5 ms·

The reason we Americans are so strongly tied to our Constitution is multifaceted, but one of the key tenets is that it is a so called "living document" and allo

The reason we Americans are so strongly tied to our Constitution is multifaceted, but one of the key tenets is that it is a so called "living document" and allows itself to be modified via an amendment. The criticism that it should not be made illegal is a criticism that we are directly in violation of a document with extremely clear language. Instead of doing so, we should do the "correct" thing and pass an amendment to correct the original language with our current up-to-date understanding. It is my personal opinion that the reason we don't is because enough people disagree with modifying it, and so it has to be curtailed slowly (rightly or wrongly.)

sliverstorm 14y ago
You hit on a good point, the Constitution is seen as invioble. You can tweak it, but you can't start striking pieces down.
- rmc 14y ago
  What's funny is that many changes were pretty fundamental legal changes, such as the abolition of slavery, massively extending the right to vote, allowing a wide range of pornography & allowing abortion & contraception. To claim those as "merely updating our understanding of what the founding fathers wanted" is misleading, but eh, if it makes you sleep at night.
  - sliverstorm 14y ago
    I'm not sure how you could call those changes "fundamental". Some of them were pretty far-reaching in terms of resulting impact, but they did not fundamentally alter the Constitution.
    - rmc 14y ago
      They altered US society in some pretty massive ways, altered who controlled the government, and had large and fundamental impact on many people's lives.
      - sliverstorm 14y ago
        Yes, but did the alter the core concepts of the document?
        rmc 14y ago
        Well, that's a debatable point. What is the core concept? That the people should elect the government? Well it went from white landowning males electing the government to all adults (excl. prisoners)? Does that count?

sliverstorm 14y ago

You hit on a good point, the Constitution is seen as invioble. You can tweak it, but you can't start striking pieces down.

rmc 14y ago
What's funny is that many changes were pretty fundamental legal changes, such as the abolition of slavery, massively extending the right to vote, allowing a wide range of pornography & allowing abortion & contraception. To claim those as "merely updating our understanding of what the founding fathers wanted" is misleading, but eh, if it makes you sleep at night.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  I'm not sure how you could call those changes "fundamental". Some of them were pretty far-reaching in terms of resulting impact, but they did not fundamentally alter the Constitution.
  - rmc 14y ago
    They altered US society in some pretty massive ways, altered who controlled the government, and had large and fundamental impact on many people's lives.
    - sliverstorm 14y ago
      Yes, but did the alter the core concepts of the document?
      - rmc 14y ago
        Well, that's a debatable point. What is the core concept? That the people should elect the government? Well it went from white landowning males electing the government to all adults (excl. prisoners)? Does that count?