TDS Time Machine | The Constitution

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 You're listening to Comedy Central.

Speaker 3 The national immigration debate is more contentious than ever with growing fears of these anchor babies we talked about earlier, terror babies, Muppet babies coming to our shores.

Speaker 3 By the way, you should check out the new Muppet character, Anchor Me Terror Baby.

Speaker 2 Adorably destructive to our country.

Speaker 3 The trouble stems from the Constitution itself, specifically the 14th Amendment's promise of birthright citizenship.

Speaker 5 The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to, quote, all persons born or naturalized in the United States to protect newly freed slaves and their children and guarantee their rights as citizens.

Speaker 5 Last time I checked, I don't think we're having that problem anymore.

Speaker 8 I don't think the founders understood when they did the 14th Amendment that it would create a circumstance where people could fly into America all over the world and have a child, and that child would have dual citizenship.

Speaker 3 Okay, two things real quick: A, the founders didn't write the 14th Amendment, that happened in the 1860s. And actually, Ben Franklin very much wanted to fly and have babies all around the world.

Speaker 3 That's why he invented the sex kite.

Speaker 13 Anyway,

Speaker 10 does the Constitution need changing?

Speaker 2 For answers, we turn to John Hodgman and his segment.

Speaker 13 You're welcome.

Speaker 2 John Hodgman joins us.

Speaker 12 Thank you very much for joining us.

Speaker 10 I appreciate you being here. What is your take on the constitutional crisis?

Speaker 14 Well, the reality is the Constitution is badly broken and out of date.

Speaker 14 Young people, in particular, never read it anymore, even though it's almost ridiculously easy to steal from the National Archives.

Speaker 3 That's the actual Constitution?

Speaker 14 Oh, well, I believe this Fifth Amendment says I don't have to answer that question.

Speaker 13 All right, I understand.

Speaker 14 In fact, that means it's a good one, so we're going to keep it.

Speaker 11 There we go. Are you drawing on the

Speaker 3 how are you going to get young people involved in the Constitution?

Speaker 14 Well, let's start at the top, John. It's going to need a hip new name, Constitution.
That's very negative, isn't it? Why not something a little more positive? Why not a pro-stitution?

Speaker 3 Actually, there's one reason I can think of that that wouldn't really be a good idea.

Speaker 14 Too late, I've already made the change.

Speaker 14 Which brings me to solution number two. Let's trim the fat.
I mean, basically, everything after Amendment 10 wasn't written by the founders, so that can go.

Speaker 14 And some prominent constitutional scholars think we can go even further than that.

Speaker 16 California, along with so many other states, defining traditionally what marriage is, and to see that third branch of government undoing the will of the people gets it's frustrating.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but the founders established the judiciary. Now, just to abolish it, because you don't agree with it, that seems

Speaker 11 what?

Speaker 14 A few mallet-wielding, brain-bullied lawyers overruling the will of the people? It's undemocratic, John. And it brings me to my third solution.
Let's give the prostitution back to the people

Speaker 14 by putting it on the internet. I give you the Wiki Prostitution.

Speaker 14 It's an

Speaker 14 open source document, a marketplace of ideas where the will of the people can finally speak.

Speaker 14 It already has 6,000 new amendments, and as you can see, the people in their wisdom have outlawed anchor babies, legalized marijuana, and apparently we have banned werewolves.

Speaker 14 That makes sense, actually. Team Edward is very active on the Wiki Prostitution.

Speaker 3 That's a fascinating document, I'm sure, will stand the test of time, but it's hard to take arguments for changing the Constitution seriously when some of those same people that you're showing normally talking about how the Constitution is sacrosanct.

Speaker 17 A lot of people don't think they have to enforce the Constitution as it's written. They'd like to enforce it as they would like it to have been written.

Speaker 19 I am so sick of people taking this Constitution.

Speaker 5 We're running it through the shredder everybody, every time somebody wants to do what they want to do. It took these guys a long time.

Speaker 5 They read a lot of books and a lot of history to put the principles together in this thing.

Speaker 14 But wait a minute, John, that's Glenn Beck's defense of the Constitution. It took a long time to write.

Speaker 14 If that's the criteria, then that screenplay about the Noid that you started back in the late 80s will be the greatest document of all time.

Speaker 3 Believe me, that will be a great film.

Speaker 14 Anyway, you didn't play Senator Session's entire soundbite.

Speaker 17 I believe the Second Amendment is a vital constitutional amendment. A lot of people think they have to enforce the Constitution as it's written.

