That is certainly one way and a perfectly valid way , I might add of looking at it . I would just add that 226 years ago , when the constitution was ratified , it was the first of its kind . It was a revolution in thinking about how to govern and it got so much right that it ' s hard to appreciate now how stunningly crazy it must have seemed to the European elites of the time . But that was 226 years ago . Way better ways of drafting a governing document have come along in the meantime . The French Revolution ' s inclusion of the rights of man in their main document instead of just as an addendum was merely the first improvement . The way we conduct elections in the U . S . is perhaps the most obvious defect that comes down to us from our founding document . In fact , some of the founders anticipated this . For example , Thomas Jefferson thought the constitution should only be for nineteen years . For it to go on indefinitely would be a kind of tyranny of the dead over the living , he said . And , in fact , most countries with constitutional democracies have it as a matter of law that their constitutions can be overhauled at the will of the people if they are proving themselves to be less than optimal .