Heaven forbid we should have inflamed discourse

“Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.” – Louis Michael Seidman, “Let’s Give Up on the Constitution.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/opinion/lets-give-up-on-the-constitution.html?_r=0

Linked from

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/a_group_of_white_propertied_men_who_have_been_dead_for_two_centuries.html


(A few days after the election in November, my wife was getting her hair cut. Two stylists were talking about the election.

(“I don’t understand that electoral college thing,” one said. “Why doesn’t my vote count just like anybody else’s? Why don’t they just count the total votes and whoever has the most, wins?”

(My wife entered the discussion. She mentioned history and the constitutional convention, arguments between big states and little states and the compromise that led to the Electoral College.

(“If we didn’t have it that way,” she said, “about five or six states’ voters could decide who’s president for the rest of us.”

(One stylist looked at the other and said, “That’s why we cut hair.”)