SYMPOSIUM FOREWORD.

• Author: Litton, Paul
• Position: A - A New Hope? An Interdisciplinary Reflection on the Constitution, Politics, and Polarization in Jack Balkin's "The Cycles of Constitutional Time"

TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 433 I. INTRODUCTION 434 II. BALKIN'S CYCLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL TIME 435 III. SYMPOSIUM THEMES AND CONTRIBUTIONS 439 IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS 442 I. INTRODUCTION

Politically, we are living in dark times. Political polarization has increased over the past forty years, reaching an extreme and causing real damage to our political system and to our interpersonal lives. Americans are experiencing more hostility and anger towards their neighbors, family members, and fellow citizens with opposing political views. (1) Growing distrust in government and intense polarization causally contributed to the 2016 presidential election of a populist demagogue whose appeals to toxic prejudices, racial resentment, and baseless fears were designed to exacerbate political and civil division. (2) After he lost the 2020 election, a mob of his most ardent supporters attacked the United States Capitol harboring the delusional belief that the vote was somehow rigged and fraudulent.

Despite this "recent unpleasantness," (3) perhaps - hopefully - history will view the riot at the Capitol as the nadir of our democratic republic's maladies during our lifetimes. Jack Balkin's newest masterpiece, The Cycles of Constitutional Time, (4) attempts to provide optimism. It urges us to take a deep breath, relax, and travel with Professor Balkin through American history, political science research, and constitutional theory to grasp how we arrived at this predicament and to see that we are probably headed towards sunnier days. Balkin wrote this book before the insurrection at the Capitol, but that riot does not undermine the reasons he sees for hope that the health of our political system and society will improve considerably in the decades ahead.

During the week following the 2020 election, the Missouri Law Review hosted a symposium (via video conferencing during the coronavirus pandemic), convening an extraordinary and interdisciplinary group of scholars to discuss and debate Balkin's powerful and intriguing arguments for hope. The conversations were captivating, deep, and insightful. The Missouri Law Review, along with the University of Missouri School of Law, is proud to publish the written contributions to this symposium in this volume. This foreword will briefly summarize the main arguments of Cycles, provide a brief preview of the essays herein, and draw some thematic connections among them.

2. BALKIN'S CYCLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL TIME

   "The malaise is only temporary[,]" (5) Balkin asserts. He argues that the history of American politics flows in three cycles which interact with one another. (6) Along these cycles and at particular intersections, we find healthier times, but sometimes, like now, they cause darkness. (7)

   The first cycle is "the rise and fall of political regimes in American history." (8) Balkin divides American political history into six regimes, each one identified by the political party that "dominate[d] politics practically and ideologically" (9) during the period. The party characterizing a regime does not win all elections, but most, and,

   more importantly, [its] ideals and interests construct the basic agenda for politics during the regime. Put another way, the dominant party sets the baseline of what is considered possible and impossible politically. It structures the basic ideological assumptions of the politics of its time. (10)

   The current regime, which he argues is coming to an end, is the Reagan regime, beginning in 1980. (11) The Republican Party's commitment to the ideals of individualistic capitalism - deregulation, lower taxes, weakened labor unions (12) - stand in contrast to the previous regime, ushered in by Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Democrat Bill Clinton occupied the White House during the Reagan regime, yet he famously acknowledged that "the era of big government is over." (13) Of course, all regimes end. New issues and circumstances fracture the dominant coalition. Parts of an outgoing coalition become radicalized, other parts marginalized, and an opposition party, with a new coalition, can emerge. (14) According to Balkin, that is where American politics currently resides. (15)

   The second cycle Balkin describes is one of political polarization and depolarization. (16) We are currently polarized, but past periods of greater social and political cohesion made legislative achievements possible. The political reforms of the New Deal and Civil Rights eras were possible precisely because of the overlapping interests of the political parties and their coalitions. (17) In addition to being a phase, Balkin argues, polarization also been a tool of regimes to obtain and maintain power. (18) Nixon and Reagan capitalized on social issues that divided Americans, and the use of polarization was brought to new levels by Newt Gingrich, conservative media, and Donald Trump. (19) But...