| The bill of rights was ment to be vague, and was allowed room for expansion. Do you think if the founders would have granted civil liberties to say blacks that it would have been ratified? no. my making areas vauge and subject to interpretation they left it open to change with society and be modernized.
As far as the electoral college, you know i think it still works. Am i a little bitter about the 2000 election, yeah, but the system worked. For example, had there been popular election because of human error in casting ballots, the amount between bush and gore would have been disputed to this day. there are always large numbers of ballots that due to various defects like the hanging chads that you heard about for the first time, that are questioned, and analyzed by election commision officials. some of these are throw out, some of these are simply a judgement call. Because of this with that small of a margin it would have been impossible to ever determine a winner. By having the electoral college there was a system in place that if this should ever happen, it provides a legitimacy for the winner. The only reason democracies work, if you might recall back to your high school civics class, is through legitimacy of power. If the Gore would have been elected on questionable terms, such as the accuracy of ballots, then it would have thrown the system into chaos. By using the electoral college, through the advice of the supreme court, the election was legitimated, and no real fuss was throw about it. At least not to the point where it would compromise the system.
The reason the Constitution has never been attempted to be rewritten is that it would be impossible. Just to get an amendment passed it requires 2/3 vote in both houses. Imagine trying what it would take to get a new constitution, which would likely have to be amended by 2/3 or 3/4 of the states. this would be impossible. There is no way you would ever get a super majority of the states to agree on a totaly new document. |