Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central Yewal.
Speaker 2: The national immigration debate is more contentious than ever, with
Speaker 2: growing fears of these anchor babies we talked about earlier
Speaker 2: terror babies, Muppet babies coming to our chores. By the way,
Speaker 2: you should check out the new Muppet character anchor me
Speaker 2: terror baby. Adorably destructive to our country. The trouble stems
Speaker 2: from the Constitution itself, specifically the Fourteenth Amendment's promise of
Speaker 2: birthright citizenship.
Speaker 3: The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to quote all persons born
Speaker 3: or naturalized in the United States, to protect newly freed
Speaker 3: slaves and their children and guarantee their rights as citizens.
Speaker 3: And last time I checked, I don't think we're having
Speaker 3: that problem anymore.
Speaker 4: I don't think the founders understood when they did the
Speaker 4: fourteenth Amend they would create a circumstance where people could
Speaker 4: fly into America all over the world and have a child,
Speaker 4: and that child would have dual citizenship.
Speaker 2: Okay, two things real quick. A, the Founders didn't write
Speaker 2: the port Hint Amendment that happened in the eighteen sixties.
Speaker 2: And actually Ben Franklin very much wanted to fly and
Speaker 2: have babies all around the world. That's why he invented
Speaker 2: the sex kite. Anyway, does the Constitution need changing? For answers?
Speaker 2: We turned to John Hodgman in his segment You're welcome.
Speaker 2: John Hodgman joins us. Thank you very much for joining
Speaker 2: us a cretin being here. What is your take on
Speaker 2: the constitutional crisis?
Speaker 5: Well, the reality is the Constitution is badly broken and
Speaker 5: out of date. Young people in particular never read it anymore,
Speaker 5: even though it's almost ridiculously easy to steal from the
Speaker 5: National Archives.
Speaker 2: That's that's the actual constitution.
Speaker 5: Oh well, I believe this Fifth Amendment says I don't
Speaker 5: have to answer that question, all right, I understand in
Speaker 5: fact that means it's a good one. So we're going
Speaker 5: to keep it here.
Speaker 2: We get are you drawing? Okay, how are you going
Speaker 2: to get young people involved in the constitution?
Speaker 5: Well, let's start at the top, John. It's going to
Speaker 5: need a hip, new name constitution. It's very negative, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Why not something a little more positive? Why not a crustitution?
Speaker 2: Actually, there's one reason I can think of that that
Speaker 2: wouldn't really be a good idea.
Speaker 5: Late, I've already made the change, ah, which brings me
Speaker 5: to solution number two. Let's trim the fat. I mean
Speaker 5: basically everything after Amendment ten wasn't written by the founders,
Speaker 5: so that can go. And some prominent constitutional scholars think
Speaker 5: we can go even further than that.
Speaker 6: California, along with so many other states, defining traditionally what
Speaker 6: marriage is. And to see that third branch of government
Speaker 6: undoing the will of the people gets it's frustrated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the founder established a dentiary now just to
Speaker 2: abolish it because you don't agree. That seems what a.
Speaker 5: Few mallet wielding brain bullied lawyers overruling the will of
Speaker 5: the people. It's un democratic, John, and it brings me
Speaker 5: my third solution. Let's give the prostitution back to the people.
Speaker 7: By putting it on the internet.
Speaker 5: I give you the Wiki prostitution. It's an open source document,
Speaker 5: a marketplace of ideas where the will of the people
Speaker 5: can finally speak. It already has six thousand new amendments,
Speaker 5: and as you can see, the people, in their wisdom,
Speaker 5: have outlawed anchor babies, legalized marijuana, and apparently we have
Speaker 5: banned werewolves. That makes sense. Actually, Team Edward is very
Speaker 5: active on the Wiki prostitutions.
Speaker 2: That's a fascinating document. I'm sure we'll stand the test
Speaker 2: of time, but it's hard to take arguments for changing
Speaker 2: the Constitution seriously when some of those same people that
Speaker 2: you're showing normally talking about how the Constitution is sacrisanct.
Speaker 8: A lot of people don't think they have to enforce
Speaker 8: the Constitution as it's written. They like to enforce it
Speaker 8: as they would like it to have been written.
Speaker 9: I am so sick of people taking this constitution. We're
Speaker 9: running it through the shredder everybody every time somebody wants
Speaker 9: them to do what they want to do. It took
Speaker 9: these guys.
