"Britain, of course, is famous for its unwritten constitution—a phrase that strikes the worm-gnawed American brain as oxymoronic. In fact, unwritten constitution is a tautology. It is our written constitution—or large-C Constitution—which is a concept comical, impossible, and fundamentally fraudulent."
Good piece. However, in regards to the framers not being able to to imagine "a situation in which millions of people were flooding across the border", I'm not so sure about that, there had been many mass migrations in Europe, including huge ones that are sometimes referred to as the "great migrations" which took place during the Thirty Years Wars of the 17th century which may have still been part of a still living memory that at least some of the framers may have shared in.
Good point, but I wonder to what degree they could have imagined transferring the same experience to the rather different North American context. But, maybe.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I very much appreciate this article.
"Britain, of course, is famous for its unwritten constitution—a phrase that strikes the worm-gnawed American brain as oxymoronic. In fact, unwritten constitution is a tautology. It is our written constitution—or large-C Constitution—which is a concept comical, impossible, and fundamentally fraudulent."
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2009/02/gentle-introduction-to-unqualified/
Good piece. However, in regards to the framers not being able to to imagine "a situation in which millions of people were flooding across the border", I'm not so sure about that, there had been many mass migrations in Europe, including huge ones that are sometimes referred to as the "great migrations" which took place during the Thirty Years Wars of the 17th century which may have still been part of a still living memory that at least some of the framers may have shared in.
Good point, but I wonder to what degree they could have imagined transferring the same experience to the rather different North American context. But, maybe.