Three Missed Opportunities by the Founding Fathers That Would Have Solved So Many Problems

Junius Brutus Steams - Signing of the U.S. Constitution (1856)

Without question, the Founding Fathers of America were true visionaries. They demonstrated an unmatched level of foresight and wisdom as they laid the groundwork for our nation. Their genius shines through in the timeless principles embedded in the Constitution, a document that has proven its resilience over the years.

Without question, the Founding Fathers of America were true visionaries. They demonstrated an unmatched level of foresight and wisdom as they laid the groundwork for our nation. Their genius shines through in the timeless principles embedded in the Constitution, a document that has proven its resilience over the years.

Armed with a sharp intellect and a profound grasp of human behavior and politics, these insightful leaders engineered a governance system to protect personal freedom. They also showed remarkable prescience in crafting a system to shield the populace from the grip of an increasingly authoritarian government.

“The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude,” Thomas Jefferson once wrote. “The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.”

Still, despite the Founding Fathers’ legendary vision and the safeguards they imposed, they could not anticipate all the challenges and complexities that would arise in the modern world. I suspect they wouldn’t be very happy with how the government they created has turned out.

So, I’ve come up with a short list of three changes the Founding Fathers could have made that would have benefited the nation throughout its history. While I don’t doubt that many people could develop a more extensive laundry list of ideas for what the Founding Fathers could have done better, I’ve tried to boil it down to the most efficient list possible. Why? Because this exercise is as much about fixing the oversights of the Founding Fathers as it is about identifying them.

With that in mind, amending the Constitution is no small task. Hence, to harbor any prospect of rectifying the Founding Fathers’ oversights, one must identify the fewest changes necessary to yield the greatest effect. And these three items are certainly things that we could still fix.