Since the United States, in its current form, is over two
hundred years old (and one of its designers, Thomas Jefferson himself,
advocated such a review every twenty years), a public review of how well it
has proceeded is long overdue.
I wouldn't disagree with such an assertion, though I must beg to differ with the basic premise behind it. As one of the replies to this article indicates, the Federal Papers are probably a more reliable guide to the intent behind the constitution than the Declaration of Independence. Nor should the Declaration be regarded as sacrosanct; I suspect the more necessary rationale for such a review would be to determine the extent to which the constitution was still relevant. The most obvious way to conduct such a review would be that proposed by John Rawls and his idea of a veil of ignorance (i.e. we imagine ourselves in a position of equality without historical assumptions).
---- This message was posted by kharin to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25566>
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