We are going to start our investigation by first understanding what a constitution is, and more particularly what our Constitution is. We will then look briefly at what the framers expected of us, how our legal system supports our democracy, and finally the Bill of Rights. At this point we will limit our selves to just a quick overview in support of my premise that we have a really precious document here. As mentioned earlier, we will get into a detailed examination of the entire document before we are done.

Merriam Webster tells us that a constitution is “the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it”. This is actually a pretty good description for our own constitution. But for me it is lacking all the life and vitality that characterizes our document.

What do I mean by that? Well, when I look at how I approach life, I realize I approach it as if everything were a document, written or otherwise, and all the documents are formatted as contracts.
If you give me that ice cream cone, I will give you $2.
If you drive over my new flower bed, I will take you to court.
If you drive under the influence, the state will take away your license. We, (I) approach life as if it were a series of interactions BETWEEN parties, and the interactions involve a bargain.

Now look at the Preamble to our Constitution. “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

THERE IS NO SECOND PARTY. We, in establishing this constitution, require no second party. Nobody has to approve it, nobody has the right to object to it, and the only people that are governed by it are ourselves. That holds out to us the possibility of a degree of independence and self actuation that many of us never manage to achieve. If we do not, its not the government's fault.