You can't pawn the failure off on the people alone, when it was clear at the time of the founding that people were a necessary input into the system.
The people have clearly failed. I don't deny that. But I see that as a de-evolutionary process. People's understanding of republicanism has changed as the rules have changed.
There were some obvious glaring errors that led to completely avoidable misconstruction. The "general welfare" clause. The "interstate commerce clause." The "necessary and proper clause." The failure to provide a legal means for withdrawal from the Union--leaving it to violence. The failure to clearly provide for resolution of constitutional controversies of interpretation--already a disaster by the time of Marbury v Madison.
In the Bill of Rights, the 2nd amendment with its superfluous introductory clause regarding the militia. Why confuse the issue with this unnecessary justification? The muddy language of the first amendment--"establishment of religion." The fourth amendment with its completely vague and unsatisfactory language--"unreasonable" searches. I could go on.
Beyond that, our nation is like a boat encrusted with the barnicles of history, and needs to be retired. This nation paid dearly for its sins. The sin of slavery and apartheid led to the Civil War, which destroyed whatever semblance of state sovereignty remained at the time. The Jim Crow laws of the South led to federal usurpation of power and judicial legislation. The expansion into the West, where, let's be honest, the native tribes got shafted, gave us a republic far too big to manage. And there's this thing called stare decesis. We have centuries' worth of judicial decisions that will not be overturned. More barnicles. More baggage we can't get rid of.
It's time for a fresh start. A new country. Conservatives cling romantically and nobly to a Lost Cause,just as the Confederates did back in the day. I don't know when and if the opportunity to start again will happen. It may never happen again.It may take centuries. But only a fool makes the same mistake twice. A better system would have been far less centralized than what we got. It would not have created the beast that torments us. The antifeds were right. The framers were wrong.
Saying it would work is like a coach saying his game plan would have worked if he'd had different players. Well, that dog won't hunt. You have to have a game plan that works WITH the players you have. And anyway, if your players can't hack it, it's still a failure, whatever the cause.
In the meantime, we play around at the margins, while the battle has long since been lost.
Well, Huck, I have to give you big points for using your brain. That’s more than I can say for most these days. Whether or not one agrees with your thesis, I think if one is honest they have say that your thoughts provoke thought. Thanks.
The Constitution could not pass today. The people don’t want it; most the people don’t deserve it or the vision the Founders had.