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The Book of the Week is “13 Cracks, Repairing American Democracy After Trump” by Allan J. Lichtman, published in 2022. In addition to providing thirteen different general recommendations– through reforming or enacting new laws (in order to re-start America’s democracy, because it has been destroyed by Trump), he recounted various situations in American history that made the relevant legal reforms necessary. The Trump administration’s current, numerous, extreme violations of American laws have made the author appear naive. Nevertheless, several of the author’s thirteen recommendations are listed below.
Pursuant to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, a Court of Presidential Directives should be established to curb a president’s abuses of power. In Trump’s second term, the U.S. Supreme Court has been stacked in his favor. The Court could have exercised the Appointments Clause– allowing it to make court-system appointments, but it didn’t.
Constitutional “expert” Alan Dershowitz, without citing any judicial or scholarly authority, contended that the president can be judge and jury at his own impeachment trial in order to get reelected, short of “committing a serious indictable crime;” according to Dershowitz, understandably, it’s in the president’s best interest, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
In the past, there has been manipulation of American presidential elections with the help of foreign powers. With better law enforcement, Congress: could hold the manipulators accountable, and should impose sanctions on foreign nations that have committed election interference. There’s a law banning a candidate’s acceptance of gifts valued at more than $25,000 from foreign leaders. However, that’s a slippery slope if opposition-research information is defined as a gift, and valued at more than $25,000.
Lichtman discussed the drafting of clearer, more detailed laws on presidential pardons, and suggested banning pardons that involve conflicts of interest.
The author recommended requiring law enforcement officials to wear body cams. But those have their pros and cons. Cams have Big Brother overtures, because they could contain AI software that does: facial or voice recognition, or license-plate scanning. Government workers, or even the president himself could use the collecting of personal data for evil– to retaliate against enemies. Oops. Too late.
Lastly, the author remarked that a Constitutional amendment should be passed to reorganize the U.S. Senate (and rename it to do an end-run around the mention of “Senate” and two “senators” for each state) to allow the number of senators (one to eight) to represent each state pursuant to its population; this would allow more accurate representation of states with small populations.
Read the book to learn many additional details of the above, and other reforms the author felt would help the United States return to democracy.