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The Recent Unpleasantness: Understanding the Cycles of Constitutional Time
Balkin, Jack M.
Balkin, Jack M.
Abstract
"The Recent Unpleasantness" is one of several Southern euphemisms for the American Civil War. It is also a fitting description of our current political predicament. Of course, I am not suggesting that the United States is currently in the middle of a civil war, or that we will soon be in a civil war. Rather, the expression conveys a widespread feeling that something has gone seriously wrong
with constitutional democracy in the United States. The stark political and cultural polarization of American life, the raucous 2016 election, and the tabloid meanderings of the Trump Presidency have only seemed to confirm a growing despair about the future of democracy in America.
This Article, however, takes a longer view, and argues that the malaise is only temporary. I will use tools from constitutional theory and from political science to try to explain what is happening to American politics. But first, let me offer a little astronomical diversion.