From Bill Mohler

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:14:25 -0400
From: Bill Mohler
To: Kreutzer,Donald L.

Don -

I'm not sure if your reply to Ivo was intended to be condescending, but it came across that way to me. Even more unfortunate, it was not very accurate in its analogies.

A couple of points worth noting:

There are many forms of democracies, of which the U.S. practices several at different levels of government. Furthermore, the USA is a rather complex democracy, a federal republic in which 50 largely independent states decide upon their own distinct approaches to government. An example that has been brought up several times in recent emails is the strikingly different state laws on union labor votes. Many American states are actually more like Croatia (a democracy FYI) than like Connecticut with regard to this immediately relevant topic, which Ivo addressed.

Yet, even if we just focus on the federal republic itself, let's remember that amendments to the U.S. Constitution are not simple 51-49 one-off affairs. "Amending the Constitution is a two-part process: amendments must be proposed and then they must be ratified. Amendments can be proposed one of two ways. The only way that has been used to date is through a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress. Alternatively, two-thirds of the legislatures of the States can call a Constitutional Convention to consider one or more amendments." "Once proposed — whether submitted by Congress or by a national convention — amendments must then be ratified by three-fourths of the states to take effect. Article Five gives Congress the option of requiring ratification by state legislatures or by special convention."

The other point implied here, and broached by Ivo, is that laws are made to be changeable. His proposal to explore flexibility in the current union-shop statutes is very pragmatic and sensible, whether or not it turns out to feasible ultimately.

I would argue that many of the faculty here see this question of unionization as a matter of constitutional importance to the institution. Hence their requests that we all take this decision with due deliberation and well-informed sincerity.

Bill