How Has The Constitution Lasted Through Changing Times

The
Constitution has survived for so long largely for two reasons. First and foremost it is
incredibly difficult to amend. As a previous educator has pointed out, the Constitution has only
been amended 27 times in all. This is no accident. The framers of the Constitution feared
radical change and so wanted to make it as difficult as possible to make amendments. They
worried that if the Constitution could be tinkered with too easily then its whole nature would
change, leaving the American system of government with a much weaker foundation.

That explains why the bar for the ratification process is set so high. Each proposed
amendment must be approved by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives and
three-fourths of the states. By anyone's standards, these are very difficult hurdles to
surmount, as supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment have found to their cost.

The second main reason for the Constitution's endurance is its ability to adapt to
changing circumstances. For...