Speaker 14 See, John, he was only talking about the Second Amendment. Guns, John.
Of course, we can't change that clause. Look, the founders made it Sharpie-proof.
I can't do anything to it. Damn it.

Speaker 14 Their original intent is clear.

Speaker 10 See, that's the whole thing.

Speaker 19 They talk about the sacrosanct nature of the Constitution. When they like what it says, then suddenly they say, hey, that's not what the founders meant.
They don't want to do that.

Speaker 19 They want to pick and choose the parts of the Constitution that they want.

Speaker 4 That's the problem with this original intent business.

Speaker 6 We have the founders' words, but no one really knows what they were thinking, and they're not monolithic to begin with.

Speaker 14 No one, John? Yeah, no one. Or no one minus one.

Speaker 14 I should tell you that I'm a noted founding father psychologist.

Speaker 14 As you would know, if you had read my book, Men Are From Mars, James Madison was a godlike genius who could do no wrong, and I am the only one who knows what he was thinking.

Speaker 2 Now,

Speaker 3 how could you know what James Madison was actually thinking?

Speaker 14 Didn't you even look at the cover of my book, John? I thought I did. I get it straight from James Madison's skull.

Speaker 14 What's that?

Speaker 2 John,

Speaker 3 in the unlikely event that a powdered wig-bearing skull doesn't provide the guidance we need,

Speaker 13 what then?

Speaker 14 That's a ridiculous premise, John, but I'll play along. After all, even James Madison recognized a higher authority at work.

Speaker 16 Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments.

Speaker 20 See, that's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 The Constitution, when it suits them the Bible, when it suits it, it makes it sound like the Constitution is an amendment now to the Bible.

Speaker 14 Yeah, a lot of people think that that's true, but that's an easily fixed misconception.

Speaker 14 If you scroll down now to New Amendment 6666, I think you'll see that the Bible is now actually a prostitutional amendment. So it's all in there.

Speaker 3 And what about separation of church and state, which is in the Constitution?

Speaker 14 What's that, Mr. President?

Speaker 13 Excuse me? What?

Speaker 14 Oh,

Speaker 14 James Madison said the separation of church and state was just their little joke.

Speaker 3 Thank you very much, John Hodgman, everybody. We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 Welcome back to the daily show.

Speaker 7 The United States Constitution. We all talk about it, but does anyone who's not Nicholas Cage really understand it?

Speaker 7 Well, Michael Costa went looking for such a person in his new segment, Thank Me Later.

Speaker 21 Hi, I'm Michael Costa.

Speaker 22 Civic activism, does it work? Can one person make a difference? Tonight on Thank Me Later, we'll meet one man who did the impossible. No, not me.

Speaker 22 He changed the United States Constitution forever.

Speaker 23 I sat down with this American hero.

Speaker 22 And you can thank me later.

Speaker 9 Hi there. Hi.

Speaker 9 Who are you?

Speaker 24 I'm Gregory Watson. I'm responsible for the ratification of the 27th Amendment to the federal Constitution.

Speaker 22 That's right. This Lone Star Scholar got an amendment ratified to the Constitution, like the Supreme Law of America Constitution, as in the 1787 Founding Fathers Constitution.

Speaker 22 You're not a founding father, you're more like a weird uncle of the U.S.

Speaker 8 Constitution.

Speaker 2 Stepfather.

Speaker 22 Oh, stepfathers, so you are nice sometimes, but then sometimes you come home drunk and treat the kids crappy because they're not really yours.

Speaker 24 Sometimes.

Speaker 22 I'm very familiar with the Constitution. I'm a huge fan.
Why don't you tell our viewers what the 27th Amendment is? Again, I'm very certain I know what it is, but go ahead.

Speaker 24 It says that when members of Congress

Speaker 24 want to adjust their

Speaker 21 salaries,

Speaker 24 they must wait until the next election has intervened.

Speaker 22 Has intervened. Now, for you dumb-dums who don't care about our country, three-quarters of the states are needed to ratify an amendment.
So how did this egghead get it done?

Speaker 24 It all started in 1982

Speaker 24 with a college paper that I wrote. I found a book in the library that showed amendments that Congress had approved but which not enough state legislatures had ratified and I found this one from 1789.

Speaker 9 Wait,

Speaker 22 you're an undergrad.

Speaker 24 Yes, a sophomore.

Speaker 22 You're a sophomore who realized that this amendment, which was introduced in 1789, was still available to be ratified.

