The more you look deeply into the U.S. Constitution the more you appreciate the absolute genius with which it was put together. Every element, every stipulation is included for a reason, whether we now understand those reasons or not. Nothing is there without purpose. Every student should be familiar with it, and along with it, The Federalist, whose complexity in reading should in no way preclude it from high school reading lists.  History teachers should be able to work through these things with their students. It’s NOT expecting too much.

Sometimes I think one of the most refreshing features of these documents, one that is nevertheless very far out of fashion today, is that there’s a fundamental difference between opinion and informed opinion.