The potential of the U.S. Constitution to reshape today’s fractured political system was the focus of this year’s Ambassador Frank E. Baxter Lecture by Yuval Levin, a conservative political analyst and expert on public policy and the constitutional system.
Levin’s lecture, titled “Can the Constitution Unify Americans?,” argued that it can be done by following the ideals outlined in the Constitution, so that Americans can learn to live as one nation, even amid disagreement.
“The U.S. Constitution is an answer to the question: ‘How can we act together when we don’t think alike?’” Levin said.
Drawing on the core principles of federalism as laid out in the Constitution, Levin said that we can find a framework for reshaping government institutions to better represent all Americans. An essential part of this process, he explained, is the separation of governing authorities. Specifically, he argued that state and federal powers should remain separated, with national-level issues being addressed by Congress.
However, Levin emphasized that Congress itself is in need of serious reform because it’s “broken” and “the primary reason our political culture is broken.”
Levin explained that Congress consistently fails to facilitate cross-partisan bargaining — in other words, Congress is unable to find compromise between the two sides of the political spectrum. As a result, legislation is near impossible to pass, leaving major issues unaddressed as polarization deepens and the American public remains dissatisfied.
Levin emphasized that addressing these issues in Congress is crucial, as it would reduce the need for the president to intervene in legislative matters. He believes that Congress, not the president, should be the center of our government.
Additionally, Levin explained how our current system of elections diverges significantly from what the framers of the Constitution originally intended. Today, we expect a hard shift in political direction after each presidential election, with the incoming president often working to “undo” much of what the previous one did during their administration.
By limiting the power of the president, we could limit such “sharp turns,” which lead to a lack of common ground.
“Reigning in the administrative state is therefore not just a matter of constraining government power, but would offer us a way to recover the capacity of our governing institutions to forge some of the common ground that we lack,” Levin said.
In closing, Levin emphasized that the current political climate reflects an “unusually long 50/50 moment in American public life” with no broad majority. Rather than finding ways to empower each individual side, he said, the focus should be on forming broader majorities through facilitating negotiation and accommodation — and he believes that starts with a renewed belief in the Constitution.
“Americans are often angry at our Constitution now, because we sense that it’s broken down,” he said. “But if we could see that we have broken it, we could see that it needs us if it’s going to serve us better. By rising to repair it, we can enable it again to repair our society and bring us a little closer together, as it was made to do.”
Yuval’s lecture was part of the annual Baxter Lecture series hosted by the Berkeley Liberty Initiative (BLI), which brings intellectual leaders to campus to engage students and faculty in conversations that reflect a broad diversity of viewpoints. The Berkeley Liberty initiative is housed in UC Berkeley’s Division of Social Sciences.
This commitment to freedom of expression and open dialogue is essential to UC Berkeley’s core values, as highlighted by Berkeley Social Sciences Dean Raka Ray and UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons during the event.
The work of the BLI and the Baxter Lecture emphasizes that “we can disagree, but we must keep talking for the sake of the university, of society, and of the globe,” Ray said.
“This lecture and its topic couldn’t be more timely and important,” Lyons said. “So much of what he [Levin] has written and done in the past bears our attention.”
