The old Constitution, lifeless, irrelevant and inconvenient to its progressive critics, is having a good run of late at the expense of the living Constitution. 

Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for withholding information on his Mexican gunrunning operation, a de facto act of war on our southern neighbor, with Fast and Furious itself a deliberate act of war against the Second Amendment. 

ObamaCare verging on voiding. 

The Founders would be pleased. 

They built the Constitution as a bulwark against Man's frailties, agreeing with Machiavelli that both leaders and the people are wicked and with Montesquieu that the defense against wickedness in government is a separation of powers, with each imperfect branch set against its rival in a base balance. 

The Constitution's purpose is to provide form for Jefferson's ideal: that the aim of government on this fallen orb is liberty-to allow self-evident truths to be achieved in practice with government's object to be the securing of its citizens' Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness.