The Founding Fathers, and really America’s formation in general, is something of an enigma for progressives. They’ll pay lip service to it when it’s convenient, or perhaps when they are speaking to a more neutral audience. But in the confines of their own space (such as HuffPost’s Twitter feed), their real feelings about the American experiment come out — and it’s pretty ugly.
The truth is that liberals really don’t like the U.S. Constitution too much. And there’s a reason for this — the founding document essentially negates their entire vision for the country. The Founders explicitly stated that the federal government cannot and should not become too powerful. This is why the branches of government were separated — there was supposed to be conflict.
The only way public policy was to be enacted at all is if there was an overwhelming consensus. This is what separated the young republic from democracies in the past. In ancient Greek city states, simple majority votes won the day. The Founding Fathers understood that mob rule is no better than tyrannical kingdoms.
Conservatives like small government. This is why Republicans tend to support the Constitution as written, and generally oppose amending it. Sure enough, there are times when changes need to be made — with slavery and citizenship for blacks being perhaps the most obvious examples. But even then, there was a constitutional process to implement this change.
The next general election will ultimately be a contest between who supports the Constitution, and who doesn’t.