Speaker 24 Yes. March of 1982, during spring break.

Speaker 2 During spring break?

Speaker 23 Spring break no longer.

Speaker 22 When I'm at the wet t-shirt contest in Cancun, you're realizing that an amendment can still be ratified in the U.S.

Speaker 8 Constitution.

Speaker 9 Yes, yes.

Speaker 22 So you write this paper.

Speaker 9 Yes.

Speaker 24 I turn it in to the TA

Speaker 24 and get it back a few days later with a C on it.

Speaker 21 With a C. A C.

Speaker 24 And I appealed the grade up to the professor. She said she'd take a look at it.

Speaker 24 And when she came back a few days later, she saw me sitting in the aisle and she physically tossed it at me and said, no change.

Speaker 24 I decided right then and there, I'm going to get that amendment ratified.

Speaker 9 Wait a minute.

Speaker 14 Are you saying that this guy actually got a constitutional amendment ratified?

Speaker 23 John, could you stick to the reenactment?

Speaker 22 Also, you're meant to be 19 years old, so can you act like a hot teen?

Speaker 7 No, I can't.

Speaker 22 And so what happens now?

Speaker 24 Well, then I start writing those letters, pleading with members of the legislatures in those states to introduce a resolution at the state capitol to ratify the amendment. And it needed 32 states.

Speaker 24 And when Maine ratified the following year in 1983, there was just no turning back.

Speaker 14 And that's the story of how Gregory Watson.

Speaker 26 Oh, no, I don't have to look at the camera.

Speaker 26 Why are you talking? I was just delivering my line.

Speaker 26 You're not narrating.

Speaker 9 Hang on, hang on.

Speaker 25 I'm John Hodgman.

Speaker 27 Sorry.

Speaker 26 I'm still on television sometimes.

Speaker 9 Okay. We're done.
Okay.

Speaker 22 And then what happens?

Speaker 24 So I pestered and I badgered and I cajoled the state legislatures over the course of 10 years and they ratified it.

Speaker 22 This whole time I thought you'd be some Harvard law constitutional scholar lobbyist to elicit change. You're really just a pain in the ass.

Speaker 18 Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 22 When the 27th Amendment was finally ratified, what did they give you as a sign of respect for your work?

Speaker 24 Absolutely nothing.

Speaker 22 You didn't get a thank-you card from anyone?

Speaker 24 No thank you card from anyone.

Speaker 22 Man, I was afraid I was going to hear a sad, depressing story like that, which is why I made this for you, Gregory Watson. This is a trophy commemorating you and getting the 27th Amendment ratified.

Speaker 9 Beautiful.

Speaker 24 I shall treasure it for all time.

Speaker 24 Welcome back!

Speaker 24 As you know,

Speaker 4 America is like a boy band.

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 2 That is the premise we are starting with.

Speaker 4 Each of our 50 states has a distinct personality.

Speaker 2 We've got the cute one.

Speaker 10 We've got the rebel.

Speaker 11 rides a Harley with no helmet.

Speaker 3 We've got the one that pretty sure has a drug problem.

Speaker 2 But the thing about these states' reputations is they're hard to change.

Speaker 2 It makes you feel bad for some place like Mississippi, which every time it opens its mouth, you know, because of its reputation, you're like, please don't say the N-word, please don't say the N-word, please.

Speaker 3 Why has that state had such a tough time shaking its rep for bad race relations? For insight, let's look back at a classic episode of The Daily Show in tonight's segment, 19th Century News.

Speaker 3 Hello!

Speaker 10 Greetings and salutations.

Speaker 11 My name is Jon Stewart and given the times I'm obviously neither Jewish nor on television.

Speaker 11 Our top story this day in 1865 is that the state of Georgia has voted to ratify.

Speaker 2 We had over the shoulders in 1865?

Speaker 4 The state of Georgia has voted to ratify the 13th Amendment.

Speaker 10 Oh, delightful.

Speaker 4 Being the 27th state to so vote, the amendment is nationally adopted and slavery is abolished in these United States.

Speaker 13 Oh, bully.

Speaker 11 Of course, there still remain a few stragglers who've yet to ratify the amendment.

Speaker 13 I'm looking at you, Magnolia State.

Speaker 4 I mean, those square leaders in Georgia ratified it.

Speaker 13 How much longer are you going to wait?

Speaker 13 148 years?

Speaker 2 I mean, that'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it?

Speaker 23 After 148 years, the state of Mississippi has finally ratified the 13th Amendment.

