What makes our US system of government "perfect" is its allowance for the imperfect. The persons who drafted our system were wise enough o know there is no such thing as total perfection; that a static, hidebound government cannot survive; that governments need to be "living" entities, able to adjust, account for, and deal with the vast multitude of variables time and the world outside our borders would throw our way. They realized any form of government, no matter of what sort, ultimately serves at the will of those governed; exercise a form of government oppressive or detrimental to the needs of those governed, and they will rise up and replace the governors. The founders were all students of history and well aware of the follies of the past. They could have set up a system of highly detailed, highly specific laws and rules, locking their descendants into a rigid culture they themselves fought against and sacrificed so much to overturn. They weren't about to pass a similar fate on to the next generations. The Constitution is vague in a great many places because the world, human nature, and the future are all vague. The signatories of 1789 could not have had the slightest idea of how far the US and the world would have progressed by 1889 or 1989 or 2016. But they did not discount the possibilities of progress socially, technically, or politically and they gave those of the future, us, the means and abilities to deal with our concerns with a minimum of being unreasonably chained to the past. The founders were creating a new type of democracy and they stumbled, argued, experimented with success and failure, and produced a framework the best they could with the means at their disposal; they also knew we would stumble, argue, experiment with success and failure, and hopefully produced a continued result ensuring the best form of governance for the benefit of the greatest number of citizens. And, you know what? Those who come after us will also stumble, argue, experiment with success and failure, and hopefully produce a continued result ensuring the best form of governance for the benefit of the greatest number of citizens in the future. None of this process is perfect...but it's not the worst history has seen. It's a work in progress and in a word, that is what perfection lacks: progress. Perfection is static, sterile, immutable in a mutable world, incapable of adaptation or assimilation, exclusive instead of inclusive, without any future of improvement or growth. Perfection only waits for decay and deterioration; once perfection is fully achieved, there is nowhere to go but down. The US, The Constitution, its citizens and some of the acts and decisions we do or make may not be perfect, be we are a hopeful lot always looking to improve, and, thanks to our founders, we have an idea of how to achieve our hopes...
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