What is the constitution?
What is the constitution? The constitution is what we know as law. The constitution tells us how this country is to be run. And the constitution should change. When one thinks of the constitution they tend to think the rights of the people living in the country. That, however, is not it. The constitution has to be taken as a whole and the rights of the people living in the country only make up the first portion of the constitution (known as the bill of rights). The rest of the constitution tells us how governance within the country is supposed to be. As a whole, the constitution tells us how the country should be run. What are the basic rights of the people? Who should have power? How should they get the power? How should the people feel and how should they live? When they do get the power, what do they do?
And the fact that the constitution tells us how the country should be run changes everything. That’s because how the country should be run is just an idea. An idea that was born centuries ago from certain ideas that people had- ideas they had while living in a world that never had the constitution. The world, and furthermore, the country has changed since then, thanks to the constitution. The constitution and the country being born and the direction it has headed in because of the constitution has made it into something today. That is something that has been running in one direction for a long time. A country should not run in one direction, it should be still. The problem is, we created the constitution a long time ago, and we keep it enshrined behind glass and preserve not only the living document itself, but the idea, the purpose of it. We based laws off of it and we live off of it. The constitution holds us back. The constitution should not exist anymore.
The rules written on it and the idea that is preserved within it (that keeps us beholden to it) prevents the flexibility that a country should have and keeps us rigid. The country should be still in the sense that it is not being moved by one thing anymore. The country has been moved by the constitution for a long time. Children are taught their rights and movements and thoughts are based off those rights. Those thoughts then become ideas which become normal everyday actions, a few of which may become policies, and continue running the country. The effects of the constitution are invisible but it runs the country. The ideas are static and haven’t changed. And the thoughts that come from it don’t change either. The same thoughts keep popping up time and time again. The country should be still in the sense that nothing controls it anymore. The country should not have one thing that all thoughts are based off of. The constitution should die.
Instead of the constitution, we have the president. Law already exists. Law is what is fair and should not depend on what a document says. We do not need things to be “constitutional”. Law is made on a case-by-case basis and what is ruled on depends on each situation and the arguments made by both sides for that particular situation. The arguments made by both sides will no longer be based on law, it will be focused on the situation only. The decision will be made by the merits of each argument, considering each side as a whole, and seeing which one had the best argument. For example, take the case of a girl at school who is not allowed to wear braids that reflects their religion. Instead of arguing that it breaks the amendments of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, one side would make arguments such as she should not wear braids because it hurts the other kids in class and she could leave the school where it is not friendly to kids in braids, which might be friendlier to her. The other side would say things like, it is not hurting the other kids in class, and she likes braids. She should be able to do whatever she wants because it does not hurt anyone, and it makes her happy, which is the point of school. The constitution is not required.
Instead of the constitution, we have the president. The president runs the country.