Speaker 23 And

Speaker 10 And that's why.

Speaker 13 That was unpleasant.

Speaker 19 But that's why Mississippi can't check its rep for bad race relations.

Speaker 2 So Mississippi, two things on the recent ratification.

Speaker 10 First,

Speaker 11 Better late than never.

Speaker 4 And second, this is pretty f ⁇ ing late.

Speaker 4 Why the sudden ratification?

Speaker 30 It's all thanks to Steven Spielberg's film, Lincoln.

Speaker 1 After watching the movie, two men discovered Mississippi was the last state which had not officially ratified the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

Speaker 2 And then Mississippi went to see Django Unchained and tried to take the ratification back.

Speaker 10 Look,

Speaker 10 Lincoln or no Lincoln, how are you just getting to this now?

Speaker 4 Didn't the release of Mississippi Burning push to revisit the issue in any way?

Speaker 3 I mean to be fair the state had already taken steps towards banning the controversial practice of people owning other people.

Speaker 29 The Mississippi's legislature did sign on in 1995 but did not file the proper paperwork.

Speaker 12 Oh, red tape.

Speaker 19 They tried to ratify the 13th Amendment all the way back in 1995.

Speaker 2 Inspired, no doubt, by that year's blockbuster, I know what you did 130 summers ago.

Speaker 4 And then there was obviously the 18-year-long paperwork malfunction.

Speaker 10 By the way, what did happen with the paperwork?

Speaker 30 Their former Secretary of State, Dick Molpas, failed to send a copy of the resolution to the Federal Registrar.

Speaker 2 Classic Dick Molpas.

Speaker 10 I'm sure he meant to file the paperwork properly.

Speaker 2 In fact, here's my impression of him mailing Mississippi's 13th Amendment ratification to the Federal Registrar.

Speaker 3 I'm so glad that we did this. That's really nice.

Speaker 2 Let me just put this in the mailbox.

Speaker 11 I imagine that'll get there tootsuite.

Speaker 2 So who cleaned up the mess left by former Mississippi Secretary of State, Dick Molpas?

Speaker 30 The current Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hoseman.

Speaker 10 Delbert Hoseman cleaned up for Dick Mopus, huh?

Speaker 4 Can't wait for next year's Mississippi Secretary of State race between Smurt Nickel-Dumb and Cleavage Thick Butt.

Speaker 13 We'll be right back.

Speaker 7 Starting with Twitter. It's what Elon Musk bought for his midlife crisis instead of a Lamborghini.

Speaker 7 Over the weekend, Elon released the so-called Twitter files, which many conservatives had hoped would prove that Twitter colluded with Democrats to censor news about Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 election.

Speaker 7 Instead, they mostly just showed the Biden campaign asking Twitter to take down nude photos of Hunter Biden.

Speaker 7 So yeah, sorry everyone, if you want to see naked people, you've got to go to every other website on the internet, I guess.

Speaker 7 So the Twitter files turned out to be a major letdown for conservatives, right? There was no proof of a conspiracy to help defeat Donald Trump, but you know who doesn't care about any of that?

Speaker 9 Donald Trump.

Speaker 31 Former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election now have him calling for the Constitution to be terminated.

Speaker 31 With the revelation of massive and widespread fraud and deception in working closely with big tech companies, the DNC and the Democratic Party, do you throw the presidential election results of 2020 out and declare the rightful winner?

Speaker 31 Or do you have a new election? A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.

Speaker 7 Yeah, that's right. The Republican frontrunner for President of the United States wants to terminate the Constitution

Speaker 7 because Twitter wouldn't allow him to see Hunter Biden's dick. Yeah.

Speaker 7 He's like, I want to see the PP. I want to see it.

Speaker 7 I want to see what I'm dealing with.

Speaker 7 If you want to see Hunter Biden's dick, just get a bag of cocaine like everyone else, Mr. President.

Speaker 9 Also,

Speaker 7 why is this still news? Can anyone tell me?

Speaker 7 Like, why is this still even a headline? Donald Trump thinks this undermines the election. He thinks that about everything.

Speaker 9 Everything. However, the math equation starts, his answer is always the same.

Speaker 7 Doesn't matter where it is. Like a waiter could come up like, I'm sorry, sir, the kitchen says we've run out of the Mickey Mouse pancakes.
This is the last straw. We need to redo the election.

Speaker 18 We do have the Donald Duck waffles.

Speaker 7 It's too late. I'm storming the Capitol.
I'll have those to go, please.

