Just In Case There Was Any Doubt...

    Here we have a distinguished Constitutional Law professor at Georgetown telling us in a New York Times op-ed how silly we are to remain faithful to the Constitution. It brings us nothing but trouble. Besides, the founders weren't that smart. They were "white guys", and we all know where white guys have gotten us. How could they possibly know what we're going through now? How could they, with their slave-holder, 18th. century mentality understand the modern nation-state? Their concept of "rights" is outdated and irrelevant. We wouldn't limit our science and engineering to what was known in 1789 why should we limit our understanding of politics? Why do we bind our hands in the work we know must be done? It's time to relegate the Constitution to the dustbin of history.

    I won't even bother to offer a point by point rebuttal to this drivel. The man is an all too typical, over-educated, out of touch egghead. But I would also point out he is woefully undereducated in the ways of the world. The Constitution is not an academic exercise. It is a very practical document designed to protect the rights of free individuals from the evil of bad men with bad intentions and good men with good intentions. It has saved us from ourselves more than once. The passions of man, the foolishness even the best and brightest among us display everyday, our almost limitless capacity for evil, these are the things the Constitution protects us from.

    What the good professor doesn't understand (among other things) is that there are things such as universal truths. There are principles which are timeless. We read Plato's Republic not to imagine what the world was like in ancient Greece, but because Socrates, Gloucon and Hemorrhoidus (what that his name?) are conveying logic and reasoning, and yes truth. Until man changes, these truths will not change. And to presuppose that man is not what he is, that he can be changed and molded into something that will comport himself well when there are no restraints on his power over other men, that he will act justly at all times, well this is just arrogance and narcissism.