You really have to love the NY Times. Their latest lament is that America is, apparently, out of touch with the rest of the world when you compare our Constitution with those of other nations.
Other nations routinely trade in their constitutions wholesale, replacing them on average every 19 years.
Yes, they do. Repeat after me, “Stability is a good thing.” America became a great nation because its founding principles are, in fact, timeless. Is our Constitution perfect? Probably not, and it certainly wasn’t as it was originally written. The founders knew that, and so included a mechanism for making changes. The fact that those changes are hard to make, however, has been a great benefit rather than a hindrance.
The rights guaranteed by the American Constitution are parsimonious by international standards…
I actually had to read that a few times. Parsimonious? Then I saw what was missing just a few sentences later:
But the Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care.
Yes, I see. Americans are terribly restricted in our ability to travel. Huh? And since when are we not guaranteed the “presumption of innocence” in court? It’s one of the pillars of our legal system and always has been. Then comes the kicker: entitlements. A country that is fighting an increasing epidemic of obesity lacks an “entitlement to food”? Really? The left is so preoccupied with what we are “entitled” to that it entirely ignores our responsibilities.
And then, of course,
It has its idiosyncrasies. Only 2 percent of the world’s constitutions protect, as the Second Amendment does, a right to bear arms.
That, in the end, is what guarantees our liberty. So long as Americans can arm themselves, the government cannot exert unlimited power over us. This is no small freedom.
To be fair to the authors, they concluded with a powerful and unrebutted counterpoint by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:
“Every banana republic in the world has a bill of rights,” he said.
“The bill of rights of the former evil empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours,” he said, adding: “We guarantee freedom of speech and of the press. Big deal. They guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of street demonstrations and protests, and anyone who is caught trying to suppress criticism of the government will be called to account. Whoa, that is wonderful stuff!”
“Of course,” Justice Scalia continued, “it’s just words on paper, what our framers would have called a ‘parchment guarantee.’ ”
Yeah, I really wish our country were more like Canada. It’s a great model of individual freedom and freedom of speech. I’ll take the liberties enshrined in our founding documents, thank you.