Speaker 2: A long time.
Speaker 9: They read a lot of books and a lot of
Speaker 9: history to put the principles together in this thing.
Speaker 5: Wait a minute, John, that's Glenn Beck's defense of the Constitution.
Speaker 5: It took a long time to write. If that's the criteria,
Speaker 5: then that screenplay about the Noid that you started back
Speaker 5: in the late eighties will be the greatest document of
Speaker 5: all time.
Speaker 2: Believe me, that will be a great film.
Speaker 10: Anyway.
Speaker 5: You didn't play Senator Session's entire SoundBite.
Speaker 8: I believe the Second Amendment is a vile constitutional amendment.
Speaker 2: A lot of.
Speaker 8: People don't think they have to enforce the Constitution as
Speaker 8: it's written.
Speaker 5: See, John, he was only talking about the Second Amendment guns. John,
Speaker 5: of course, we can't change that clause. Look, the Founders
Speaker 5: made it sharply proof. I can't do anything to it.
Speaker 2: Damn.
Speaker 5: Their original intent is clear.
Speaker 2: See that's the whole thing. They talk about, the satrisaic
Speaker 2: nature of the Constitution. When they like what it says,
Speaker 2: then suddenly they say, Hey, that's not what the founders meant.
Speaker 2: They don't want to do that. They want to pick
Speaker 2: and choose the parts of the Constitution that they want.
Speaker 2: That's the problem with this original intent business. We have
Speaker 2: the founder's words, but no one really knows what they
Speaker 2: were thinking, and they're not modeled to begin with.
Speaker 5: No one, John, no or no one minus one. I
Speaker 5: should tell you that I'm a noted Founding Father's psychologist,
Speaker 5: as you would know if you had read my book,
Speaker 5: Men Are from Mars. James Madison was a godlike genius
Speaker 5: who could do no wrong, and I am the only
Speaker 5: one who knows what he was thinking.
Speaker 2: Now, how could you know what James Madison was actually thinking?
Speaker 5: Didn't you even look at the cover of my book,
Speaker 5: John thought?
Speaker 8: I did?
Speaker 5: I get it? Straight from James Madison's skull.
Speaker 1: That's not.
Speaker 2: Any unlikely event that of powdered wearing skull doesn't provide
Speaker 2: the guidance we need.
Speaker 5: Well, that's what then, that's a ridiculous premise, John, But
Speaker 5: I'll play along. After all, even James Madison recognized a
Speaker 5: higher authority at work.
Speaker 6: Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant.
Speaker 6: They're quite clear that we would create law based on
Speaker 6: the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 2: See, that's what I'm talking about the Constitution when it
Speaker 2: suits in the Bible, and it just makes it sound
Speaker 2: like the Constitution is an amendment now to the Bible.
Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of people think that that's true, but
Speaker 5: that's an easily fixed misconception. If you scroll down now
Speaker 5: to a new amendment six six hundred and sixty six,
Speaker 5: I think you'll see that the Bible is now actually
Speaker 5: a prostitutional amendment. So it's all in there.
Speaker 2: And what about separation of church and state, which is
Speaker 2: in the Constitution.
Speaker 5: That what is that, mister president? Excuse me, Oh, James
Speaker 5: Madison said the separation of church and state was just
Speaker 5: their little.
Speaker 2: Joke, Thank you very much. John. Everybody what we're about.
Speaker 11: Welcome back to the very show.
Speaker 12: The United States Constitution. We all talk about it, but
Speaker 12: does anyone who's not Nicholas Cage rarely understand It's well,
Speaker 12: Michael Costa went looking for such a person and his
Speaker 12: new segment Thank Me Later.
Speaker 10: Hi, I'm Michael Costa.
Speaker 2: Civic activism does it work?
Speaker 10: Can one person make a difference? Tonight on Thank me Later,
Speaker 10: we'll meet one man who did the impossible. No, not me,
Speaker 10: He changed the United States Constitution forever. I sat down
Speaker 10: with this American hero and you can thank me later.
Speaker 2: Hi there, Hi, who are you?
