For the second year in a row, the Wheatley Institute partnered with the School of Family, Home, and Social Sciences to create the Constitution Day Essay Contest.
On the contest's website, it states that their goal is to engage with "students, scholars, thought leaders, and the public in research-supported work that fortifies the core institutions of the family, religion, and constitutional government."
Every year, participants of the contest are asked to follow a specific prompt for their submissions. This year focused on the polarization of the two party system and its modern relationship with the constitution.
Specifically, the prompt asks, “The U.S. Constitution has facilitated, or at least accommodated, a two-party system for most of its history. Should it be amended if it is to survive an increasingly polarized electorate? If so, in what ways should it be amended? If not, explain why the Constitution in its current form can confront the challenges presented by partisan divisions.”
The Wheatley Institute funded the monetary prizes awarded to the students, giving $500 to first place, $300 to second place and $200 to third place winners.
At their Constitution Day event on September 17, the Wheatley Institute announced the winners of the Essay Contest.
At the event, the students read aloud their essays and received commentary from Bradley Rebeiro, a Wheatley Constitutional Fellow.
Rebeiro also spoke about the past of the Constitution, saying he would leave “today” to the essay winners. He then talked about the polarization and political events during the civil war and slavery.
“Either you’re pro-slavery or you’re anti-slavery, there was no middle ground on this question,” Rebeiro said.
He shared his takeaways from this part of US history before giving the time to the winners to read their essays.
“We’re going to learn some interesting aspects for today and some interesting proposals for today,” he said about the students’ essays. “But I think at the end of the day, we should remember that the Constitution did survive even such a monumentous occasion, such as civil war.”
First Place: Thomas Benfell
Thomas Benfell, senior in the entrepreneurial management program, won first place with his essay, “The Constitution’s Defense against Polarization.”
“I entered this contest because I wanted to demonstrate that political polarization is not an issue caused by our government's foundation, and that our Constitution is equipped to tackle the challenges of modern political division,” the Virginia native said.
One of Benfell’s main points, he shared, was the three existential threats against the Constitution which, according to Benfell, are foreign influence, civil war and a powerful authoritarian leader.
In his essay, he proposed that to solve the country’s current polarization, “innovating structures and processes developed as a consequence of the Constitution,” instead of innovating the Constitution itself.
“Though polarization presents serious challenges to our politics and our government, it does not seriously challenge our Constitution,” Benfell shared.
When asked about winning, Benfell said, “I'm honored to be selected and I'm grateful for the chance to share this essay."
Second Place: Jacob Boyer
Jacob Boyer, the author of the second-place essay titled "The Two-Party System: An XY Problem," is a senior in mechanical engineering.
“I entered the contest because my wife found a flyer and I thought it would be fun to practice researching and articulating my thoughts on political subjects,” Boyer shared.
Some of Boyer’s main points included the two-party system’s consistency, the inconsistent levels of polarization in US history, and how political contention rises and falls in the context of a two-party system. Boyer's essay explores whether this structure may or may not be the cause of increasing polarization.
“Many of today’s divisive issues are binary, moral issues rather than party or political issues with room to compromise,” he explained.
The last point in Boyer’s essay is that everyone “must work as a whole to resolve the divisive issues among us and become more united in an American identity of shared fundamental values if we are to heal political divides and preserve the Constitution.”
Boyer shared that he felt honored to be selected as a winner and expressed gratitude to his wife who helped edit his essay. He hopes that those who read it can walk away with a greater desire to become civically engaged.
“I hope I can serve as an example that we can be civically engaged even when it isn’t our profession,” he said.
Third Place: Abigail Bradshaw
The third-place winner was Abigail Bradshaw, a senior in social science teaching, for her essay, "Two-Party System."
Bradshaw, a creative writing minor, explained that she loves writing and enters writing competitions to challenge herself. This desire to push herself and her passion for political science drove her interest in studying and writing her essay for this competition.
She explained the main focuses of her essay was to promote the idea of expanding the two-party system.
“In my essay, I argued that to battle polarization as a nation, we need to make diversity our strength. To do that I recommended making legal changes in the ways that we elect the House of Representatives, Senate and President to allow for the existence and success of more than two parties,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw also expressed her excitement at being selected as one of the winners.
Maybe you could be the next essay contest winner! Students with a major or minor in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences can watch for our weekly newsletter in your BYU email to learn about upcoming contests and other opportunities.