Prohibit any United States citizen from having more than one million dollars! Rename our country The United States of Earth! Abolish the U.S. Senate!
Those were actual possible Constitutional amendments - three of more than 11,000 proposed.
Over the course of our history, only 27 have actually been ratified. That is by design.
The Founders did not want things to be easily changed, even as the result of presidential elections.
That is the idea behind a new exhibit at the Truman Library in Independence: A More Perfect Union - How Critical Presidential Elections Reshaped the Constitution.
As Director Kurt Graham explains, very few issues raised in an election cycle actually reach the constitutional level.
That doesn’t mean an election can’t affect the interpretation of current law or the efforts to the change them.
The display will change throughout the year with actual founding documents being brought in from time to time. The exhibit gives visitors plenty of opportunities to test their knowledge and interact with history.
You can also see past presidential election methods and commercials.
Oh, and you can vote for the president you think was our nation’s greatest. The latest tally has Lincoln way out in front, followed by Truman and, then, George Washington.
The exhibition will be at the library through the end of the year.
If you’re wondering what Mr. Truman would have said about our current political climate, Graham thinks much of the opinion would have been bleeped.
.@joelkclive is @TrumanLibrary talking about elections shaping the Constitution #DAR pic.twitter.com/xRSq6gbgGu
— TJH (@THellhake) May 18, 2016
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Joel Nichols can be reached at joel.nichols@kclive.tv.