Speaker 7 And look, I get that Trump doesn't like to lose, but my man, 2020 is over. You've got to move on.
You know, Trump is like one of those guys who never stops trying to get back with his ex.

Speaker 7 Like, he's texting her years later, like, hey, you up? And she's like, yeah, I'm up with my kids from my marriage.

Speaker 7 I'm like, oh, still playing hard to get her. I like that.
I like that.

Speaker 7 But honestly, though, what a start to the Trump 2024 campaign. First, he had dinner with Nazi lovers.
Now he's calling to scrap the Constitution. What's next?

Speaker 7 Was he going to give the Lincoln Memorial enormous boobs and still the GOP is going to come out like, well, I personally would have gone with a tasteful recap, but I think President Trump's heart is in the right place.

Speaker 27 is called The Year of Living Constitutionally, One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning. Please welcome the program.
A.J. Jacobs, sir!

Speaker 27 You have to run American Party!

Speaker 27 Nice to see you, A.J. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 27 The Year of Living Constitutionally.

Speaker 13 AJ, what, so

Speaker 27 how did the Year of Living Constitutionally, a humble quest to follow the Constitution of Reason, how did this come about? Why would you consider this?

Speaker 25 Well, first of all, thank you and good morrow, of course.

Speaker 27 Is that a constitutional grief?

Speaker 9 Yes, absolutely. All right, fair enough.
And

Speaker 25 this came about because I wanted to figure out what is in the Constitution. What does it actually say?

Speaker 25 And I thought it was a timely question because, as you know, our current Supreme Court thinks we should follow the original meaning from 1789.

Speaker 33 Now, I haven't been watching the news.

Speaker 9 Is anything going on there?

Speaker 2 I recommend it.

Speaker 6 What a terrible thing.

Speaker 25 Yeah, so I thought I'm going to try to figure out what that was by getting in the mindset of our founding fathers.

Speaker 27 Now as you go back and you revisit sort of the mindset of the founders, are you struck by how human they were? You know, we've deified them

Speaker 27 to a large extent. But when you learn about them, do you think like, oh, a couple of these guys might be idiots?

Speaker 9 Like,

Speaker 9 what was the thought?

Speaker 25 Well, yes, the Constitution is amazing because parts of it are so inspiring. The preamble, 52 of the greatest words ever written about the general welfare and blessings of liberty.

Speaker 25 But then there are, it is a flawed document. There are actual misspellings in the Constitution.
The word Pennsylvania is spelled two different ways, P-E-N-N and P-E-N. So it is not perfect.

Speaker 25 And I ran the Constitution through Grammarly, and Grammarly found

Speaker 25 600 mistakes. 600 mistakes.
So it is not perfect.

Speaker 27 With the Grammarly mistakes, did you correct it or did you think, oh, that one, no, let's pass that one through it.

Speaker 9 How did you, did you dismiss the Grammarly questions?

Speaker 25 Well, I couldn't go in and change it on the.

Speaker 27 The actual document spells Pennsylvania two different ways.

Speaker 25 That's right. And it's, and the ITS

Speaker 25 actually should be an IT apostrophe S. So if Ben Franklin had invented social media, they would have gotten a lot of flack for that.

Speaker 9 Brilliant.

Speaker 25 So it is, and they knew it was flawed. That's what's amazing.
The founding fathers knew this is a flawed document.

Speaker 27 And they said... Would they be surprised at how we've deified them?

Speaker 25 I think so. I think many of them would be.

Speaker 27 Now, in their discussions, did you, as you looked back and saw the discussions that they were having, my understanding is they never really thought that partisan politics would, you know, be the thing we were fighting over.

Speaker 27 They thought the branches of government would fight each other, that the executive would fight the judicial, would fight the legislative.

Speaker 27 I don't think they thought parties would try and weaponize each department against the other.

Speaker 25 They did not see this rigid two-party system coming.

Speaker 25 And James Madison, he knew there were going to be factions, but he thought there were going to be lots of factions like they're going, you know, and maybe six or eight, more like a European parliament.

Speaker 25 And they would have been shocked by so much of what we have now, including the president. I bring that up because it's kind of timely.
And they.

Speaker 27 They were very understated in the 1700s. It is somewhat timely.

Speaker 9 Well,

Speaker 25 when the idea of a single presidency came up in the convention, a lot of the delegates said, are you jesting? That is a terrible idea.

Speaker 27 Wait, they said, are you jesting?

Speaker 9 I'm paraphrasing.

Speaker 25 I'm paraphrasing.