Speaker 13: I'm Gregory Watson. I'm responsible for the ratification of the
Speaker 13: twenty seventh Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
Speaker 10: That's right, This lone star scholar got an amendment ratified
Speaker 10: to the Constitution like the Supreme Law of America Constitution,
Speaker 10: as in the seventeen eighty seven Founding Father's Constitution. You're
Speaker 10: not a founding father. You're more like a weird uncle
Speaker 10: of the US Constitution. Step father, oh, stepfather. So you
Speaker 10: are nice sometimes, but then sometimes you come home drunk
Speaker 10: and treat the kids crappy because they're not really yours.
Speaker 13: Sometimes.
Speaker 10: I'm very familiar with the Constitution. I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 10: Why don't you tell our viewers what the twenty seventh
Speaker 10: Amendment is? Again, I'm very certain I know.
Speaker 1: What it is, but go ahead.
Speaker 13: It says that when members of Congress Congress exactly want
Speaker 13: to adjust their salaries exactly, they must wait until the
Speaker 13: next selection has intervened.
Speaker 10: Has intervened. Now, for you dumb dums who don't care
Speaker 10: about our country, three quarters of the states are needed
Speaker 10: to ratify an amendment. So how did this egghead get
Speaker 10: it done?
Speaker 13: It all started in nineteen eighty two with a college
Speaker 13: paper that I wrote. I found a book in the
Speaker 13: library that showed amendments that Congress had approved but which
Speaker 13: not enough state legislatures had ratified. And I found this
Speaker 13: one from seventeen eighty nine.
Speaker 10: Wait, you're an undergrad, Yes, a sophomore. You're a sophomore
Speaker 10: who realized that this amendment, which was introduced in seventeen
Speaker 10: eighty nine, was still available to be ratified.
Speaker 13: Yes, March of nineteen eighty two, during spring break.
Speaker 10: During spring break break, no one, when I'm at the
Speaker 10: wet t shirt contest in can Kun you're realizing that
Speaker 10: an amendment can still be ratified in the US Constitution. Yes, yes,
Speaker 10: so you write this paper.
Speaker 14: Yes.
Speaker 13: I turned it into the TA and get it back
Speaker 13: a few days later with a C on it with
Speaker 13: a C a C, and I appealed the grade up
Speaker 13: to the professor. She said she'd take a look at it.
Speaker 13: And when she came back a few days later, she
Speaker 13: saw me sitting in the and she physically tossed it
Speaker 13: at me and said, no change. I decided right then
Speaker 13: and there, I'm going to get that amendment ratified.
Speaker 5: Wait a minute, are you saying that this guy actually
Speaker 5: got a constitutional amendment ratified?
Speaker 1: John?
Speaker 10: Can you just stick to the reenactment? Also, you meant
Speaker 10: to me nineteen years old. So can you act like
Speaker 10: a hot team?
Speaker 2: No? I can't.
Speaker 13: And so what happens now, Well, then I start writing
Speaker 13: those letters, pleading with members of the legislatures in those
Speaker 13: states to introduce a resolution at the state capitol to
Speaker 13: ratify the amendment, and it needed thirty two states, And
Speaker 13: when Naine ratified the following year in nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 13: there was just no turning back.
Speaker 5: And that's the story of how Gregory Watson.
Speaker 10: I don't have to look at the camera.
Speaker 12: Why are you talking?
Speaker 7: I was just delivering my line. Hang on, hang on,
Speaker 7: I'm John Hodgman.
Speaker 12: I'm still on television.
Speaker 5: Sometimes we're done, okay, And then what happens.
Speaker 13: So I pestered, and I badgered, and I cajoled the
Speaker 13: state legislatures over the course of ten years, and they
Speaker 13: ratified it.
Speaker 10: This whole time, I thought you'd be some Harvard Law
Speaker 10: constitutional scholar lobbyist to elicit change. You're really just a
Speaker 10: pinion the ass.
Speaker 11: Yes.
Speaker 10: Yeah. When the twenty seventh Mement was finally ratified, what
Speaker 10: did they give you as a sign of respect for
Speaker 10: your work?
Speaker 13: Absolutely nothing.
Speaker 10: You didn't get a thank you card from.
Speaker 13: No thank you card from anyone.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 10: I was afraid I was going to hear a sad,
Speaker 10: depressing story like that, which is why I made this
Speaker 10: for you, Gregory Watson. This is a trophy commemorating you.
Speaker 10: I'm getting the twenty seventh Amendment ratified.
