Paul Bellan-Boyer

Article I - The Legislature

While Congress is currently at a low ebb in its functioning and its general esteem, there are a number of wonderful things about its Constitutional basis.

First and foremost is the way in which it begins the Constitution, carrying on the preamble's notion that this is a Constitution established by and a government responsible to the people of these united states. Knowing the power of the executive (and the monarch), this helps set the expectation that this nation and Constitution have as their ideal that this is a government from the bottom up - in Lincoln's formulation "of the people, by the people, for the people."

While this dynamic will *always* be a source of tension between people and those exercising power, the framing is important both as a resource for people in what we expect of our government, and in the rhetoric and hopefully actions that our government officials need to practice.