>Now I'm laughing reading Doug tell Wojtek he's scary b/c Doug you are
>always on about what a piece of b.s. the C is. Any time anyone brings it
>up, you blast 'em with the "Why is the C a sacred document?" argument that
>makes it look like any appeal to the C is a blind allegiance to something
>that is, at root, fraudulent.
The Constitution is a text imbued with mystical power and authority by most Americans. My major beef with it, aside from that unthinking reverence, is the kind of governmental structure it gave us - designed quite consciously to frustrate popular will - three branches, the abomination of the Senate, states rights, all that. I think free speech, free assembly, and fair trials are good things, very good things in fact. We could use more of them in practice and not just on paper. "Paper" - reverence for the constitutional text rather than actual democratic practice - is one reason we don't have more of them.
Doug