But is it perfect? Well, perfection is a pretty high bar to hurdle. My Old Man was fond of joking, "I'm not perfect; perfection is a fault, and I don't have any." But all kidding aside, nothing is perfect, and times change. I'm not a fan of the "living Constitution" stupidity that seems to be the favorite claim of the left when they want to either ignore the Constitution or reinterpret it into meaninglessness.

But could we make some improvements? I have a few ideas. 

First, let's look at the legislative branch.

For the Senate: Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment and return the selection of Senators to the several State legislatures.

For the House of Representatives: Amend the Constitution to eliminate the direct election of members of the House of Representatives. Members of the House will be selected at random from a list of registered voters/net taxpayers for each Congressional district and will serve for a two-year term. (Think of it as a sort of extended jury duty summons.)

For both: Amend the Constitution as follows: “Members of the House of Representatives and Senate will serve one term and one term only, following which they shall be permanently ineligible for any Federal elected or appointed office.”

This would return the country to a citizen legislature. No more permanent ruling class; no more careers in politics. Professional politicians have been running things since the mid-1800s, and look where it’s gotten us – trillions in debt, an unmanageable Imperial monolith in Washington, and legions of professional pols enriching themselves at the public teat. No more. In the tradition of Cincinnatus, the ordinary citizens will once more be in charge.

When a President’s, Congressman’s, or Senator’s term is over, they must go back into the private sector and earn an honest living – they will have no influence to peddle, no higher office to seek, no plush ambassadorial appointment to angle for.

Now there's a counter-argument for this: The Constitution shouldn't limit our choices of representatives. Now that's a strong argument, and I'm inclined to agree with it, up to a point; but we have driven the existing means of electing representatives until all the wheels have come off, and look at where it's got us.

Also, the Senate was originally empaneled to represent the state governments. Not the citizens, not directly; the state governments. The House of Representatives served to represent the voters; the Senate, the states. At present, one could make an argument that Kenya has more representation in Washington than the State of Wyoming, and that just doesn't make sense.

See Also: What Does It Mean to Be an American?

Is There a Human Right to Commerce?

I have a few other ideas, too:

Revise the Second Amendment to state: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms for defense of home, person, and community shall not be infringed.” Let's clarify this and get rid of the "militia" clause that liberals and progressives routinely misunderstand and, despite several Supreme Court decisions to the contrary, continue to claim means "The Second Amendment only applies to the National Guard!"

And finally, this would have to be wordsmithed a little more:

Amend the Constitution to limit the franchise to those citizens who have, within the last five years, filed at least three annual tax returns wherein the amount of taxes paid to the Federal government constituted a net positive amount. (If you don’t pay taxes, you don’t vote.) Retirees who have maintained three of the five averages over their working lives retain their franchise. Military veterans have the franchise for life.

The privilege of voting should belong to those who have skin in the game. Now this is probably the least likely to pass, in no small part because the legacy media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) would set up a hue and cry that would be audible in the Lesser Magellenic Cloud, screeching about denying the franchise to "people of color" and so on, even though there is no mention of race, ethnicity or creed in the proposal.

Granted, these are all pipe dreams. We're stuck with the Constitution as it is, and, you know, that's still pretty good. We, as a nation, aren't perfect; our Constitution isn't perfect. But it is better than any other system of government ever devised.

To put it another way: Our system isn't the best conceivable system. It's just the best possible system.