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Changing the Constitution
of virtue, meaning by that word both personal courage and integrity, and
a general willingness to sacrifice one’s own interests, if need be, for the
common good. Are the American people, most of them, still aware of
moral obligations and prepared to uphold the Constitution in an hour of
need?
(2) The Congress and the State legislatures often seem to be lacking
in able leadership, frequently timid, and too easily influenced by pressure groups and special interests. Too few Senators and Representatives
take long views. Too many look upon politics merely as a means to personal advancement. The American democracy cannot endure a great
while without a leadership that retains some aristocratic qualities—
particularly a sense of honor, of duty, and of country.
(3) More and more power is concentrated in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government. Congress, with an immense new
bureaucracy of its own, continues to create new executive departments
and regulatory agencies and appropriate increasingly huge amounts of
money for thousands of Federal programs. Matters previously subject to
the jurisdiction of the States, in ever increasing degrees, are pulled into the
orbit of Congressional supremacy, often by an unrestricted use of the commerce power, the welfare and spending power, and the enforcement
powers of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. The administrative
details, requiring the constant exercise of discretion and broad decisionmaking authority, are then turned over to a massive Federal bureaucracy.
Congress has so many programs, infinitely complex, varied, and demanding, that the members are no longer able to debate the measures they propose in an intelligent and thorough manner.
The executive department also grows larger, and the powers of the
President expand as new agencies and programs are added by Congress.
Immense new responsibilities around the world greatly amplify the President’s diplomatic and military powers. Many major public decisions are
actually made by the President’s army of advisors and personal staff—a
body of persons whose names are virtually unknown outside of the White
House. The people expect more and more of the President; but any man,
however able, has but twenty-four hours in his day, and is not infallible.
(4) With each passing term, the Supreme Court and lower Federal
courts handle more and more cases and resolve more and more disputes