We've all heard it before:
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..."
It's the Preamble to the US Constitution. We had to learn it, some of us had to recite it, some of us had to sing it. Since the rise of the far-right-wing faction known as the Tea Party, there has been an awful lot of invoking of the Constitution: this amendment, that amendment, the original intent of the Founding Fathers, its legacy as a living document that can change with the times, and so on. But for all of this overheated rhetoric and pounding of tables about the Constitution, the actual words of the document often get lost. For all of the talk of what the Founding Fathers intended, there seems to be a fundamental disconnect between what those on the far right believe, and what is actually in the document. Let's take a look at it again, from the start:
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..."
Contrast this with the far-right diatribe uttered by Fox News' Andrea Tantaros as a rebuke against a report on torture done by the American government:
“The United States of America is awesome. We are awesome... The reason they want the discussion is not to show how awesome we are.
This administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re
not awesome."
Someone needs to re-introduce the first sentence of the US Constitution to the maniacs over at Fox News. It doesn't say "We the People of the United States, are already awesome, so we don't have to improve ourselves." The Founding Fathers of America were brilliant enough to know that times change, and what is considered "more perfect" when the document was established in 1788 would not be considered "more perfect" in 2015. For example, in 1788:
-Slavery was legal
-African Americans counted at 3/5 of a white person in census taking
-Women could not vote
-The Vice President was the runner-up in the latest election, not a running mate
-US Senators were not actually elected by the people of their state, but elected by the state's own legislature
-Presidents did not have term limits, and
-Poll taxes were not illegal
Those are just a sample of the amendments passed to the Constitution following its ratification. In fact, the very idea that our Constitution can be amended speaks to the idea that we are not perfect at any given moment in time, and what can be seen as acceptable one century is barbaric in the next. The beauty in the way the Constitution is written is that is strives to be "more perfect" while admitting that America is always pursuing that ideal of one day becoming a more perfect union.
And is there any better ideal to pursue as a nation?
Do not let the maniacs on the far-right tell you that America does not need to change or adapt with the times or, even worse, needs to revert back to times of intolerance and ignorance. These people are standing in the way of progress, and without progress we cannot become that more perfect union and we are doomed to be eventually confined to the dusty, forgotten halls of history as another example of what might have been.
As America, we should always be striving to be More Perfect: for all of our citizens, for all who wish to come here, and for all who will come after us in the future.
At You Service,
Doremus Jessup
