Today's Constitution

WOULDN’T it be splendid if the solutions to America’s problems could be written down in a slim book no bigger than a passport that you could slip into your breast pocket? That, more or less, is the big idea of the tea-party movement, the grassroots mutiny against big government that has mounted an internal takeover of the Republican Party and changed the face of American politics. Listen to Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota and tea-party heroine, as she addressed the conservative Value Voters’ Summit in Washington, DC, last week:
To those who would spread lies, and to those who would spread falsehoods and rumours about the tea-party movement, let me be very clear to them. If you are scared of the tea-party movement, you are afraid of Thomas Jefferson who penned our mission statement, and, by the way, you may have heard of it, it’s called the Declaration of Independence. [Cheers, applause.] So what are these revolutionary ideas that make up and undergird the tea-party movement? Well, it’s this: All men and all women are created equal. We are endowed by our creator—that’s God, not government [applause]—with certain inalienable rights…
The Declaration of Independence and the constitution have been venerated for two centuries. But thanks to the tea-party movement they are enjoying a dramatic revival. The day after this September’s constitution-day anniversary, people all over the country congregated to read every word together aloud, a “profoundly moving exercise that will take less than one hour”, according to the gatherings’ organisers. At almost any tea-party meeting you can expect to see some patriot brandishing a copy of the hallowed texts and calling, with trembling voice, for a prodigal America to redeem itself by returning to its “founding principles”. The Washington Post reports that Colonial Williamsburg has been crowded with tea-partiers, asking the actors who play George Washington and his fellow founders for advice on how to cast off a...