http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUN9c3Gg6Co

What I’m saying is that the political culture is what truly counts the most. The political culture decides what parts of the Constitution will be read broadly, read narrowly, or ignored (including after 9/11). This is why the British, without a written constitution, and the Canadians, with I believe some form of bill of rights written down, end up having very similar rights as citizens as we have. It also makes me wonder whether our Revolution and Declaration of Independence mattered much. Of course, contrafactual history is tough to do.

Now, not all parts of our polity get to have equal say in what makes up the political culture, which is why our left-of-center party focuses rather too heavily (in my view) on elitist issues like green power and open space and less on economic concerns like affordable housing and the decline of manufacturing.

I would actually prefer a society in which honest judges decided cases based on the Constitutional text, but humans being what they are, I don’t think we’ll get it. The reality is, left-leaning judges prefer the “evolving” constitution because it suits their preferred outcomes, and right-leaning judges prefer “judicial restraint” to the extent that it suits their outcomes, disregarding it when it does not (see Scalia in Bush v. Gore or in eminent domain cases and note his inconsistency/hypocrisy).

The Constitution is also too hard to amend, in my view ( the decline of the Equal Rights Amendment being a good example), and in order for a judicial restraint approach to really work well (which I despair of anyway, as just stated) the Constitution would need to be more easily amended.

What I would suggest to people is that the political culture is us, not the words on the page. You could bring our Constitution and impose it on Albania or Iraq or Tajikistan, and those places wouldn’t be like America. Also, we have seen numerous examples over history (including recent history) where the Constitution is ignored out of fear, greed, etc. The Constitution is a good reference point, but you have to build the country you want, not rely on the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence to do it for you.

I’m not clear, do you oppose or favor ignoring the Constitution? And do you consider in that arguement that the Constitution can be ammended if enough people want it?

It was my first time attending (as well as speaking). I highly recommend it as a way to begin your future fourths of July.

Here’s the basis of my comments:

http://timwhitelistens.blogspot.com/2009/07/independence-day-comments-honoring.html

Roger Sherman was an amazing man.

What I would suggest to people is that the political culture is us, not the words on the page. You could bring our Constitution and impose it on Albania or Iraq or Tajikistan, and those places wouldn’t be like America. Also, we have seen numerous examples over history (including recent history) where the Constitution is ignored out of fear, greed, etc. The Constitution is a good reference point, but you have to build the country you want, not rely on the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence to do it for you.

http://www.courant.com/community/middletown/hc-middletown-naturalization070.artjul03,0,4907439.story