We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few

Please join us for an in-person book talk, We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few, a class analysis of the US constitution, by Dr. Robert Ovetz, on Thursday, February 23^rd, 2-3:15pm, at the Anatol Conference Center (CSULB).

Written by 55 of the richest white men, and signed by only 39 of them, the US constitution is the sacred text of American nationalism. Popular perceptions of it are mired in idolatry, myth and misinformation – many Americans have opinions on the constitution but have little idea what it says. We the Elites examines the constitution for what it is – a rulebook for elites to protect capitalism from democracy. Robert Ovetz’s reading of the constitution shows that the system isn’t broken. Far from it. It works as it was designed to.

Robert Ovetz is a lecturer of Political Science at San José State University and lecturer of Sociology at UC Berkeley. He is the author of When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877-1921 and editor of Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle.

We the Elites has already received excellent reviews. Noam Chomsky writes: “At a moment when the country is facing a constitutional crisis, it is well to understand what the Constitution is. This close analysis unravels in detail the achievement of the Framers ‘to create a perpetual power of the elite minority to check the will of the majority’, to ensure that the minority of the opulent would be protected from the threat of popular democracy.”

This event is funded by the CLA Scholarly Intersections program and co-sponsored by the Departments of Political Science and Sociology, Pluto Press, and Midnight Books.