We like to champion our Founding Fathers in America as a legion of godlike men with such extraordinary individual genius that they were able to sit down and, over the course of a few brandies and spirited debates, craft an infallible Constitution that is honorably serving us to this day. But the Constitution wasn't their first attempt at forming a government.
Their first attempt was the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781. We can trace the roots of many parts of our government today back to this document, from the establishment of a national Congress to the general "league of friendship" between states. But the Articles of Confederation had some flaws too. It didn't give the federal government any power to raise taxes. There was no executive branch to enforce laws. Congress had no power to regulate foreign or interstate commerce. Within a few years of use, it became relatively apparent to government officials that the Articles of Confederation had some serious weak spots.
But it wasn't until Shays' Rebellion that the Founding Fathers knew the governing system was fundamentally broken. When Daniel Shays rose up with 4,000 violent rebels to try and overthrown the Massachusetts government in response to a debt crisis, the federal government had no channels through which to intervene and no federal troops to intervene with. The Founding Fathers were entirely helpless.
This was their trigger to formally begin working on a new Constitution: when they could no longer effectively respond to crisis. Equally as impressive as the Founding Fathers' ability to write a Constitution that has lasted 235 years was their humility to look honestly at their first attempt at a government, say, "This isn't working," and quickly work to find a better solution.
I love America, and I'm still inspired by the promise of American democracy. But between the January 6th insurrection and the total inability of Congress to pass significant gun control legislation and our reluctance to respond to the climate crisis in a meaningful way...I've lost faith in our government's ability to effectively respond to crisis. Maybe the Founding Fathers didn't create an infallible Constitution after all. Maybe they created an ingenious form of government that served us well for 235 years but simply was never designed to keep up with the breakneck speed of 21st century life and crises.
Maybe it's time for some changes.
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