That's a thoughtful and considered response, and I thank you. Though, as a journalist, I know to discount such contentless statements from my colleagues as "The population in the colonies was very diverse in many ways," I see the substance in your general points.

Methinks you are right that the Constitution is a road map and not a destination, but to my mind, that is no more than saying that, in a structured way, we make it up as we go along.

In that sense, I suppose, it works. Madison would have said the same while drafting a Constitition protecting slavery in order to win ratification; Lincoln as much while transgressing the Constitution's limits on involuntary federal military service to save the Union; and F.D.R. the same to justify the erection of a bureaucracy that the Founders likely would not have countenanced to save the country from capitalism.

Whether those outcomes were good or not, they demonstrate that except in an ad hoc way, it may not be safe to say that the Constitution works.