Our politicians have not thought about such matters for half a century.

I am not especially keen on many of Gore Vidal's writings and opinions but he certainly was a masterful wit and conversationalist.  And some of his barbs could not help to also be insights.

From The Book of the Month, edited by Al Silverman, a collection of Book of the Month Club essays.  This essay is by Gore Vidal in which he interviews himself on his book Burr which was a Book of the Month Club selection in 1973.  

Q. Doubtless you regard those early days of the republic as more virtuous than the Age of Watergate?

A. No. I am not romantic. The founders were vain, irritable, tricky, and by no means devoted by the system of government they had contrived. Yet unlike today’s politicos, Hamilton and Jefferson were, first, men of extraordinary brilliance and, second, they believed passionately in their own theory of government. I cannot for the life of me determine what Nixon or Humphrey, Agnew or Kennedy believe in except winning elections. The collision between Jefferson and Hamilton struck real sparks. Each was a sort of monster driven by vanity, but each was also an intellectual philosopher of government, and each thought he was creating a perfect or perfectable system of government. Our politicians have not thought about such matters for half a century.

I think it is hard for us today to appreciate just how much of a Rube Goldberg monstrosity of compromise was our Constitution.  There is no doubt there were brilliant minds and able debaters working hard together and in opposition to achieve structural outcomes they held to be dear.  Nobody got everything they wanted philosophically; everybody got something.  

And while most of them championed the fused compromise as the product of their minds, it was a product as well of their wills and their willingness to compromise with one another on some of the most fundamental issues in order to advance the whole.  

There was no theoretical perfect solution to be implemented.  All that could be achieved was that most dramatic example of burly and vociferous debate and compromise, leading to a workable solution with the consent of the nation.  Most remarkable.