I don't care what the Founding Fathers would have wanted

[lees1975]

40. I think it is important to know what the Founding Fathers did and why...

but also take note of the fact that many of them were intelligent and educated enough to understand that the constitution they were writing would easily become dated and fixed, and they provided for the means to amend it as necessary, and in accordance with what they saw as the political wisdom of their day.

I've studied and taught American history, enough to have explored the details and read multiple authors from multiple perspectives. They not only recognized the potential for changes in society, but they experienced it and were profoundly affected by it. They were perceptive enough to take the time to let things develop, once independence was secured, to let community leaders come to the realization that their existence could still easily be threatened by the British, French and Spanish powers which still had a presence on the same continent. They were fortunate that the fourteen years between independence and the adoption of the constitution did not result in one or two, or more, states being picked off by foreign invasion.

Deference to the "founding fathers" by originalists is a backward move that runs contrary to the whole idea of an amendable constitution. Even making that kind of change is next to impossible, and would be completely so in our current political atmosphere. They saw Christianity as a state-controlled institution, not a personal religious belief and there is no ideological reference to democracy as an ideal of a so-called "Christian nation." Democracy doesn't come from Christian influence or the Bible, it was the result of the influence of the Enlightenment. The Christian church of their day was elder-ruled, and elders were chosen by the consensus of a small group of the more active and committed male members of a church.

So, if the founding fathers were alive today...

They would approve of the popular election of the President and the abolishment of the antiquated, outdated, provincial and backward electoral college, which was the result of a long-gone fear of monarchy.

They would, in most cases, be completely favorable toward racial equality and the participation of all citizens, regardless of their race or ethnicity, in the government.

They would be horrified with the political divisiveness that has developed, the non-negotiating, "winner take all", steal advantage if you can't win it Limbaughism that has created political gridlock.

They would be horrified at the way the Supreme Court has been completely politicized.