Speaker 2: Beautiful.
Speaker 13: I showed treasure for all time.
Speaker 12: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: As you know, America is like a boy band. Yes,
Speaker 2: that is the premise we are starting with. Each of
Speaker 2: our fifty states has a distinct personality. We've got the
Speaker 2: cute one we've got the rebel rides a Harley with
Speaker 2: no helmet. We've got the one that pretty sure has
Speaker 2: a drug problem. But the thing about these states reputations
Speaker 2: is they're hard to change. It makes you feel bad
Speaker 2: for some place like Mississippi, which every time it opens
Speaker 2: its mouth, you know, because of its reputation, you're like, please,
Speaker 2: don't say the end word. Please, don't say the endword.
Speaker 10: Please?
Speaker 2: And why is that state had such a tough time
Speaker 2: shaking its rent for bad race relations? For insight, let's
Speaker 2: look back at a classic episode of The Daily Show.
Speaker 2: In tonight's segment nineteenth century news, Hello, greetings, and salutations.
Speaker 2: My name is John Stewart, had given the Times. I'm
Speaker 2: obviously neither Jewish nor on televisions. Our top story this
Speaker 2: day in eighteen sixty five is that the state of
Speaker 2: Georgia has voted to ratify We had over the shoulders
Speaker 2: in eighteen sixty five. The State of Georgia has voted
Speaker 2: to ratify the thirteenth Amendment. Oh delightful, being the twenty
Speaker 2: seventh state to so vote. The amendment is nationally adopted,
Speaker 2: and slavery is abolished in these United States. Oh bully,
Speaker 2: of course, there's still remain a few stragglers who've yet
Speaker 2: to ratify the Amendment. I'm looking at you, Magnolia State.
Speaker 2: I mean, those square leaders in Georgia ratified. And how
Speaker 2: much longer are you gonna wait? One hundred and forty
Speaker 2: eight years? I mean, that'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it?
Speaker 15: After one hundred and forty eight years, the state of
Speaker 15: Mississippi has finally ratified the thirteenth Amendment.
Speaker 16: And that's why that was unpleasant.
Speaker 2: That's why Mississippi can't check it's red for bad race relations.
Speaker 2: So Mississippi, two things on the recent ratification. First, better
Speaker 2: late than ever, and second, this is pretty late. Why
Speaker 2: the sudden ratification.
Speaker 14: It's all thanks to Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln.
Speaker 2: After watching the movie, two men discovered Mississippi was the
Speaker 2: last state which had not officially ratified the Thirteenth Amendment,
Speaker 2: which abolished slavery. And then Mississippi went to see Django
Speaker 2: unchained and tried to take their ratification back. Look, Lincoln
Speaker 2: or no, Lincoln, how are you just getting to this now?
Speaker 2: Didn't the release of Mississippi Burning push to revisit the
Speaker 2: issue in any way? I mean to be fair. The
Speaker 2: state had already taken steps towards banning the controversial practice
Speaker 2: of people owning other people.
Speaker 15: The Mississippi's legislature did sign on in nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 15: but did not file the proper paperwork.
Speaker 2: Oh red tape. They tried to ratify the thirteenth Amendment
Speaker 2: all the way back in nineteen ninety five, inspired no
Speaker 2: doubt by that year's blockbuster. I know what you did
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty summers ago. And then there was
Speaker 2: obviously the eighteen year long paperwork malfunction. By the way,
Speaker 2: what did happen with the paperwork?
Speaker 14: Their former Secretary of State, Dick Malpus failed to send
Speaker 14: a copy of the resolution to the Federal Registrar.
Speaker 2: Classic Dick Maulpus. I'm sure he meant to file the paperwork. Probably.
Speaker 2: In fact, here's my impression of him mailing Mississippi's Thirteenth
Speaker 2: Amendment ratification to the Federal Registrar. I'm so glad that
Speaker 2: we did this. That's really nice. Let me just put
Speaker 2: this in the mailbox. Yeah, I imagine that will get
Speaker 2: there too. Sweet. So who cleaned up the mess left
Speaker 2: by former Mississippi Secretary of State Dick.
Speaker 14: Malpus the current Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hoseman.
