We’ve been away for a while, traveling America discussing our new book, A More Perfect Constitution. The opportunity to discuss the U.S. Constitution–and what might be done to improve it–has been a special one, and I thank the thousands of people who have attended lectures and come to book-signings and participated in webchats on the topic. The National Constitutional Convention in Washington, D.C. on October 19th was an enormous success, too. We’ll be continuing the discussion for a long time to come, and those of you with thoughts on the subject should visit our website, www.amoreperfectconstitution.com.
People approach the Constitution with great reverence, as they should. But it’s vital that we never stop trying to invent a better mousetrap. That’s what the Framers wanted us to do, and we’ve been lax in fulfilling their wishes.
The most stunning impression left by the debate over the Constitution is just how much polarization exists in the nation. Repeatedly, I found that Democrats and liberals were afraid their opponents would grab control of any effort to revise the document, and Republicans and conservatives were terrified of the same thing in reverse. Perhaps in a generation, if we are lucky, the polarization will have abated somewhat so that discussions of this sort will not always be colored in hues of Blue and Red. Let’s hope so, for the nation is the loser otherwise. And we have competitors who are eager to take our place in the world.
These book travels were useful for a political analyst in the presidential season. As usual, politics viewed only through the prism of the Beltway bunch is distorted. Herewith some observations gathered on the trail: