She's a balloon head, she's a balloon head

That's what Chris Matthews called Michele Bachmann today when she said in Iowa this weekend that slavery ended with the Constitution, that the founders ended slavery.

No 3/5th of a person for those who came from Africa, no presidents who owned slaves, no Lincoln, no 600,000 people who died trying to maintain the union. They are looking at the past as what we should emulate, not as a story that should inspire us. It's good to talk about history, as it clarifies what happened in the passage of time, to know now what we did wrong then, where we fell short as well as what we did right and what still amazes us about what a bunch of ordinary men accomplished in a short time. We can never make light of what was wrong in the Constitution. A brilliant work was blemished by how it divided the people. Some just did not count as much as others. By allowing that what we now call an injustice, the founders separated themselves from the rest of us, not just those of us who counted only partially.

What is special about America is that its Constitution was written 235 years ago. Not today, not recently by incorporating what we have learned over the last 200 years. No, Americans have a pretty old blueprint. It's what we have and what we hang on to. It's a tradition, a story that connects us with the beginning.

We should do a study to measure what people in other countries know about their Constitutions and compare it with what Americans know. A prediction: Americans know more about their constitution but are less accurate about what they know.

Of course, there is money needed to do this research and I know there is not much of that around. So, let's argue in print. Any format will do.

Let me know what you have to say. Yes, this is an invitation.