Speaker 2: Delbert husband cleaned up for Dick malpis. Huh, can't wait
Speaker 2: for next year's Mississippi Secretary of State race between smirt
Speaker 2: nickel dum and cleavage stick butt. We'll be right back.
Speaker 12: Starting with Twitter. That's what Elon Musk bought for his
Speaker 12: midlife crisis instead of a Lamborghini. Over the weekend, Elon
Speaker 12: released the so called Twitter Files, which many conservatives had
Speaker 12: hoped would prove that Twitter colluded with Democrats to sense
Speaker 12: and news about Hunter Biden's laptop during the twenty twenty election. Instead,
Speaker 12: they mostly just showed the Biden campaign asking Twitter to
Speaker 12: take down nude photos of Hunt to Biden. So yeah,
Speaker 12: sorry everyone. If you want to see naked people, you've
Speaker 12: got to go to every other website on the Internet.
Speaker 10: I guess.
Speaker 12: So the Twitter Files turned out to be a major
Speaker 12: letdown for conservatives, right, there was no proof of a
Speaker 12: conspiracy to help defeat Donald Trump. But you know who
Speaker 12: doesn't care about any of that, Donald Trump.
Speaker 17: Former President Donald Trump's false claims about the twenty twenty
Speaker 17: election now have him calling for the Constitution to be
Speaker 17: terminated with the revelation of massive and widespread fraud and
Speaker 17: deception in working closely with big tech companies, the DNC
Speaker 17: and the Democratic Party. Do you throw the presidential election
Speaker 17: results of twenty twenty out and declare the rightful winner?
Speaker 17: Or do you have a new election? A massive fraud
Speaker 17: of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of
Speaker 17: all rules, regulations, and article, even those found in the Constitution.
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's right. The Republican front runner for presidents of
Speaker 12: the United States wants to terminate the Constitution because Twitter
Speaker 12: wouldn't allow him to see Hunter Biden's dick.
Speaker 7: Yeah, He's like.
Speaker 2: I want to see the VP. I want to see it.
Speaker 2: I want to see what I'm dealing with.
Speaker 12: If you want to see Hunter Biden's dick, just get
Speaker 12: a bag of cocaine like everyone else. Mister president alsoul,
Speaker 12: Why is this still news? Can anyone tell me?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 12: Why is this leaving a headline? Donald Trump thinks this
Speaker 12: undermines the election. He thinks that about everything everything. However,
Speaker 12: the math equation starts. His answer is always the same,
Speaker 12: doesn't matter where. It's like a wait, I could come
Speaker 12: up like I'm sorry, So the kitchen says, we've run
Speaker 12: out of the Mickey Mouse pancakes.
Speaker 1: This is the last.
Speaker 10: Straw we need to redo the election.
Speaker 12: We do have the Donald Duck waffles, it's too late.
Speaker 10: I'm starming the Capitol.
Speaker 12: I'll have those to go please. And look, I get
Speaker 12: that Trump doesn't like to lose. By my man, twenty
Speaker 12: twenty is over. You've got to move on.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 12: Trump is like one of those guys who never stops
Speaker 12: trying to get back with his ex. Like he's he's
Speaker 12: texting her years later, like hey you up, and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 12: I'm up with.
Speaker 17: My kids from my marriage.
Speaker 10: I'm like, oh, still playing hard to get I like that.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 12: But honestly, though, what a what a starts to the
Speaker 12: Trump twenty twenty four campaign. First he had dinner with
Speaker 12: Nazi lovers. Now he's calling to scrap the Constitution. What's next?
Speaker 12: Who is he gonna give the Lincoln Memorial enormous boobs?
Speaker 12: And still the GOP's gonna come out like, well A
Speaker 12: personally would have gone with a textal recup. But I
Speaker 12: think President Trump's heart is under the right players man.
Speaker 2: Not gonna tell him, So I'm like, that's night a
Speaker 2: journal had an author. His greatest book is called The
Speaker 2: Year of Living Constitutionally, One man's humble quest to follow
Speaker 2: the Constitution's original meaning? Is why when the program A J.
Speaker 18: Jacobs, sir, you know what, thanks the Year Living Constitutionally?
Speaker 8: What?
Speaker 13: So?
Speaker 2: How did the Year of Living constitutionally a humble quest
Speaker 2: to follow the constitutionalism? How did this come about? Why
Speaker 2: would you consider this?
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, thank you and goodmorrow. Of course, is.
