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The difference with many other countries -- I'm Australian -- is that we don't constantly bang on about how glorious our constitution is and how it's the be-all end-all. We just get on with it.

And I wouldn't mind if the American constitution did provide all of these tremendous benefits that everyone bangs on about all the time. That'd be great! But it turns out nobody's really tested that, until now.

And you get an F, my friend. Hard fail.

by maxwell6 hours ago|

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I mean, it was the world's first codified constitution, written after the world's first successful war of independence.

Which later constitutions do you grade higher? Who has stronger rights?

by Freedom25 hours ago|

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This is moving the goalposts, but I'll entertain this. What does the time / date of the original document have to do with the fact that it's rarely updated and that there's seemingly a constitutional crisis every week for the last year and a bit? No one is arguing here about the strength of rights or the 'grade' of the constitution.

by unethical_ban6 hours ago|

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The problem with the US Constitution and its religious status in the US is that it contains both fundamental rights and protections for citizens, AND the mundane details of implementing the government.

If you put 500 mock Constitutional conventions together at universities and cities across the country, I would polymarket my 401k that none of them would come up with the same structure we have today in the US. Many republics founded since 1791 have far better democratic structures than the US does. I call the US a semi-democracy because of our Senate, Electoral college, gerrymandered House districts and first-past-the-post voting.

Edit: I got "danged" so here is my response to the person below -

Consider the bill of rights and federal limits separately from the structure of government.

I believe France and Australia have better "democratic infrastructure" and I'm sure they aren't the only ones.

by maxwell6 hours ago|

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Which later republics, specifically? Who has stronger rights?

by unethical_ban1 hours ago|

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France and Australia pop to mind.

I'm not talking about legally protected rights, I'm talking about the "democratic infrastructure". Voting systems, legislative assembly design, power balance, and so on.