The Oh, Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood, in a violation of all

precedent, something in theory we should not fear. Just one guest today.

Aziz Rana, author of a new book on the constitutional fetish.

Long time listeners may have noticed that I'm no fan of the U.S. Constitution, a deeply undemocratic

document that has been an essential foundation for plutocratic rule.

Madison and the other founders were quite explicit about devising a governing structure

that would incorporate elements of democracy, but all within a system that constrained popular power in the name of preventing mob rule.

Thus the Electoral College and the abomination that is the Senate.

Don't take my word on the anti-democratic nature of what I once heard Howard Cosell call the

world's greatest deliberative body, here's a description from the Senate's

own website. Madison explained that the Senate would be a necessary fence against

the fickleness and passion that tended to influence

the attitudes of the general public and members of the House of

Representatives. George Washington is said to have told Jefferson that the framers

had created the Senate to cool House legislation just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea.

We the people need to be gagged now and then.

Yet this document is venerated to a degree with few parallels elsewhere in the world.

The Mormon Church officially believes it to be divinely inspired, a belief shared by 37% of

white evangelicals, and 18% of the overall U.S. population, according to a Pew poll.

Here's Aziz Rana with a lot more.

Aziz, a professor of law at Boston College, is just out with the constitutional bind.

How Americans came to idolize a document that fails them,

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