Speaker 2: That a constitutional absolutely all right?
Speaker 7: And this came about because I wanted to figure out
Speaker 7: what is in the Constitution? What does it actually say?
Speaker 7: And I thought it was a timely question because, as
Speaker 7: you know, our current Supreme Court thinks we should follow
Speaker 7: the original meaning from nueventeen eighty.
Speaker 2: Now, I haven't been watching the news. Is anything going on?
Speaker 7: I recommend it?
Speaker 2: What a terrible thing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I thought I'm going to try to figure
Speaker 7: out what that was by getting in the mindset of
Speaker 7: our founding father.
Speaker 2: Now, as you go back and you revisit sort of
Speaker 2: the mindset of the founders, are you struck by how
Speaker 2: human they were? You know, we've deified them to a
Speaker 2: large extent, But when you learn about them, do you
Speaker 2: think like, oh, a couple of these guys might be idiots,
Speaker 2: like what was thought?
Speaker 7: Well, yes, the Constitution is amazing because parts of it
Speaker 7: are so inspiring. The preamble fifty two of the greatest
Speaker 7: words ever written about the general welfare and blessings of livery.
Speaker 7: But then there are it is a flawed document. There
Speaker 7: are actual misspellings in the Constitution. The word Pennsylvania is
Speaker 7: spelled two different ways pe n n and pe n,
Speaker 7: so it is not perfect. And I ran the Constitution
Speaker 7: through grammarly and grammarly found it found six hundred mistakes,
Speaker 7: six hundred mistakes, so it is not perfect.
Speaker 2: With the grammarly mistakes. Did you correct it or did
Speaker 2: you think that one? No, let's pass that one to it.
Speaker 2: How did you did you dismiss the grammarly questions?
Speaker 7: Well, I couldn't go in and change it on the.
Speaker 2: The actual document spells Pennsylvania two different ways.
Speaker 7: That's rights and the its as actually should be an
Speaker 7: it apostrophe s. So if Ben Franklin had invented social media,
Speaker 7: they would have gotten a lot of flak for that.
Speaker 7: Brilliant but so it is, and they knew it was flawed.
Speaker 7: That's what's amazing. The founding fathers knew this is a
Speaker 7: flawed document, and they said.
Speaker 2: Would they be surprised at how we've deified them?
Speaker 7: I think so. I think many of them would be now.
Speaker 2: In their discussions. Did you as you looked back and
Speaker 2: saw the discussions that they were having. My understanding is
Speaker 2: they never really thought that partisan politics, would you know,
Speaker 2: be the thing we were fighting over. They thought the
Speaker 2: branches of government would fight each other, that the executive
Speaker 2: would fight, the judicial would fight the legislative. I don't
Speaker 2: think they thought parties would try and weaponize each apartment
Speaker 2: against you.
Speaker 7: They did not see this rigid two party system coming.
Speaker 7: And James Madison he knew they were going to be factions,
Speaker 7: but he thought there were going to be lots of
Speaker 7: factions and maybe six or eight look more like a
Speaker 7: European parliament, and they would have been shocked by so
Speaker 7: much of what we have now, including the president. I
Speaker 7: bring that up because it's kind of timely, and they.
Speaker 2: They were very understated in the seventeen hundreds. It is
Speaker 2: somewhat timely.
Speaker 10: Well.
Speaker 7: They when the idea of a single presidency came up
Speaker 7: in the convention, a lot of the delegates said, are
Speaker 7: you jesting. That is a terrible idea.
Speaker 2: Wait, they said, are you jesting?
Speaker 7: I'm paraphrasing, I'm paraphrasing, are you jesting? But they said,
Speaker 7: we just fought a war to get rid of a king,
Speaker 7: why do we want another. One of them said, this
Speaker 7: is the fetus of monarchy. If we do this, we
Speaker 7: should have three presidents, twelve presidents, and.
Speaker 2: Almost like the court, that the president's and the court
Speaker 2: would be similar. Not a unitary executive, not a single person.
Speaker 7: Right, And and in the end it was fought for weeks.
Speaker 7: In the end, the unitary executive one. But I have
Speaker 7: to say that fetus of monarchy common. I mean, it's
Speaker 7: not a fetus anymore. It's like a teenager.
Speaker 2: Right, It is like we are two hundred and some
Speaker 2: years later.
