The More the Merrier

When I went to school, the strict constructionists were the people who believed the federal government should only do what the Constitution specifically tells it to do, and the loose constructionists were the people who believed the federal government should do anything that the Constitution doesn't specifically prohibit it from doing.  Be that as it may, I think that ship sailed a long time ago.  Last I heard, the current controversy was about interpreting the intent of the wording.  One group wants to interpret the wording the way they think the Founders meant it when they said it, and the other group wants to interpret the wording in the way they believe it speaks to us today.  I think there is a name for each of these two groups.  Although I have forgotten what it is, I'm pretty sure it's not strict constructionists and loose constructionists.

The Declaration of Independence is not part of the Constitution, although they are frequently published side by side in the same book.  This explains why the Declaration says that rights like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable, while the 5th Amendment to the Constitution says "No person....shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law".  By the way, the original quote by John Locke was "life, liberty, and property".  The Founders changed it to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for the Declaration and then reverted to the original text in the Constitution.  I think what they were trying to do in the Declaration was expand the right of property to include the right to try to acquire property if you don't already have some, but that's just my theory.  One thing I'm pretty sure of is that by "the pursuit of happiness" they did not mean  emotional bliss, because that hadn't been invented yet.   In those days it was generally believed that, if you had material wealth, you were by definition happy.

I think that conservatives, on average, are just as well educated as liberals, although they might have studied different subjects in school and followed different paths of interest after their formal education.  I do remember reading somewhere that Trump voters were more likely to not have college educations than Hillary voters, but these are the same poll takers who predicted that Hillary was going to win in 2016.

All things considered, I believe that it's better to have more people voting than less people, although I would draw the line at allowing illegal immigrants to vote like I heard they are doing in California.  Stupid California!  I think this country will be better off when it finally breaks off and sinks into the sea.