In the strictest meaning of the term, there is no such thing as a “living” Constitution. Or a “dead” one. Only animate objects—humans, animals, plants—can “live” or “die.” Pieces of paper or words can’t be “alive” or “dead.” Now, metaphorically, we could speak of a “living” Constitution if it is still in force, or a “dead” one if it no longer has any authority in the country that produced it. In this sense, America’s Constitution is (supposedly) still “living,” it remains (technically) the “Supreme Law of the Land,” though our government pays very little attention to it.
But when The New York Times or some Leftist pontificates about a “living constitution,” neither of the above ideas is what they mean. When some Leftist states that the Constitution is a “living document,” his meaning is simple and of his own creation: he doesn’t like what it says and wants to change it to mean what HE wants it to mean. To wit, the document, as written, means nothing at all. Let me explain.
Words are one of the primary ways that humans communicate with each other. Words can be misused, or misunderstood, but for the most part, we homo sapiens communicate fairly well through this medium. If I said, “I ate pizza for lunch today,” most readers would, with no confusion, understand my meaning. My communication would be successfully completed. That’s because—and this is a simple concept and easy to understand, but something Leftists LOVE to distort—words mean things. If they don’t have a generally accepted meaning among a populace, those people would never be able to effectively communicate with each other, conduct business and commerce, enjoy movies, or a billion other transactions where “words” are used for communicative processes.
Now, sometimes words are misunderstood. If I thought the word “pizza” meant “ham sandwich,” and I said, “I ate a pizza for lunch,” my communication would be distorted and unsuccessful. I would be talking about two slices of bread with pig meat in between, but you would think I meant a small pie-like thing with cheese, tomato sauce, etc. on it. Words can be misunderstood, either through ignorance of definition or simple misstatement or incorrect hearing. So, obviously, communication through words is not perfect. Nothing human is.
I went through all of that to conclude this: when Leftists say our Constitution is a “living document,” miscommunication isn’t what they mean, either. What they actually do is totally change any normal usage and meaning of the word “living,” and concoct their own definition (like I did with “pizza”) to produce the result they want produced. They do that frequently actually.
There is no problem with the Founding Fathers’ intent; they didn’t misuse words. They didn’t say “President” when they meant “Congress,” and we understand the difference in meaning between those two terms. Even after 230+ years, there is no true communication gap between James Madison and us. Madison used words that could be understood by normal people of his time, and, while the style of writing is a little different from our own, we can obtain a very accurate understanding of what he—all our Founding Fathers—meant in the Constitution. And there is a reason for that.
Words aren’t “alive” or “dead,” either. When used correctly, they mean exactly, and only, what the person who said or wrote them meant. Thus, our Constitution means just what it says because the Founders used the precise words they intended to use. It’s not a hard document to comprehend.
The problem is not with understanding the Constitution; the problem is the Left today doesn’t like what it says and wants to find excuses to change it. That is 100% the case. So, they speak of a “living” Constitution, one that evolves over time, and thus the words in the document metamorphose and no longer have their original meaning. They don’t mean what they meant when Madison wrote them, they mean what Leftists today want them to mean. And if that philological interpretation be true, then abortion, aid to Ukraine, subsidies for green industries, and 10,000 other Leftist projects can indeed be “found” in the Constitution. Ergo, the Constitution doesn’t mean what it says, it means whatever Leftists want it to mean. “Pizza” means “ham sandwich” because I say it does, and if you are still living in the 18th century, that’s your problem, not mine.
But intelligent people grasp that if the Constitution doesn’t mean what it says, if it means anything we want it to mean, then its actual words mean nothing at all and there is no sense in even having a constitution. That would suit the Left just fine because they hate our Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and the government those men established. Our Constitution severely limits the power of the federal government; that was one of its main purposes. And, of course, “limited government” is the exact antithesis of everything the Democratic Party, Deep State, the Uniparty in Washington wants. They crave a totalitarian government that dispenses the “rights” and “freedoms” they want dispensed. In other words, they want slaves that must do whatever they are told by the government and are only ALLOWED to do whatever the government will allow them to do. “You will give us your money and we will spend it on what WE want to spend it on, regardless of what the Constitution says. And you will accept our superior wisdom and diktat and shut up.”
That is what The New York Times and Leftists mean by a “living Constitution.”
So, the next time you hear some Lefty say, “our Constitution is a living document,” understand what he/she is saying: “I don’t like the government formed by our Founding Fathers, I want to change it into a totalitarian government. The Constitution doesn’t mean what James Madison intended for it to mean, it means whatever I want it to mean.”
Our “living” Constitution.
Read my series on the historical roots of “Progressivism” in my substack mklewis929.substack.com. An excellent, educational series. There’s lots of other good stuff on Leftism, the Founders, etc., along with Biblical studies, so sign up. Follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.
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