"We live in an undemocratic system that is a major source of terror and repression, both at home and around the world.... In fact, the Constitution was intended to ensure that only a few people would run the government and that they would be the few who would run the economy. The crisis confronting us, in other words, demands effective radical politics and a departure from many Constitutional values, assumptions, and principles (8)." With these grave words Jerry Fresia incites the need to question the underlying foundation of a document that we have been taught to accept uncritically. In his book, the Constitution, Toward an American Revolution: Exposing the Constitution and Other Illusions, Fresia argues that the American Constitution, although useful to fight against government power, it does little to protect citizens from private power. He also promotes the idea that the "Founding Fathers", did not have the best interest of the people in mind.
James Madison, Hamilton's major collaborator, late...
English: Detail of Preamble to Constitution of the...
English: Title page of the first printing of the F...Fresia also works to destroy many popular ideas surrounding the Constitution. It is impossible to thoroughly discuss Constitutional issues without having first read and analyzed Fresia's book. This is true for a multitude of reasons. Three things that make Fresia's analysis a useful standpoint for discussion include his innovative thesis, his well-written well-researched writing style, and his purpose or call to action. Toward and American Revolution forces us to ask the epistemological question, "How and why do we know what we know?"
In his work Fresia proposes many ideas that have been left virtually untouched by the modern Constitutional scholar. Fresia's beginning thesis is that much of what we think we know about the founding of our country is false. For instance, the preamble to the Constitution was actually stolen from an Iroquois treaty. Furthermore, concepts such as "checks and balances" and "separation...