8. Can the Constitution Still Unite Us? Yuval Levin’s "American Covenant" and the Crisis of Constitutional Unity

After an ice storm prevented Yuval Levin from visiting Furman University, the Tocqueville Fellows carried the conversation forward.In this special student panel episode of Tocqueville Talks, Director Brent Nelsen and co-host Elizabeth L’Arrivée are joined by Tocqueville Fellows Zach Lacombe and William Jepsen to discuss Levin’s book American Covenant and its central question: How can people act together when they don’t think alike?Drawing on James Madison’s Notes on the Constitutional Convention and The Federalist Papers, the conversation explores whether the U.S. Constitution was designed merely to restrain power—or to create unity among a divided people.The panel examines:The danger of “50% + 1” politics and limited majoritiesThe Electoral College, filibuster, and constitutional guardrailsGen Z cynicism and distrust of institutionsThe crisis of input and output legitimacyPatriotism as unifying force—or partisan weaponTocqueville’s warnings about majority tyranny and soft despotismAs students reflect on constitutional law courses, contemporary polarization, and the temptation toward efficiency over compromise, the episode becomes a candid exploration of whether Americans still trust the system—or even believe in constitutional republicanism at all.Is the Constitution broken? Or are we simply refusing to use it as it was designed?