Although that makes sense to many people here, not everyone seems to have that clarity of understanding. Unscrupulous politicians and advocacy groups ignore both original intent and your way of interpreting the Constitution. They use the vagueness of parts of the Constitution to achieve their goals. Large numbers of people who don't understand the Constitution unthinkingly go along with them.
The whole "founders intent" argument is BS.
Fortunately, we do have at least a couple of Supreme Court Justices (Scalia, Thomas) who do consider the original intent of the founders and do consider what words actually mean, so original intent is hopefully making some difference. Scalia considers himself to be a textualist first and an originalist second. I would take it that you are a textualist.
The constitution is a clear and concise document and requires no clarification of intent!
Would that everyone had your clarity of thought. They don’t. Consider all of the arguments over what the Constitution means … the right to bear arms, the commerce clause, restrictions on political speech, the right to privacy, who can suspend habeas corpus, do states have the right to secede, etc., etc., etc.
During the writing and ratification of the Constitution, Federalists like James Wilson had said, “…the liberty of the press, which has been a copious source of declamation and opposition -- what control can proceed from the Federal government to shackle or destroy that sacred palladium of national freedom?” Indeed the Constitution did not delegate control of the press to the federal government, but Federalists passed the Sedition Act anyway and used it to arrest opposition newspaper editors. They even did this after the First Amendment had become part of the Constitution. The next election threw those bums out. Elections may be our best hope against determined opportunistic politicians.
Pointing out written documents that show the intent of the founders may not be much, but I’ll keep doing it anyway (along with donating to politicians I like, going to county and state party conventions as a delegate, being a poll official, etc.)
Would that we, as a nation, were to truly understand what the founders bequeathed to us!
Jeffersonians arrested rival newspaper editor as well and prosecuted them for libel when they criticized him. He was notoriously thin-skinned.
And if you would like to examine a real reign of terror look no further than 1807 and Jefferson’s attack on the Burr “Treason” “conspiracy”. How about the actions of his commanding general in breaking up the “conspiracy” allegedly intended to separate the Western states, the illegal arrests, the persecution of the contemptible Burr.
Nothing like that ever happened under the federalists.