Seems to me that the constitution is not the problem, the problem is the politicians have not followed it for years. Wish we could just wipe the slate clean, all the laws and Supreme Court decisions made since.
I have read some wise things you stated the last couple of days. Wondering how we could set the stage to do a constitutional evaluation of our current legal code. That would radically simplify our legal system but now even the supreme court justices do not abide by the constitution.
“Seems to me that the constitution is not the problem, the problem is the politicians have not followed it for years. Wish we could just wipe the slate clean, all the laws and Supreme Court decisions made since.”
First, as I have previously written, should we just reset our government without repairing the defects, history will guide new politicians back to the same tyranny.
The Constitution does indeed have weaknesses that allow tyrannous people to exploit. For example, the commerce clause has been expanded to allow any federal intrusion as long as it can be justified economically. See the Kelo decision where a private home was seized to build a parking garage. The general welfare clause now allows income redistribution.
See Randy Barnett’s essay in Forbes on this very topic:
A Bill Of Federalism
Randy E. Barnett, 05.20.09, 4:11 PM ET