OPINION:
It’s ironic that freedom of the press may be causing a constitutional crisis. The Founders designed the Constitution for a large democratic republic in which elected representatives would almost always act as trustees, rarely as delegates.
As a trustee, a representative would be trusted by constituents to act and vote according to his judgment. As a delegate, he would instead act and vote according to the wishes of his constituents, something like in a true democracy. The Founders believed that the trustee function would be the predominant one in a large republic like America, where it would provide effective barriers against the formation of large, harmful, disruptive factions.
The Founders didn’t anticipate the press growing and evolving into outlets with national influence. As such, today’s media tell the public what to think about an issue (and sometimes they create the issue, whole cloth). Because the representative is held accountable by his constituents at election time, there is a much greater pressure on him to act more as a delegate and less as a trustee. So America becomes more like a pure democracy.
Furthermore, the press is almost 100% left-leaning and appears to be colluding with the Democratic Party as they share the same talking points. Not only is it biased, which is bad enough, but it is also frequently deliberately dishonest. The press is abusing its protection under the First Amendment. It is promoting the formation of the potentially harmful factions that the Founders dreaded. It is, in effect, circumventing and subverting the barriers against faction in the Constitution.
In this respect, the media are anti-constitutional. Is their relationship with the Democratic Party more than collusion? Is the press engaged in a conspiracy with the left to subvert the Constitution? Is this a constitutional crisis?
ROBERT D’ANGELIS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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