Was the US Constitution doomed from the start?

[PratchettFan]

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

To believe that the founders' vision for the country was and is sacrosanct is to believe that the nation, indeed, humanity, would be incapable of advancing from the 18th century.

Well put.

 

[PratchettFan]

The framers made no provisions in the Constitution for political parties, they believed the many factions would cancel each other out; therefore made no mention of political parties. Ironically it was the ratification of the Constitution that created the beginning of the parties. That may have been one of the errors of the framers?

If they believed that, then they were certainly in error. But parties certainly existed at the time, so they couldn't have been unaware of the potential. The Whigs and Tories were the prevailing political parties in the British parliament for quite some time when the revolution occurred. I know Washington warned against them, but I don't think it likely you can have any sort of representative government without them.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

The framers made no provisions in the Constitution for political parties, they believed the many factions would cancel each other out; therefore made no mention of political parties. Ironically it was the ratification of the Constitution that created the beginning of the parties. That may have been one of the errors of the framers?

If they believed that, then they were certainly in error. But parties certainly existed at the time, so they couldn't have been unaware of the potential. The Whigs and Tories were the prevailing political parties in the British parliament for quite some time when the revolution occurred. I know Washington warned against them, but I don't think it likely you can have any sort of representative government without them.

that's wrong. Our Founders thought they had made liberalism illegal with the Constitution thus eliminating the basic political divide that had afflicted humankind throughout history.

Do you understand?

 

[regent]

The framers made no provisions in the Constitution for political parties, they believed the many factions would cancel each other out; therefore made no mention of political parties. Ironically it was the ratification of the Constitution that created the beginning of the parties. That may have been one of the errors of the framers?

If they believed that, then they were certainly in error. But parties certainly existed at the time, so they couldn't have been unaware of the potential. The Whigs and Tories were the prevailing political parties in the British parliament for quite some time when the revolution occurred. I know Washington warned against them, but I don't think it likely you can have any sort of representative government without them.

that's wrong. Our Founders thought they had made liberalism illegal with the Constitution thus eliminating the basic political divide that had afflicted humankind throughout history.

Do you understand?

"For the framers of the Constitution were the most liberal thinkers of all the ages and the charter they produced out of the liberal revolution of their time has never been and is not now surpassed in liberal thought."
General Douglas MacArthur