Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Let’s celebrate our unnatural Constitution

Let’s celebrate our unnatural Constitution
Getty Images

Kelly is the Vice President of Civics Initiatives at the Jack Miller Center, a nationwide network of scholars and teachers committed to advancing the core texts and ideas of the American political tradition. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and earned his JD at the University of Notre Dame.

“Our kids don’t know the Constitution.” It’s a complaint I hear a lot as I oversee teacher education programs for my organization the Jack Miller Center (JMC). But what if “knowing” the Constitution requires more than knowledge of what’s in it?


Recently, with partners at Sphere Initiative and Lou Frey Institute, we hosted more than 60 Florida social studies teachers and curriculum supervisors for a Civics Summit at the University of Central Florida. Sessions focused on the Florida Civic Literacy Exam which requires familiarity with foundational principles and texts and a deep understanding of the Constitution.

Together we studied Congress’ enumerated powers, the necessary and proper clause, and the amendment process—but it wasn’t any of these constitutional provisions that seemed to most resonate with teachers. Instead it was the ideas not explicitly stated but essential to our Constitution—akin to what Danielle Allen describes in her bookTalking to Strangers as “customary habits of citizenship” and “unspoken norms of interaction” that underlie our Constitution. JMC partner professor Alberto Coll detailed some of these unspoken customs in one session: a belief in the corruptibility of human beings—men are not angels to paraphrase James Madison in Federalist 51; the importance of separation of powers, and particularly judicial independence; a belief in natural rights—rights that we have inherently as human beings that are “endowed by our Creator.”

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

And yet, despite its foundation in natural rights, Professor Coll reminded the audience that if we look at human history our system of government can hardly be described as natural. The regular course of affairs is that “might makes right,” that as Thucydides observed “the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” The natural condition of man is tyranny.

The genius of our Constitution is not that it assumes the opposite—that man is by nature good—but rather that it resists man’s natural corruptibility through a complex arrangement of institutions. The counterbalancing of these institutions make freedom possible. Over the course of the day it became clear that the Constitution does not so much create freedom, as allow it to flourish.

In the eight years that I’ve been involved in middle and high school civics and history, when it comes to constitutional education, this broader view of our nation’s charter is what is most lacking—we’re missing the forest for the trees. JMC partner professor Greg Weiner alluded to this several years ago in a piece he wrote titled “This Constitution Day, Teach the Whole Document.” His point was that too often constitutional education in K-12 and the undergraduate level focuses on the Bill of Rights, to the exclusion of the seven articles that make up the body of the Constitution. He’s not wrong about this. A recent RAND study showed that teaching rights and responsibilities ranks significantly higher among teacher civic education priorities than teaching the political institutions that make up the body of the Constitution.

But it’s not just that teachers need to address the whole document. Teachers need to help students consider the unwritten ideas, the ideas that the document assumes. After all, ours is the shortest constitution in the world—it assumes a lot.

During our civics summit for Florida teachers I closed out a panel discussion on the Constitution by asking whether the anti-federalist critique of the Constitution—that the expanded republic contemplated by the document would inevitably undermine civic virtue—was correct. We didn’t have time to dig into that question, but several teachers nodded along. It’s a critique that I’ve heard a number of times over the years—our Constitution doesn’t do enough to encourage civic responsibility.

It's perfectly natural to think of the Constitution as a complete, one-stop shop for civic and political life in America, including the expected behavior and conduct of citizens. Efficiency and good government would seem to require a central plan around which our lives can be organized. But ours is an unnatural Constitution. As Yuval Levin has explained, it aims not for efficiency but for unity amid diversity. It is not a totalizing framework, but one that makes space for most of political and social life to be determined outside its specific provisions. Civic responsibility must be derived from other sources.

With Jack Miller Center teacher programming, we try to help teachers look beyond the usual Supreme Court precedents. Before we jump into the Bill of Rights, before the articles, before even the preamble, our programs discuss the vision of government and society not spelled out in the document. This Constitution Day let’s celebrate what’s left out of our Constitution and the freedom it implies—let’s celebrate our unnatural Constitution.

Read More

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

The Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland releases a new survey, fielded February 6-7, 2025, with a representative sample of 1,160 adults nationwide.

Pexels, Tima Miroshnichenko

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

An overwhelming majority of 89% of Americans say the U.S. should spend at least one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid—the current amount the U.S. spends on aid. This includes 84% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.

Fifty-eight percent oppose abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development and folding its functions into the State Department, including 77% of Democrats and 62% of independents. But 60% of Republicans favor the move.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Super Bowl of Unity

A crowd in a football stadium.

Getty Images, Adamkaz

A Super Bowl of Unity

Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and perhaps it is fitting that the Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday night's Super Bowl 59, given the number of messages of unity, resilience, and coming together that aired throughout the evening.

The unity messaging started early as the pre-game kicked off with movie star Brad Pitt narrating a moving ad that champions residence and togetherness in honor of those who suffered from the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Helen:

Keep ReadingShow less
The Paradox for Independents

A handheld American Flag.

Canva Images

The Paradox for Independents

Political independents in the United States are not chiefly moderates. In The Independent Voter, Thomas Reilly, Jacqueline Salit, and Omar Ali make it clear that independents are basically anti-establishment. They have a "mindset" that aims to dismantle the duopoly in our national politics.

I have previously written about different ways that independents can obtain power in Washington. First, they can get elected or converted in Washington and advocate with their own independent voices. Second, they can seek a revolution in which they would be the most dominant voice in Washington. And third, a middle position, they can seek a critical mass in the Senate especially, namely five to six seats, which would give them leverage to help the majority party get to 60 votes on policy bills.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

A single pawn separated from a group of pawns.

Canva Images

The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

Excerpt from To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff

In my book To Stop a Tyrant, I identify five types of a political leader’s followers. Given the importance of access in politics, I range these from the more distant to the closest. In the middle are bureaucrats. No political leader can accomplish anything without a cadre of bureaucrats to implement their vision and policies. Custom, culture and law establish boundaries for a bureaucrat’s freedom of action. At times, these constraints must be balanced with moral considerations. The following excerpt discusses ways in which bureaucrats need to thread this needle.

Keep ReadingShow less