Why is the Constitution important?
The only answer I have is what Louis Armstrong said when asked to define jazz: "If you have to ask, you'll never know."
This is the first in an occasional series of essays about the history of American government. If you remember everything from Civics 101 you can skip it, but please read the next paragraph first.
According to some polls, as many as 75% of Americans of voting age have only the vaguest understanding of the Constitution.** That ignorance has brought America to the brink of collapse. It was the primary weakness in a credulous sector of the population that ex-president Trump exploited, making them believe their own government had turned against them. It is an appalling level of ignorance made even worse by the fact that several members of Congress share it.
The soul of the Constitution is in the first three words, which everyone knows but few understand: "We the People," written in script dramatically larger than any other words in the document. That's not a stylistic conceit; it's a statement.
That donor statement identifies who is making the proclamation and granting the benefit.
Compare the donor identification in any monarchical document, and not just in the past. Here's one from 2018: "Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Our other Realms and Territories Queen Head of the Commonwealth Defender of the Faith . . ." Etc., etc.
There's no such aggrandizement in the Constitution.
"We the People." With three simple words the American people granted themselves a nation. And yes, it was all the people, not just their representatives to the Congress of Confederation, which approved the Constitution for ratification. Each state called a special election for a popular vote of ratification. By popular vote the Constitution became the foundation of our government in June, 1788.
For the first time in the history of the world, a proclamation granting nationhood did not rely on the largesse of a monarch.
In plain language the Preamble sets out its purpose: "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."
As big deals go, that's infinitely ginormous. No other people in history have successfully thrown off an oppressor and gone on to establish a successful nation with a brand new, innovative, something-new-under-the-Sun, unique form of government. Nobody. Ever.
That's the first important thing about the Constitution. Stay tuned.
---Diogenes, 1/25/2021
* William Shakespeare, II Henry VI, IV.vii.
** For example: https://woodrow.org/news/how-well-americans-know-constitution/; https://www.heritage.org/the-constitution/commentary/more-americans-need-actually-read-the-constitution; https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-are-poorly-informed-about-basic-constitutional-provisions/