Mission Statement

I may be dating myself a bit here but way back in the swinging 70s ABC aired a series of short educational cartoons called Schoolhouse Rock! in between episodes of Scooby Doo, Fat Albert or whatever. In the bicenntenial year of 1976 they ran one about the U.S. Constitution entitled Preamble that in part went something like this:

"In 1787 I'm told Our founding fathers did agree To write a list of principles For keepin' people free

The U.S.A. was just startin' out A whole brand-new country And so our people spelled it out The things that we should be."

One might forgive a kids' show for greatly simplifying a seminal event in American history. But the truth is that many of those present at the creation of the Constitution, including Virginia's Patrick Henry, were passionate opponents of it because they felt that, far from "keepin people free" it would lead to a tyranny of the minority and a dangerous imperial presidency.

Here's Henry's take on the Constitution in his own words:

"This Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features , Sir, they appear to me horribly frightful: Among other deformities, it has an awful squinting; it squints towards monarchy: And does not this raise indignation in the brest of every American?

Your President may easily become a King: Your Senate is so imperfectly constructed that your dearest rights may be sacrificed by what may be a small minority; and a very small minority may continue forever uchangeably this Government, although horribly defective: Where are your checks in this Government? Your strongholds will be in the hands of your enemies: It is only on a supposition that our American Governors shall be honest, that all the good qualities of this Government are founded: But its defective, and imperfect construction, puts it in their power to perpetuate the worst of mishchiefs, should they be bad men: And, Sir, would not all the world, from the Eastern to Western hemisphere, blame our distracted folly in resting our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good or bad."

The adult version of Schoolhouse Rock is the type of reverence evidenced by Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas during the impeachment investigation of Richard Nixon: "My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total."

It is my contention, based on a reading of contemporary commentators like Patrick Henry, that the Constitution was never meant to be blindly worshipped. It is a blueprint for government, a working document and, as Henry pointed out, it had serious defects from the start.

This blog has been created to explore the history and defects of the U.S. Constitution, the way the dangers foresaw by Patrick Henry and others have come to pass, how this relates to issues we are dealing with today as well as consideration of what it will take to remedy the situation if it can be remedied at all.