Evilution

 Quick quiz: Who is responsible for presenting and approving amendments to the Constitution of the United States? If your guess was "The Congress of those same United States," then you might want to skip the next section. "The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution," reads the first sentence of Article V. It does go on to describe how state legislatures can put forth amendments as well and the majorities necessary to move them on from conventions to acceptance. 

Another question: How many amendments are there, currently, to the Constitution of the United States. Any guess higher than ten will get you credit, but the current tally stands at twenty-seven. That's more than one and a half times the original group that we have become fond of referring to lyrically as The Bill Of Rights. These are the ones that get the most attention, since they are the oldest and were written by men, many of them who were wearing wigs and stockings, more than two hundred years ago. We refer to these men as "The Founding Fathers," with that same lilt that we speak of The Bill Of Rights.

Which may be why Congressperson Lauren Boebert of Colorado issued forth this proclamation: “The Constitution is not evolving,” she wrote on Twitter. “To say that spits in the face of every single one of our founders.” Let's just start by saying that without a certain amount of evolution on the part of this document, it is highly unlikely that she would be serving in Congress, since it wasn't until we got to the nineteenth amendment, ratified in 1919, that women were allowed to vote in the United States. Her confusion may also lie in the inability to recognize how things have changed on our planet outside her dull little bubble over the course of two centuries. Those additional amendments have allowed us to evolve as a nation. The genius of our founding fathers lies in their understanding of the everchanging face of democracy and government, which is the reason they provided for these things we call "amendments," as they tend to amend the thinking of those original thoughts. Sometimes they're really good ideas, like the abolishment of slavery. That was number thirteen. Sometimes it's a good idea gone bad, like the prohibition of liquor. That was the eighteenth. After fourteen years, Congress (checks notes) repealed this amendment. 

Or perhaps the trouble lies, for folks like Ms. Boebert, in their confusion between Amendments and Commandments. They sound a bit alike. And if you're a god-fearing person who is also afraid of having her guns taken away or anybody else getting the right to vote, you might not be able to make this critical distinction. 

Or maybe she can't count past ten.