Speaker 11: Right.
Speaker 7: It took a while, but it's here.
Speaker 2: What do we mistake about them? You know? Now? Do
Speaker 2: you watch the arguments that you see about the founder's
Speaker 2: intent differently? Do you? Does it make you a little
Speaker 2: crazier knowing what the actual arguments were? Oh?
Speaker 7: Absolutely, I mean it was Their mindset was so different
Speaker 7: in so many ways. It was like a foreign country.
Speaker 7: And just to give you one example, their idea of
Speaker 7: rights were very different. Rights were not trump cards. Sorry
Speaker 7: about the right, but they were they there were responsibilities
Speaker 7: with them, they exactly, they had they should have had
Speaker 7: a bill of responsibilities in addition to a bill of rights.
Speaker 7: But they just assumed that we were all going to
Speaker 7: be part of and contribute to the betterment of our community.
Speaker 7: And you saw this all over in the First Amendment,
Speaker 7: the Second Amendment. And they would be shocked by they
Speaker 7: would be shocked by how focused we are on individual rights,
Speaker 7: which I love, I love them, but we need the balance.
Speaker 2: Right and that we've in some ways exploited those conversations
Speaker 2: to just get what we want or do what we want.
Speaker 7: Right exactly. And they talked about virtue. They loved that word.
Speaker 7: And this is before it had sort of a negative tage.
Speaker 2: How many of them do you think banged porn stars?
Speaker 2: How many of them when they talk about virtue?
Speaker 7: Well, I talked to many constitutional scholars, never none of
Speaker 7: them hasn't said that.
Speaker 2: But what about the level of discourse, Because I'm always
Speaker 2: struck by, you know, even in this situation that we
Speaker 2: face now with the the debate and all that, the way,
Speaker 2: the gas lighting that occurs, the lack of trust in Americans'
Speaker 2: instincts or ability to take complex issues and hear about
Speaker 2: them honestly. Right, But I imagine their conversations were very
Speaker 2: frank and very direct, but also sophisticated.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, I think it was a genuine difference. I wrote
Speaker 7: this book a lot of it with a quill pen,
Speaker 7: and I'm not saying everyone needs to go back to
Speaker 7: a quill pen.
Speaker 2: Wrote, you wrote the book with a quill pen.
Speaker 7: Yeah, because I was trying to live the Constitution. I
Speaker 7: had my musket. I carried it around New York. I
Speaker 7: wrote a quill the quill pen.
Speaker 11: There's out of curiosity?
Speaker 2: Do you consider yourself a method writer? Is that what
Speaker 2: this is?
Speaker 7: That's exactly I love that phrase.
Speaker 2: Thank you so you did? So it was a quill pen.
Speaker 2: And is there something about using the quill that that
Speaker 2: is more deliberately and allows you to think different?
Speaker 7: I really believe that there were no dings and chimes
Speaker 7: from the internet. I could actually focus and maybe come
Speaker 7: up with some subtle thoughts. And I can if the
Speaker 7: Constitution were written on an iPhone with emojis, that would
Speaker 7: not be good.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine that you know all men are created equal? Lol?
Speaker 2: It would have been a nightmare night.
Speaker 7: They loved cold takes, not hot takes. They're all about
Speaker 7: let's take a look at the pros and cons. And
Speaker 7: one of my favorite founding father, Ben Franklin said at
Speaker 7: the Constitutional Convention, he said, the older I get, the
Speaker 7: less certain I am of my own opinions, which I love.
Speaker 2: I mean exactly. And they even they baked it into
Speaker 2: the cake. As far as they really thought amendments will
Speaker 2: be necessary. This has to be a document that can
Speaker 2: change with the consent of the government. Exactly.
Speaker 7: They knew it was imperfect. They said, let's figure out
Speaker 7: ways to change it. But as you say, they didn't
Speaker 7: see this rigid two party system. Now, the last amendment
Speaker 7: we had was nineteen ninety two, and I mean you
Speaker 7: had to get two thirds of Congress to agree. You
Speaker 7: can't get two thirds of Congress to agree on on
Speaker 7: the color of a green pepper. You know, you just can't.
Speaker 2: It's impossible because they are reddish.
Speaker 13: That's a good point.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much forbidding. The Year of Living Constitutionally.
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