We love to justify our political positions by invoking the founders. They had this unprecedented

idea to create a society united by ideals, and they had enough experience with tyranny to set up numerous

protections against abuses of power.

But while it may be fair to consider them brilliant, it's too much to think of them as perfect,

and they were certainly not clairvoyant.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think.

I'm Chris Boyd.

The founding fathers, who failed to even let any mothers in the

room, as they wrote up and refined the Constitution, had no inkling that women would someday

not only vote but hold elected office. They did sense that slavery was wrong, but didn't realize

their failure to eliminate it immediately would lead to civil war, not even a century later.

So what would they make of the state of the United States today as we gear up to celebrate our 250th anniversary?

My guest finds a lot that would surprise them, and these divergences from what the founders seem to want veer toward both the political left and the political right.

Fenton O'Toole is a columnist for the Irish Times.

His article for The Atlantic is titled What the Founders Would Say Now.

Fenton, welcome back to think.

Thank you very much, Chris.

This essay is in part a challenge to the idea that originalism

is a good strategy for working through any kind of constitutional dilemma.

Can you explain what you call the originalist fallacy?

Well, so the originalist idea, I mean, it sounds pretty logical, right,

which is that obviously the courts, and in particular the Supreme Court,

...