Constitution Series Part 1: The Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Thus begins the Constitution of the United States of America. The first few words of the Preamble are some of the most famous words in the history of our country. You remember these words. Every phrase has meaning. It's not like the Declaration of Independence, which rambles on for the first paragraph before getting to the good parts; the Constitution makes it immediately clear who's talking and what they're talking about.

The Constitution isn't a terribly long document. It's very dense, though. Every word said and unsaid speaks volumes. In this series, I intend to go through the Constitution section by section and unpack each one to the best of my ability. I'll be quoting the text directly from the National Archives for accuracy.

Understanding our Constitution is a key part of understanding our country. Every word was carefully considered, starting with the Preamble.

The Creation of the Constitution of the United States of America

In school, we're never really forced to read the U.S. Constitution. We're told it's a beautiful document, and it's explained that it basically breaks down our three branches of government, but we're never expected to actually read the thing. It's like the Bible: you're supposed to understand the gist and have a few passages memorized, but reading it from cover to cover is only for scholars and masochists. And most of us are only familiar with the very beginning ("We the people..." and Genesis) and the earlier bits of the more popular second acts (the Bill of Rights and the gospel of the New Testament).

That said, I'd like to analyze the Constitution further. I studied constitutional law in college for a while, and I can confirm that it's an interesting piece of work.

But before I start reciting the preamble, I'd like to talk about how the document was created in the first place.

Revolutions Podcast: The American Revolution

The English Revolution was filled with the names of lords and provinces I was not terribly familiar with. I remember Cromwell, and I remember the kings Charles I and Charles II, but beyond that all I really remember is general military strategies, diplomatic deals, and religious movements. The exact people and places are kind of lost in the mist already.

That's not the case with the American Revolution. I was raised learning the broad strokes of the American Revolution, so this season of the podcast had the much easier job of filling in the details. If you're not a scholar of revolutionary America, I highly recommend listening to this season of Revolutions, even if you don't listen to any of Mike Duncan's other work. I guarantee you'll learn a lot.

The Fix-It Culture

"Give a man to fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." This quote, paraphrased from the works of a British author from the 1800s named Anne Isabella Ritchie (and not, in fact, from Chinese philosophers), is a terribly difficult lesson to learn, especially for Americans. We are largely a take-action sort of people, determined to fix any problems we see. Sometimes this is a good thing, but there is such as thing as too much of a good thing, despite what fans of excess may tell you.

So, today I want to talk about America's fix-it culture.

America Day

I've written about my feelings toward the United States before, but I figure I should talk about it more given the holiday. Besides, if I'm going to run for president some day it's probably good to have a clear opinion about the country I'm gunnin' for runnin'.

American Exceptionalism

After watching Rocky IV, I imagine most people feel like working out and getting pumped. Or if you're Russian, I suppose you might feel a bit put-upon first, then kinda want to go work out and get pumped.

For me, though, the movie kicked off some latent, potentially unpatriotic thoughts.