Unlike citizens of other established democracies, Americans tend to resist the notion that our Constitution has flaws or deficiencies that should be corrected, or that parts of it may be out of date. As Aziz Rana observes, many Americans embrace the Constitution with an “almost religious devotion.” We treat the framers as if they were endowed with almost divine or supernatural powers, and we treat the Constitution as if it were a sacred document—one that is “basically perfect.” In other words, our society operates under the assumption that our founding institutions are, in effect, best
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