[lsbskins1]

The fundamental idea of the founders that remains sound is that government should exist to benefit the citizens and that the best way to achieve that end is to ensure that law governs and not individual will. The Constitution was all about insuring that principle. I point again to the words of the Preamble: ...in order to form a more perfect union...". The basic thrust of that statement is an acknowledgement that what they had given us was not perfect, but a move towards something better. It seems that you, and other "strict constructionists" want to leave a simple fact out of the equation. As we learn and grow and develop, what worked before may not work now. I am not suggesting that the ideal of Constitutional protections is flawed. I am not saying that the Constitution is a "god damned scrap of paper", I am saying that that very fine and important document is not frozen in time and if you think that we must freeze ourselves into the modes of thinking of people who never experienced the modern world, you are asking for stagnation and decay that will destroy your country quicker than any other danger.