Laws Follow Beliefs; D. Russell

LAWS FOLLOW BELIEFS THE CONSTITUTION of the United States worked well until 1860 because most of the voters were in favor of the principles on which it was based. For the next eight years there was no effective Constitution; it was temporarily shelved while the issue of slavery was settled by force of arms. Not surprisingly, the victors then wrote their own philosophy into the Constitution. The Constitution continued to work reasonably well from 1868 to 1930 because most of the voters were still generally inclined toward most of the principles that in spired it. The Constitution hasn't worked at all well since 1930 because most of the voters have not been in favor of the social and economic and political systems it was de signed to support. Words have little meaning when the spirit behind them is missing. The government of the United States (or of France or Russia or any other nation over a significant period of time) will be and do whatever most of the voters want or will tolerate. No mechanistic scheme or writ ten document can ever for long prevent the effective 432 LAWS FOLLOW BELIEFS 433 minority (usually called the majority) of the people from doing whatever it is they want to do.

Thus, whenever the majority (that is, the effective minority) of the American people accept again the general philosophy that inspired the Constitution, we will return to the Constitution; not before. For while laws may·· reflect what people believe, it is the beliefs, not the laws as such, that generally determine their actions.