Maybe Thomas Jefferson Should Have Used Smaller Words

Ezra Klein (WAPO, MSNBC) on the Republicans plan to read the Constitution at the aloud at the opening of the new Congress:



I agree that it is a gimmick, but even gimmicks have their place; in this case to remind Congress what their job should be and what it shouldn't be.

Others have trashed this statement. Don Surber did a particularly fine job:

...Ezra Klein made the biggest mistake that can be made by a liberal — progressive — socialist — communist — no labelist — whatever the heck they call themselves on the 31st of the month.

He was being honest.

He does not believe in the Constitution.

He is cynical about it and he projects that same cynicism onto those who disagree with him.

That shocked the left’s system. Being honest does that to them. They use euphemisms to hide their true beliefs. The reason, for example, that they see “illegal immigrant” as racist is that they cannot imagine anyone other than a Mexican  as being an illegal immigrant. They use “undocumented worker” because they want to promote poor Jose coming here to make a grub stake. They do not see the criminals or the relatives from Ireland or the Asian student who overstayed a visa. It’s always  this stereotype...

and Iowahawk did one of his wonderfully funny parodies:

...Please explain, in your own words, "What the Constitution Means to Me." Use footnotes where necessary, specifying relevant sources. Your essay should be 500 to 1000 words, not including footnotes.

The Constitution is very important. It is very important because the Constitution is an important part of the American government, which is as we all know very important also. It can be juxtaposed with other important books and journalism writings which can be found in various history studies.

According to Wikipedia¹, the Constitution was discovered over 100 years ago, but is still going strong today. It was discovered by the "Founding Fathers" such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and so forth. Although we often call them the "Founding Fathers" there were many women who were also important in this process who have been far too overlooked. Although these people are now mostly passed away, we still remember them for their importance...

and adds this:

Anne Althouse split the difference, agreeing it's a gimmick (while acknowledging the value of a gimmick with a video of strippers...), but gently trashing Ezra too:

He'd said something utterly banal. It's what everyone around him has been saying for years. He must have expected that people would either ignore him or shrug him off as a man with no original or interesting ideas. And suddenly he's getting derided, called an idiot or worse. How can that happen?!

The banal thing was that reading the text of the Constitution doesn't get you to the answers to the difficult questions that arise today. The text must be interpreted, and political preferences will tend to pull people along toward the interpretation they want.

Remember when they were all trashing Bush (and quite erroneously) for allegedly  saying that the Constitution is "just a piece of paper".  Don't expect the Post or MSNBC to show a lot of interest in pillorying him for this.

UPDATE: Ted writes to comment that he thought Madison was generally given credit for writing the bulk of the text of the Constitution. The point still stands.