Most Americans want a federal government that is benign when times are good and proactive when times are tough. Unrealistic? Of course, but like many expectations, these have a tendency to get overblown at times. Like today.

All of us are taught, from first grade through college, that the American federalist system of government is the best that has yet been designed by man, with a hint of the Creator's input thrown in to give it more validity. We are told that the American system of governance, the best in the world, is capable of guiding our lives through the toughest of times, thanks to the genius of the Founding Fathers, who have become over the years as brilliant as today's rocket scientists. At any rate, they were all geniuses, we are told, and so we naturally look for 18th century guidance for solutions to problems that were undreamed of then.

When the Constitution's authors deigned that all Americans should enjoy free speech, none was capable of knowing that a computer hack could make millions of dollars by sending pornographic pictures over the Internet. Freedom of religion rights were not written when fanatical sects were established by paranoid schizophrenics to further their own crazed beliefs. The Oklahoma City bombing had not occurred when Madison and Washington envisioned a citizen militia that would preserve the peace with private weapons. The freedom of assembly right was never meant to assure the legality of lynch mobs that have gathered over our history to harass and kill minorities. The guarantee of equal protection under the law could not have foreseen the evolution of today's legal system, where the best and brightest defenders are available only to those with great wealth.

Seldom mentioned in the glowing praise of the Founding Fathers was their faulty view of who should enjoy the benefits of our American utopia, for the gate was not opened to everyone and it took years to pry off the locks that were closed at the beginning of our nation. The concepts of landowners-only franchise, sanctioned slavery and denial of voting rights to women were all eventually declared un-American, even if they were first approved and sanctioned by law by our political forefathers.

Because so many of us have been taught, and have accepted, the view that our governance system is perfect, even as its servants are imperfect, we often have a tendency to believe we are being put upon by whatever government exists at the moment. We consciously or unconsciously rationalize that since the system itself is perfect, those imperfect souls engaged in operating it at the moment are guilty of robbing us of its full benefits and protection.

The average American wants a balanced budget and at the same time, a reduction of his own tax bill. He wants full protection for products manufactured in the United States and also the benefits of buying cheap foreign goods. He believes he is entitled to a high employment rate and the protection from inflation for his weekly pay check. He feels betrayed by the failure of his government to assure his family's safety, even within the confines of his residence, yet resists the efforts of police to reduce the number of guns that are so readily available to the lawless. By a wide margin, the average American believes term limits will resolve the problems of arrogant legislatures, but he prefers to keep his own legislators because he does not hold them responsible for the excesses of others.

Most Americans consider themselves constitutionalists, willing and anxious to obey the principal points of government by law and rule by the majority. And most of us are, except we too often reserve the right to make constitutional changes in the margin. We believe in freedom of assembly, but reserve the right to those who fail to meet our concept of reasonable behavior. We would just as soon reject this right to a group of tattooed motorcyclists who may or may not have had too many beers or smoked several joints.

We believe strongly in the right of free speech, yet would instantly shut down speakers who espouse causes that are anathema to us and our personal concept of Americanism in its purest form. We grudgingly subscribe to freedom of the press except when the press disagrees with our own views, and then we accept the freedom by labeling its practitioners anti-American and paid puppets for extremist ideologies.

It's interesting to note that many of the exceptions we would make to constitutional grants today would have been valid in an earlier age. There were few Colonists who disagreed with the basic concepts of the Constitution, once the authors agreed with state legislatures that it required the addition of what we now call the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing basic freedoms. But there weren't any stoned motorcyclists around in those days, and the religious fanatics who were brave enough to declare their crazed views were promptly hung as witches. When we were founding our Constitution, slavery was not only permitted, it was legalized as part of America. Landowners were the only Americans permitted to show up at the polls on election day. Women, considered inferior, were treated as second-class citizens incapable of making important decisions of state.

If there is one constitutional fact we have overlooked as our nation has marched from the 18th century to nearly the 21st century it is the capacity for change and progress. America is no longer a nation of farmers and small shopkeepers, isolated from the rest of the world by oceans on both sides and wild natives on the northern and southern borders. Today America is a huge industrial, commercial and financial machine, a complex conglomerate of multiple special interests. That we are still being ruled by the same Constitution, with a few timely changes, is truly a miracle of history, totally unpredictable.

What this means is important to recognize. For if our Constitution is viable enough to guide us into this nuclear, electronic, often upsetting age, then we who are governed by it must be as adaptable, and as steadfast. I don't know about other Constitutionalists, but I sure don't feel 206 years old.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.