What Constitutionalism Means

Why do Conservatives/Republicans make such a big deal about loving the Constitution, but try to change it, and liberals/progressives/Democrats not so much? Well, maybe it's because the Democrats don't bother to go the legal, constitutional route to change the constitution!

For two features of our constitutional politics could not be plainer: First, that from Woodrow Wilson’s day to our own, progressives have been far more likely than conservatives to express impatience with the whole constitutional scheme of limited government; and second, that progressives have long sought, often successfully, and still seek to change the Constitution without going to the trouble of formally amending it.

If you doubt the first point, recall how liberals reacted to the difficulties they encountered in enacting Obamacare. The political system was said to be broken; complaints were leveled against the undemocratic Senate. If you doubt the second point, recall that after the ERA failed, liberals achieved almost everything they had wanted from it through the courts. There is nothing that liberal legal academics and activists refuse in principle to read into the Constitution because the ERA is absent from it.

What Constitutionalism Means - Ramesh Ponnuru - National Review Online