Political Violence in the 1960s

Another subtext in the work of the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments was violence. The 25th Amendment would not have been ratified but for JFK's assassination. That evil concentrated attention on the dangers of having a disabled President. Likewise, the 26th Amendment was connected to the Vietnam War. The argument there was that eighteen-year-old men should be eligible to vote since they were eligible for the draft.

But that's not all. Hearings by the Subcommittee in 1969 and 1970 were replete with concerns that constitutional reform was required to reduce domestic political bloodshed. 1968 produced assassinations, riots, and violent protests at the Democratic National Convention. There were also violent student demonstrations (think Kent State) and fringe groups undertaking bombings. The argument was that expanding democracy and equality (through youth voting, abolishing the Electoral College, and the ERA) would channel these grievances in a peaceful direction.

A broader claim can be made that constitutional reform is very difficult to undertake during peacetime. The Civil War Amendments probably required the Civil War. The Constitution itself was an outgrowth of the Revolutionary War. And so on.