I often ask myself: “Self, why do those on the Right believe The Constitution was written in stone and quotes like the following are to be considered poppycock?”

*In 1819 Chief Justice John Marshall wrote The Constitution was:

“Intended to endure for ages to come and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.”

*At his famous Cooper Union Address in New York City on February 27, 1860 then candidate Abraham Lincoln said blind allegiance to precedent (i.e. the Constitution): “Would be to discard all the lights of current experience; to reject all progress, all improvements.”

*Republican President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech in October 1870 in which he stated: “I hold that it (The Constitution) must be interpreted not as a straightjacket, not as laying the hand of death upon our development, but as an instrument designed for the life and healthy growth of the nation.”

In view of the preceding statements I’d like to ask those who make statements like “Return to The Constitution” what exactly they mean?

In that same vein, what is the message people are attempting to convey when they appear at gatherings waving a large American flag while wearing a pistol on their hip? Or, if someone went to sleep every night as the Star Spangled Banner was playing what would be the significance of such an act?

The Constitution is a living, breathing document purposely written with resiliency and flexibility in mind--a foundation which has served the nation well allowing us to create the building blocks of the future.

“I support those parts of The Constitution which agree with me” might well be the position of those Republicans who wish to turn the clock back to an imaginary self-serving past.