I suppose I would consider myself quite an "Originalist" when it comes to the Constitution...with the qualifier that I believe the Originalist viewpoint forces (or I should say should-force) our legislature to write & pass well-written, well-constructed legislation. (And no...I don't believe in the Easter Bunny.) I agree that the founding fathers really could not have imagined some of the things of today...but their utter brilliance was in how they established a system to deal with the future unknowns that they knew would come up...while having no idea what those unknowns would entail.
My favorite Originalist view is essentially this: When in doubt, let the states decide. You taught me in this thread that if the states create their own laws and those laws cause conflict among other states, there is a defined way forward to make related legislation federal. But the process has to play out according to the Constitution.
The constitution is a fine document, but like you said, the founders could not see modern issues. I also think the founding fathers (a patriarchy), were as flawed a group of individuals as any you might find today... BUT they did create systems to run our government, and I think they envisioned a constitutional convention being triggered or called for every 50 years or so... when was the last? You see, I think we spend far too much time trying to figure out what they thought about modern issues, instead of how the majority feels about those things now. The founding fathers set up a fluid and changeable document to guide us, NOT TO DICTATE THE FUTURE.
Additionally, those same founders worried about a President trying to make themselves king or emperor. They despised the thought of a tyrant leading us. And of course they hoped their experiment with founding a democratic Republic would be enduring, but they made a few things obvious; the government is of, by, and for the people - the constitution is a fluid document meant to be amended as the people deemed necessary - we are all equal in the eyes of the law.
I'd say we have a lot of constitutional work to do, IMO. But none of this will happen while we are at each other's throats, and unfortunately, I don't see that changing anytime soon. No I think we are now firmly entrenched in a political quagmire and see none of it getting better under the current leadership in either party.
