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Why Does the Constitution Still Work for Us? a la Shmoop.

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Hold on a second. So there's this document that was written hundreds of years ago...

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back when people wore powdered wigs and rode horses to work...

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...and yet somehow it's still supposed to apply to us today? How does that work?

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Well, granted, there have been a number of modifications added to the Constitution over

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the years to reflect the changing of the times...

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...but essentially it remains the foundation of our country's most cherished principles.

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Why haven't we thrown this baby out with the bathwater? Let's take a good, hard look at it...

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First and most importantly, we needed some

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way to organize our government. It couldn't just be a bunch of random lawmakers running

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around, posting new laws on tree trunks.

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We needed a system... and a pecking order. The Constitution created an innovative separation

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of powers... with judicial, legislative and executive branches...

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...the last of which includes the President and Vice President. The big cheese... and

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second cheese in command. The limburger, if you will.

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Now, if you hadn't noticed, we still have the same set-up today.

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Why haven't we given it up for dead? Well... it's nice to have one overall leader -- someone

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to lead us, inspire us and guide us.

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At the same time, our President isn't a dictator who can suddenly, on a whim, decree

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that we all must start wearing pink from head to toe.

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So we have the comfort of knowing that the head honcho in the White House is looking out for us...

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...but he's also got plenty of help from people with quite a bit of power themselves

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to keep him in check.

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And that's a system that's got some staying power.

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Now on to those "modifications" we mentioned.

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Our forefathers imagined that some stuff might come up that they couldn't account for...

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...so they instituted an amendment process, where the Constitution could be altered as

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long as 2/3 of the House and Senate, and 3/4 of the states, were on board.

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Women and many minorities are big fans of this one.

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The Constitution's writers also suspected that it might be helpful to have some...

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flexible definitions.

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"Cruel and unusual punishment," for example, is pretty subjective.

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For some people, that could mean waterboarding.

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For someone else, it could mean a week without television.

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"High crimes and misdemeanors" is kinda vague, too.

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Originally, a president could only be impeached for treason and bribery...

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...but nowadays, you can just about be impeached for wearing unshined shoes.

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By allowing certain stuff to be redefined over time, the framers of the Constitution

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ensured that the document could apply to future generations... and not only to their own.

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Another major concern of our nation's founders was that we would... well... turn into our father.

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They didn't want any tyrannical kings like back in the old days, so they decided to add

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a few nifty features that would guard against oppression.

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They added a Bill of Rights... the first 10 amendments.

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They gave us many of our most valued rights, like freedom of speech, freedom of religion,

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and freedom of wearing our pants around our knees.

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To protect against any one part of the government having too much power, they created a system

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of checks and balances...

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...which kept everybody... balanced and in check. It allowed a President to veto a law...

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...but a 2/3 vote from Congress could overturn a veto...

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...and the Supreme Court could declare any of Congress' legislation unconstitutional.

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It was like all three branches each held a third of a treasure map...

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...so no one could get their hands on the entire treasure without the cooperation of the others.

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Congress was further divided into a bicameral, or 2-housed, legislature...

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...consisting of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

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Those guys keep each other in check... although how well they do that is open for debate.

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The creation of these two houses was known as the "Great Compromise."

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Looking back on it today, it might have also been called the "Only Compromise."

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Anyway, the Compromise took the two proposed plans... the Virginia Plan, which favored

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giving more representation to large states, and the New Jersey Plan, which would give

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more representation to small states...

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...and met them both in the middle. We've changed quite a lot since the Constitution

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was first drafted, but the concept of Federalism...

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...in which the Federal Government wields most of the power, but still grants a significant

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amount of power to the states...

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...has served us well over the years.

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For that we can thank the 9th Amendment, which gave the states control of anything not specifically

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designated for the federal government. And so, with all these rules and precautions in place...

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...we've been able to keep the Constitution working for us, even with all our modern-day

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gizmos and gadgets...

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...and extreme changes in culture and philosophy.

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And if other stuff comes up in the future that we aren't expecting...

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...well, we'll just continue to amend the heck out of it.

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