A special President's Day post.

Happy President’s Day to all.  Will and I had a wonderful long weekend (including a romantic Valentine’s Day trip to Costco).  Perhaps I will elaborate more on our weekend in my regular Wednesday post.  In this, my special President’s Day post, I would like to comment on the most recent Republican presidential candidate debate.  I am tempted to go candidate-by-candidate and write about my feelings (no, Ben Carson, I will not go to your website), but rather, I would like to focus on what I think was the most egregious statement of the debate*.  Very early on, Senator Marco Smooth Hair Rubio claimed, “the Constitution is not a living, breathing document—it is to be interpreted as originally meant.”  Ah yes, the founders really got it right the first time—such foresight on the women’s suffrage issue.  And that three-fifths compromise…pure gold, amirightMarco??  GARBAGE.

I am so sick of this trash “founding fathers’ intent” argument.  THE FOUNDERS WERE FALLIBLE HUMANS WHO DID NOT AGREE WITH EACH OTHER.  THERE WAS NOT ONE COMMON “INTENT”.  Almost as soon as the Constitution was ratified (which was a battle in itself—apparently the document was not yet glowing in the dark with its powers of infallibility), did the founding fathers start doing battle over how to interpret it.  Alexander Hamilton was stretching its meaning from the get-go, sending Thomas Jefferson and James Madison into conniptions.  (PS I highly recommend the Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow, and I really thought “conniptions” started with a ‘k’.)   And then there’s everyone getting their panties in a wad about “activist” justices on the Supreme Court.  “The founders did not intend this!!”  But what about John Marshall, the chief justice who transformed and empowered the Supreme Court?  The original activist justice!  What do you think he did every single time?  To pretend he didn’t have an agenda is naïve.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love the Constitution.  I am amazed at much of the wisdom of the founding fathers.  The more I read about the founding of our country, the more I am in awe of what they accomplished.  I truly believe we have the best governmental system on earth—but that is because the Constitution IS elastic.  It was not engraved in stone.  It adapts to every age because its tenets are timeless.  Furthermore, the founders knew they were not perfect, so they built in the mechanism for amendments.  How do those fit in with your theory, Marco??

So on this President’s Day, I ask you, my gentle readers, to please be wary when you hear a modern politician profess to know and invoke the “intent” of the founding fathers.  That person usually needs a good punch in the face.

Happy President's Day from me and the boys.

*I am disqualifying all Donald Trump statements from the “most egregious” category because I am so goddamn sick of him and his terrible face/ego/yelling/tanning booth goggle tanlines.  If I were to include him, however, the prize would go to him attempting a serious comeback at Jeb (!) with: “Yeah?  Well, two days ago, you said you would pull your pants down and moon everyone in the audience!  But no one reported on that!”  Sometimes I like to pretend American politics is not a complete cat circus, but this sort of thing makes it very difficult.