The Constitution and our Founding Fathers

I wonder how long people have been making poor arguments for their political ideology by using our national history as a resource. Does this tradition date back nearly as far as the formulation of our country? And how long will this stupidity allow to continue unchecked?

The idea that our founding fathers were wiser than us or that the constitution was/is an infallible document is patently ridiculous. As for the constitution, it was such an imperfect document that the Bill of Rights had to be introduced shortly after. And let us not forget their first failure, the Articles of Confederation. And despite all of that they still fundamentally failed to deal with the issue of slavery, essentially condoning and allowing the barbaric subjugation of free peoples for their own economic gain.

If you study the founding fathers you'll quickly realize they didn't know what THEY believed in many instances. That's why the religious and non-religious are always arguing about their spiritual beliefs. Thomas Jefferson for example, has a handful of quotes supporting religion and a handful denouncing it. A History or English teacher will probably tell you they were Deists, but they certainly didn't live like a Deist. But why be surprised that these people were hypocrites? "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men were created equal. Now, slave, go fetch me my tobacco pipe."

Lets not pretend that our founding fathers were wise, perfect men, or that the constitution is an incredible work of art. It laid down a nice foundation by allowing future generations enough freedom to pursue their success, and they're the people who built this nation. All the founding fathers did was get the hell outta the way so that other people could actually do the work.