Dead Men Tell Too Many Tales: The American Cult of Foundation

            “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” Thomas Jefferson.  Today, we wear a boy’s coat.  Many of us cling dearly to it, treating it like our only shelter.  However, we have outgrown it.  We must remove our boy’s coat and tailor a new one, better suited for our body politick.

            The boy’s coat is our Constitution.  Our highest law of the land is no longer the vanguard document it once was.  It treats voting rights as a second thought, does not guarantee healthcare as a right like other developed nations do and almost no protections for the working and lower classes. 

Since the Constitution’s writing, our nation has changed dramatically.  Instead of being thought of as a confederation of states, despite what Texans would lead you to believe, we are a single cohesive nation.  We have shifted from a primarily agrarian and slave based economy to an industrial economy and now a postindustrial service economy.  Our population is now the third largest on the planet and one, if not the most, diverse as well.  A far cry from the mostly WASP colonies the US started as.

This not to say the entire Constitution is flawed.  The First Amendment is, and continues to be, a bedrock of human rights.  The point being that it is only a document, not some infallible codex from heaven.  One could argue that if the government actually adhered to the Constitution that we would be alright.  That is a fair point, we certainly would be better off if so, but fails to address how outdated it is for modern society.

When making any sort of critic against the Constitution, one is attacked by, “that’s not the author’s intent,” with which one should reply with, “so?”  So what if someone 200 some years ago intended for the government to work in a certain way.  We need to govern by what we today find appropriate, as we know our society better than dead men.  But, to go against the Founding Fathers’ will is tantamount to blasphemy, as if Thomas Jefferson will judge you in the afterlife based on what you thought the role of the federal government should be.

This is to, again, not completely disregard everything the founders stood for.  Within the writings of Jefferson and others you can find wonderful works of governance and political theory.  However, their thoughts should not be the be all end all of US government.  Use what’s appropriate and discard what is not, like their horrid proslavery stances.  Remember, the Constitution is not, and should not be our final code of laws, and that the founders were fallible mammals just like us.