Can the Constitution be improved?

Last week we examined an essay written in 1960 by the late Senator William Fulbright in which he theorized that there is a natural distinction between two perpetual classes in any society, what he called the elite and the electorate.

Using the analogy of a cruise ship, he presented a strong argument for letting the voters determine the destination of the ship-of-state but that the professional crew (the politicians) should then be left alone to run it as they see fit. Not a bad concept, but he wasn’t telling the truth about the role of the crew. In actual practice, once in office, collectivist politicians like Fulbright always want the crew to determine the destination as well.

The question remains whether or not the theoretical distinction between passengers and crew can actually be established in politics. I believe that the answer is a resounding yes.

America came very close to doing exactly that with the creation of its founding constitution. Nothing like it had ever been done. It was, however, a beta model and, as even the Founding Fathers agreed, it was not perfect. One of the weaknesses lay in the fact that phrases, such as ‘general welfare’ were not clearly defined. That left the door open for future corruption by those who are masters of wordsmanship.

The place to start for keeping the ship’s crew from becoming masters of the passengers is to draft the contract in such clear and unambiguous terms that it is impossible to interpret it any other way. The next step is to make sure that the passengers as well as the crew read the contract; and, third, there must be a small group of volunteer guardians who see to it that the content and especially the wisdom behind the content of that contract is perpetually disseminated among all future passengers.

What would be the essence of that contract? Those of you who have visited the Freedom Force website already know where this is going. It is described in The Creed of Freedom, and made particularly clear in the last paragraph, “Proper Role of the State”.

It can be done. Perhaps we will have the privilege of improving on the beta model and creating something of great value for future generations.

G. Edward Griffin
2016 March 11