Jim Crow, anti-miscegenation laws and hopefully anti-gay marriage laws etc.. could not have been ended without the 14th amendment and the Bill of Rights. 14th a

Jim Crow, anti-miscegenation laws and hopefully anti-gay marriage laws etc.. could not have been ended without the 14th amendment and the Bill of Rights. 14th amendment is what overrode state-level majoritarianism (in states that had a white majority) and state terrorism/white minority rule (in states like South Carolina which did not). The constitution and judicial review are not perfect, but they're far better than than naked and unchecked power of government(s). "Women as property" did not occur in the United States. Denying suffrage rights to women as well as difficult of divorce were unjust, but us wasn't a particularly bad offender in that respect: many civilized countries gave women the vote after US did; many US states gave women the right to vote long before the right was extended nation-wide. > The USA is no different than Rome, feudal Europe or France under Napoleon, despite the best intentions of its founders. Well, I'd think there are some subtle differences, don't you think? If you're going to compare US to any other country, compare it to UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. You'll find 1) the human rights records of all of these countries are on average similar 2) they're still far better than most other places, including other western countries. I do think that a written constitution is better than de-facto basic law and custom: e.g., freedom of expression has been particularly strong in US due to the first amendment. Which is why warantless surveillance is such a big deal: even amongst liberal democracies US is probably not the worst offender here, but (to use your parallel to Rome) this may be the proverbial Rubicon -- plain disregard for the text of the US constitution for "reasons of state" or "greatest good for the greatest number." I will argue this: the "rights revolution" (namely extension of constitution to restrict federal and state governments) happened contrary to the worst _literal_ intention of the founders. The fact that we were able to preserve the "meta" spirit of the founding movement without codifying the repressive prescriptive mores of the 18th century is a huge testament to the constitution.