Constitution NOT a living, breathing document.

I’ve heard time and time again that this nations constitution, the rule book by which the government must abide, should not be interpreted as the writers intended, but that it is in fact a “living, breathing document” that changes meaning as time goes by in accordance with the needs of the nation.


As reasonable as this may sound at first, this notion is really one of the most absurd and frightening ideas being argued today. The basic argument goes that if we were to interpret the constitution strictly on how the writers indeed then the nation would not be able to keep up with the times.


But a living, breathing constitution is no constitution at all. If your going to change what it means to suet your own personal agenda at your own will then you’ve just destroyed the constitution altogether. Just as in Gorge Orwell’s “Animal Farm” simple rules such as “no animal shall kill another animal” and “no animal shall sleep in a bed” become “no animal shall kill another without reason” and “no animal shall sleep in a bed without sheets.” In the same way modern politicians, wishing to strengthen their own point of view, deliberately misinterpret the constitution. The right of the people to bare arms shall not be infringed becomes the rights of the militia to bare arms shall not be infringed, and so on. With a living constitution this is the danger we set ourselves up for. Any rights, any limit put on government power, can simply be “interpreted” differently so that it is made to say something it clearly does not. Sure it may be clear the founders intended for the people to have the right to bare arms, but since the constitution is a “living” document in the minds of many that simple fact means nothing.


There is a perfectly good way for us to amend the constitution, and it isn’t by simply ignoring or interpreting it differently. If you don’t like what the constitution says then by all means try to change it and if the changes you purpose don’t pass then they must not be for the good of the country. Lets stop changing the constitution without amendment just so we can further our political goals. Stand behind it as the founders intended.