The Constitution has survived for more than 200 years and without including the Bill of Rights, it has only been amended 17 times. Two of those times were the amendment prohibiting alcohol and the amendment repealing that prohibition. Today, many Americans look at the Constitution as infallible and revere it very nearly to the level of a religious text. To say that progressives recognize the need to amend the Constitution more frequently and conservatives want to prevent its evolution would certainly be an oversimplification, but the glorification of the constitution as an inerrant document has caused a great political divide in our nation nonetheless. As a living document, the Constitution of the United States can be and should be amended as often as necessary in order to effectively progress our state of liberty and to correctly represent the ideals of the current generation while …show more content…
The founding fathers were clear when they said that there must be a separation of church and state. The first president, George Washington, said that “of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated…we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.” When saying this, Washington was recognizing the fact that political decisions made on the grounds of religious beliefs could compromise our democracy. This brings to question of why, 200 years after the Constitution was drafted, politicians are still running for office off of religious platforms. As a result of these religious campaigns, large populations of citizens are polarized, which in turn causes a divide in the voter populace. Our government was not built to serve the beliefs of one religious group for this