Speaker 27 Are you jesting?

Speaker 25 But they said, we just fought a war to get rid of a king. Why do we want another? One of them said, this is the fetus of monarchy if we do this.
We should have three presidents, 12 presidents.

Speaker 9 Almost like the court.

Speaker 27 The presidency

Speaker 33 and the court would be similar.

Speaker 27 Not a unitary executive, not a single person. Right.

Speaker 25 And in the end, it was fought for weeks. In the end, the unitary executive won.
But I have to say, that fetus of monarchy coming. I mean, it's not a fetus anymore.
It's like a teenager.

Speaker 9 Right.

Speaker 25 It is like, we are.

Speaker 2 200 and some years later.

Speaker 9 Right.

Speaker 25 It took a while, but it's here.

Speaker 27 What do we mistake about them? You know, now, do you watch the arguments that you see about the founders' intent differently?

Speaker 27 Does it make you a little crazier knowing what the actual arguments were?

Speaker 25 Oh, absolutely. I mean, it was, their mindset was so different in so many ways.
It was like a foreign country. And just to give you one example, their idea of rights were very different.

Speaker 25 Rights were not... Trump cards, sorry about that.

Speaker 9 But they were...

Speaker 27 There were responsibilities with them.

Speaker 25 Exactly.

Speaker 25 They should have had a bill of responsibilities in addition to a bill of rights. But they just assumed that we were all going to be part of and contribute to the betterment of our community.

Speaker 25 And you saw this all over in the First Amendment, the Second Amendment. And they would be shocked by...

Speaker 25 They would be shocked by how focused we are on individual rights, which I love. I love them.
But we need the balance. Right.

Speaker 27 And that we've in some ways exploited those conversations to just get what we want or do what we want.

Speaker 25 Right, exactly. And they talked about virtue.
They loved that word. And this is before it had sort of a negative ting.

Speaker 33 How many of them do you think

Speaker 33 banged porn stars?

Speaker 9 How many of them do you,

Speaker 27 when they talk about virtue.

Speaker 25 Well, I talked to many constitutional scholars and I never

Speaker 9 None of them have ever said that. But

Speaker 27 what about the level of discourse? Because I'm always struck by, you know, even in this situation that we face now with the debate and all that,

Speaker 27 the gaslighting that occurs, the lack of trust in Americans' instincts or ability to take complex issues and hear about them honestly. Right.

Speaker 27 But I imagine their conversations were very frank and very direct, but also sophisticated.

Speaker 25 Absolutely. I think it was a genuine difference.
I wrote this book, a lot of it, with a quill pen. And I'm not saying everyone needs to go back to a quill pen.

Speaker 33 You wrote the book with a quill pen?

Speaker 25 Yeah, because I was trying to live the Constitution. I had my musket.
I carried it around New York.

Speaker 9 I wrote a quill with a quill pen.

Speaker 27 There's that curiosity.

Speaker 27 Do you consider yourself a method writer? Is that what this is?

Speaker 9 That's exactly it.

Speaker 25 I love that phrase.

Speaker 27 Thank you. So you did.
So it was a quill pen. And is there something about using the quill that is more deliberate and allows you to think differently?

Speaker 25 I really believe that. There were no dings and chimes from the internet.
I could actually focus and maybe come up with some subtle thoughts. And

Speaker 25 if the Constitution were written on an iPhone with emojis, that would not be good.

Speaker 27 Can you imagine with the,

Speaker 9 you know, all men are created equal, LOL.

Speaker 27 It would have been a nightmare.

Speaker 25 They loved cold takes, not hot takes. They were all about let's take a look at the pros and cons.

Speaker 25 And one of my favorite founding father, Ben Franklin, said at the Constitutional Convention, he said, the older I get, the less certain I am of my own opinions, which I love.

Speaker 27 I mean, exactly. And they even, they baked it into the cake as far as they really thought amendments will be necessary.
This has to be a document that can change with the consent of the governor.

Speaker 25 Exactly. They knew it was imperfect.
They said, let's figure out ways to change it. But as you say, they didn't see this rigid two-party system.
Now the last amendment we had was 1992 and

Speaker 25 I mean you had to get two-thirds of Congress to agree. You can't get two-thirds of Congress to agree on on the color of a green pepper.
You know, you just can't. It's impossible.
Yeah.

Speaker 27 Because they are reddish.

Speaker 25 That's a good point.

Speaker 10 Thank you very much for being the year of living constitutionally is available now. AJ Jacobs!

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