Give me back my Constitution

The United States of America was not built upon a fight against big government in general, just a particular big government in England. The Boston Tea Party wasn’t an attempt to free colonists from the specter of taxes. It wasn’t just taxation they were upset about, it was taxation without representation. The Constitution wasn’t written to limit the power of the Federal Government, but rather to create a strong central government that had been absent from the first organizing document, the Articles of Confederation. The Founding Fathers weren’t perfect, and didn’t expect that their work would be treated as if written by Gods and thus unable to be changed. The second amendment actually was about militias rather than a right to own arms, and we’re talking militias like the groups that predated a professional army and not people who get together in the woods with automatic weapons. The ironic thing about the tea party movement (and other likeminded organizations and movements) is that while they wrap themselves in a constitutional/historical mystique, neither their message nor the way it is delivered has any real basis in this country’s history. They don’t even have the simple historical facts straight. If you claim to be building upon the true wishes and motivations of the founding fathers, it is a big deal that you don’t know where major battles occurred, think the founding fathers were opposed to slavery, can’t differentiate easily between what was in the Declaration of Independence and what was in the Constitution, think John Quincy Adams helped to write the Constitution, and are convinced that Paul Revere was warning the British. Those of us that know the real history have sat back and chuckled and/or grinded our teeth, but done little more than that and thus have to take some responsibility for the continuing distortion of our history and endangerment of our present and future. It is high time we took back the Revolution, the Constitution, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and all the rest of it. For too long, whether out of fear or snobbery, we have conceded to these ridiculous claims of historical legitimacy for things that have little legitimacy of any kind. The time has come for us to do more than just claim that times have changed and the constitution needs to be seen as a living document that can change with it. The time has come to call into question historical justifications for narrow minded cartoonish approaches to America’s problems. I’m a citizen too. It’s my Constitution. It’s my history. It’s all mine too, and I’m going to protect it, defend it , and even use it. Sorry Tea Partyists, but it’s time to share.