some critics would scrap the document altogether...
...Could we end up with technically legal versions of the same miserably immoral policies...
...So whatever guarantees do exist must be carefully safeguarded, and the best way to go about that is to push forward the toughest investigation possible...
...In taking the oath of office, the president swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and this includes executing the laws of the land...
...For the moment, however, the investigation is rolling along, and every day brings new revelations of the lawless dealings of an ignominious presidency...
...We'll paralyze the government if this crisis isn't cut short...
...They seem to be wrestling with any number of backlash nightmares...
...Nice Guy in the White House is getting a bum rap...
...Political pundits aren't putting much emphasis on the constitutional connection...
...The conclusion is straightforward...
...But in mid-Contragate season, even the thought of tampering with the separation of powers can send a chill up the spine of a democrat...
...Finally, there are the foreign pundits and government officials abroad who go on at great length about American naïveté, puritan morality, and our immature propensity to self-flagellation...
...It's disturbing but not surprising...
...There are several possible explanations...
...We also hear a lot about "getting on with important business...
...You can't stop the march of world history just because someone has violated a few little laws...
...With a fine sense of timing, it's gone public with the notion that the executive branch of the government is above the law...
...or the media could decide that Contragate doesn't sell enough advertising time...
...The second question is more difficult to answer...
...There's only a small arsenal of weapons available for the intermittent struggle against the imperial presidency...
...Not much more than a vigilant press, public sentiment, and the separation of powers stands between democratic government and the abuses of an administration that places itself above the law...
Vol. 34 • April 1987 • No. 2
