Are We Intelligent?

When the founding fathers wrote the Constitution of the United States, they were intelligent men from diverse backgrounds. They met often and reasoned together. The wording was reworked until it met with general approval of all involved in the writing/signing. I believe they approached this as a straightforward task. Rewording when needed to make the meaning clear to all who read it. I first read it as a pre high school subject for discussion in a history class. I was capable of understanding it as were my classmates. It was pretty clear and not difficult to understand. The constitution and the amendments were written in clear English without nuance.

Evidently they changed the Constitution without notifying the ordinary citizens since according to George Will it is so complex that even the President is unable to truly understand it. Will states "opposition to Miers's confirmation flows from the fact that constitutional reasoning is a talent -- a skill acquired, as intellectual skills are, by years of practice sustained by intense interest. It is not usually acquired in the normal course of even a fine lawyer's career."

The intellectual skill acquired through years of study evidently is to find the nuance not written in the original and to change the meanings of well established and long held understanding on such things as eminent domain. This great intellectual skill found that any government agency can seize property to give to another individual to increase the tax base. It is through the years of practice that lawyers find they know more than the founding fathers and can find new meanings, loop holes and increased power of the judiciary to justify any change they wish to make from the original.

This intellectual skill is beyond what the average lawyer has, beyond the president's comprehension and most certainly far beyond the grasp of the citizenry. It is all a myth that "we the people" can understand the depths of meaning of the constitution and the amendments that our forefathers were asked to ratify by vote. How have we been misled all these years to believe that the constitution was clear.? How could we all be so blind to the hidden meanings so cleverly hidden from plain view? Perhaps President Bush should have nominated George Will or a Senator instead of a woman who is not a constitutional scholar. By all means, we dumb Americans can only benefit from Will's or a hard working, honest Senator filled with integrity. We may need another grand ego that is capable of reading all that fine print that is invisible to us.

When the Judiciary Committee hearings take place, I may find I really am not impressed with Harriet Miers. I am however willing to believe she is competent, with sufficient intellect, until she displays that she is not competent and is in fact lacking intellect needed to read the constitution as written.

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