In my nearly three decades of teaching introductory U.S. Government to undergraduates at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, I often used a story about an international conference of academic constitutional experts.

Toward the end of the conference the hosts asked the attendees to rank the constitutions of all countries on a "best-worst" basis. The United States federal Constitution came out as the clear "best" one. The American delegate asked some of his colleagues why they voted for the U.S. Constitution, since several newer ones had all sorts of specific protections that the U.S. one lacked.

The answer was that the U.S. Constitution, while perhaps not perfect, is actually followed for the most part, unlike........

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