I have to hand it to you; I have great regard for the chain you wish to forge.
I have no doubt that it will be a chain of elegant design and great strength, apt as any implement of mans design to any task it is intended to.
I have read the same writings from the same designers, and have always loved their work. I have no doubt yours will be even more wonderful.
At least, I think it will; kinda hard to tell since the last chain really was torn into pieces on a stupid and monstrous hill a hundred and fifty years ago. I never really saw it.
By my count, with my own personal calculus, there have been two national regimes in America, the first the Articles of Confederation; the second the Constitution.
There were three momentous regime changes. The first was the ratification of the Constitution. The next two amended the Constitution in deed but not in word (every written amendment after the Bill of Rights was also a regime change, but none of them were as significant as the two I'm discussing). The first of these was during the administration of President Madison when the Supreme Court asserted its absolute power to review all laws in the United States to ensure they are Constitutional; "judicial review".
And the other is the one you're referring to here. There's a famous musical called Hamilton and somewhat tongue-in-cheek "King George III" in one number says this, "When push comes to shove I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love."
In the story he's talking about waging the American Revolutionary War, after Americans declared their independence from England.
Much like how the South declared their independence from the Constitution.
President Lincoln in his office of president basically said the same thing, right? Except for a minor detail. He wasn't the king, so instead, in his office, he was acting as the chief executive, and his words were more like this: [Speaking as the Constitution:] "When push comes to shove I (the Constitution) will kill your friends and family to remind you that you can't get a divorce."
And as far as amendments to the Constitution go, this was the single biggest change to our regime that's ever been made, and it (like the SCOTUS asserting the power of judicial review) wasn't made as a written amendment, it was made in deed and not in word. It expressed a new doctrine, a theory of our regime that hadn't yet been tried or tested; there's no 'escape'; once you're in, you're in. If you secede, we will "kill your friends and family" until you capitulate.
The pieces that remain are shiny and a hindrance but not much else.
I know you think that that guy is missing something, and perhaps he is...Or maybe it's you that is missing something?
Maybe both of you.
No matter how well crafted and strong the chain may be; the Beast will ALWAYS slip it's leash....The answer is not a better chain but a tiny anemic Beast.
Then....Who really cares what he does.
Without the federal Constitution America would have fallen to the British in 1812. We would have cared, if we had kept the "tiny anemic Beast" which the Articles of Confederation sustained. We would have been British again.
Such a thing could never secure Americans against forces that wish to invade our rights to life, liberty, ethical independence (the pursuit of happiness), nor our peace, safety and liberty. The former list was famously explicated in the Declaration of Independence by President Jefferson, and the latter less well known enumeration was written in the Federalist papers by Madison. I mention this because Jefferson and Madison are the two greatest libertarian, minarchist heroes among our founding fathers.
Both of them would approve of the results of our wonderful Constitution and its regime. It's exactly what the Federalist papers argue would occur; that this Constitution is the best political design ever, and there's no close second; it alone would preserve and defend the universal rights possessed by people everywhere; but that only Americans would be covered by its protective wing.
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