The Constitution is treated as a near-sacred document in the US. Its origins are mythologized in middle school classrooms across the country, while the Founding Fathers are celebrated as geniuses who crafted the greatest system of government the world has ever seen.
In reality, the Constitution emerged from a period of intense class struggle following the First American Revolution. These origins reveal much about its purpose.
Crisis and rebellion
After the Revolutionary War, the newly independent states were plunged into an economic crisis. Small farmers faced heavy debt burdens. Those unable to pay had their lands confiscated and were often thrown into debtors’ prison.
In response, the masses revived the committees and organizations of the revolution. Unrest stretched from New Hampshire to South Carolina. Farmers blocked courthouse sessions and farm foreclosures. In some cases, they burned jails and courthouses to the ground. This general upheaval culminated in a 1787 armed uprising in Massachusetts, led by Daniel Shays.
Although it was defeated, Shays’s Rebellion struck fear into the hearts of the upstart American ruling class. In the words of George Washington, “Commotions of this sort, like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no opposition in the way to divide and crumble them.”
Under the Articles of Confederation, which preceded the Constitution, the central government was weak, unable to raise taxes, regulate commerce, or raise an army. As discontent bubbled over, the ruling class needed a stronger, more centralized state.
Some of the Founding Fathers even considered bringing back a monarchy to stabilize the situation and protect private property, but ultimately they deemed it untenable. It was clear that the masses who struggled and sacrificed in the revolution would never accept a new king.
Instead, less than four months after the defeat of the Shaysites, fifty-five delegates—lawyers, merchants, and slaveholders—gathered in Philadelphia and emerged with a new Constitution.
American high schools teach that constitutional “checks and balances” prevent corruption and protect democracy. But really, the Constitution provides a framework for debates and struggles between different layers of the ruling class—while excluding the vast majority.
In Revolution and Counterrevolution in America, John Peterson summed up the real meaning of “checks and balances”: “The main thing to be checked is the will of the laboring majority. The whole point is to prevent even the whiff of fundamental change that could threaten the regime of private property.”
Institutions like the Electoral College, Senate, and Supreme Court are all designed to prevent “democracy” from interfering with the smooth running of capitalism, regardless of which individual or political party may come to power.
As Lenin put it in The State and Revolution, “A democratic republic is the best possible political shell for capitalism . . . it establishes its power so securely, so firmly, that no change of persons, institutions or parties in the bourgeois-democratic republic can shake it.”
“Freedom for the slave-owners”
The bourgeoisie was fighting for freedom—but freedom for what? Their freedom to accumulate wealth and property.
What freedom does the working class have? The freedom to choose which capitalist we sell our labor power to? The power to vote for which group of exploiters will rule over us the next few years?
What is free speech, when all the media outlets are owned by billionaires? What is the right to freedom of assembly, when meeting spaces and venues can cost thousands of dollars? Under the Constitution, any citizen can go to court to defend their rights—provided they have the time and money.
As Lenin wrote, “Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners.”
According to a recent CATO institute poll, 86% view the Constitution as important for protecting their liberty and freedoms. Who wouldn’t be in favor of democratic rights and protecting them? In reality, it’s not a piece of paper that protects those rights—but mass struggle.
In fact, the Bill of Rights was only tacked onto the Constitution as a concession to ensure that the rest of the document would pass in state legislatures. From the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement—every significant gain in democratic rights has been won in struggle—and that is what it takes to defend them.
When they deem it necessary, the capitalist class has no qualms violating their own laws and constitution. To cite just one example, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution clearly states that only Congress can declare war. But that hasn’t stopped every president from Harry Truman to Donald Trump from waging imperialist wars of aggression without a formal congressional declaration.
A new constitution?
Despite all the ruling class propaganda about the Constitution, CATO reports that 45% of Americans under 30 would support drafting a new one.
But power doesn’t come from a piece of paper. It ultimately flows from control over the forces of production. The capitalists don’t derive their authority to rule over society from the Constitution. Ultimately, they rule through their economic power, backed by the violence of their state.
One thread running through the history of the US is the struggle of ordinary people for democratic ideals. In the next American Revolution, the working class will expropriate the Fortune 500 and take the key levers of the economy firmly in hand. On this basis, we will fashion a new state and write a new constitution—one that truly reflects the interests of the majority.
The socialist revolution will lay the material basis to provide not merely formal, legal equality on paper, but equality of life.