Is the Constitution that Founded Our Democracy Undemocratic?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“The Constitution is too fundamentally antidemocratic a document to serve democratic purposes reliably,” argues legal scholar and cultural critic Jedediah Purdy. In his new book, “Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening, and Our Best Hope,” Purdy argues that the Constitution is standing in the way of democracy and suggests that we need to amend it. Purdy also urges us to not give up on politics, which he views as “not optional,” if we are to keep working on the experiment of democracy. We’ll talk about the Constitution, reforming politics, and other ways Purdy believes we can create a more perfect union. Guests: Jedediah Purdy, professor, Duke Law School; author, "Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy is Flawed, Frightening and Our Best Hope" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:29.3	Coming up on farm, is it possible that the U.S. Constitution is fundamentally undemocratic?
1:35.3	That's what legal scholar Jedediah Purdy argues in his new book, Two Cheers for Politics.
1:40.3	And just as the title suggests, Purdy doesn't want us to give up on politics either, which he sees as not optional if we're to keep working on the experiment of democracy.
1:50.0	We talk about the Constitution, reforming politics, and other ways we can create a more perfect union with Jedediah Purdy. Pardy.
2:13.7	I'm Mina Kim. Welcome to Forum.
2:15.6	Our Constitution, seen as foundational to establishing our nation's democracy, is in Jedediah Purdy's eyes, two fundamentally anti-democratic a document to serve democratic purposes reliably. That's a quote from his new book, Two Cheers for Politics, Why Democracy is Flawed, Frightening, and Our Best Hope.
2:38.6	Well, Purdy is with us today to explain what he means and how he thinks the Constitution can be fixed and why it would lead to a more perfect union in his eyes.
2:49.2	He's professor at Duke University Law School.
	...

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