New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie wants the Constitution to serve Americans, not the other way around. It’s difficult to argue with that sentiment — at least in the abstract. The Framers certainly did not. In Federalist No. 45, James Madison, the father of the Constitution, wrote: “Were the plan of the [constitutional] convention adverse to the public happiness, my voice would be, reject the plan.” Indeed, the Framers would not consider their creation sacred — though they would countenance a reverence for the law. The Constitution should receive serious evaluation as to whether it serves the public good, not mindless adoration.
Bouie believes that the Constitution has thwarted public happiness for a long time, if not from its inception. In his estimation, it does so by inhibiting what the American Revolution initiated — namely, an “impulse toward democracy and political equality” that continues to this day. He contends, then, that constitutional barriers to this impulse must go, including the Electoral College and equal representation in the Senate.
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