Since its adoption, the US Constitution has structured Americans’ political discourse. So, it is striking, and probably dangerous, when an incipient ideological consensus channels those who opposed overturning the post-independence Articles of Confederation.
NEW YORK – To be an American is to argue about what it means to be an American. Even at the founding, we had almost nothing in common. We don’t share a national origin, a religious denomination, or a racial profile. All we have are ways of defining “we, the people” – those who, according to the Constitution, are the locus of sovereignty in a state conceived as the servant rather than the master of society.
NEW YORK – To be an American is to argue about what it means to be an American. Even at the founding, we had almost nothing in common. We don’t share a national origin, a religious denomination, or a racial profile. All we have are ways of defining “we, the people” – those who, according to the Constitution, are the locus of sovereignty in a state conceived as the servant rather than the master of society.