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Why Does the Constitution Still Work for Us? 5721 Views


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Ever heard of a "living document"? They eat and breathe just like the rest of us! They even walk around on their own two legs. Okay, fine—maybe that's not the exact definition.

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English Language

Transcript

00:04

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

00:08

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

00:12

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

00:15

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

00:22

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

00:26

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

00:28

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

00:33

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

00:39

First and most importantly, we needed some

00:42

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

00:46

around, posting new laws on tree trunks.

00:49

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

00:55

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

01:01

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

01:05

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

01:12

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

01:16

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

01:21

to lead us, inspire us and guide us.

01:24

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

01:28

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

01:32

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

01:36

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

01:39

to keep him in check.

01:43

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

01:47

Now on to those "modifications" we mentioned.

01:49

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

01:54

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

01:59

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

02:04

Women and many minorities are big fans of this one.

02:12

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

02:16

flexible definitions.

02:18

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

02:24

For some people, that could mean waterboarding.

02:26

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

02:32

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

02:35

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

02:42

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

02:48

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

02:52

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

02:57

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

03:02

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

03:06

a few nifty features that would guard against oppression.

03:10

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

03:13

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

03:18

and freedom of wearing our pants around our knees.

03:21

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

03:26

of checks and balances...

03:28

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

03:35

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

03:38

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

03:43

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

03:46

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

03:53

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

03:57

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

04:01

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

04:06

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

04:10

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

04:15

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

04:19

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

04:23

more representation to small states...

04:25

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

04:29

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

04:32

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

04:36

amount of power to the states...

04:37

...has served us well over the years.

04:40

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

04:45

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

04:50

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

04:54

gizmos and gadgets...

04:55

...and extreme changes in culture and philosophy.

04:58

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

05:03

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

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