Times change, and so should our Constitution. I find that Founding Fatherism is one of the sillier religions in our society; the dudes who wrote the Constitution were just some politicians. They had some good ideas, some awful ideas, and some ideas that may have been good at the time but simply didn't survive the test of time. It's strange that people can argue that their values were what made this country great, while at the same time lamenting that we don't follow their values.
Yes, times do change, but one fact of human nature is that people that have found or are given power ALWAYS seek to gain more power.
The constitution itself IS little more than a scrap of paper, the power is in the description of what it means to be sovereign.
- A slave cannot speak freely, a sovereign person can speak his mind.
- A slave cannot be armed or he might rebel, a sovereign individual has the right to defend himself with whatever weapons are available.
- a slave does not have the right to a fair trial, and can have their belongings searches without cause. A sovereign person can demand a warrant be presented in order to have their belongings searched.
- a slave has the condition of his health controlled by the master. A sovereign is responsible for his own health.
- A slave has no wealth, that belongs to the master. A sovereign has control over his own resources in the ways he sees fit.
Now, because in a complex society, we do need SOME level of government, but that government needs to be controlled because of the nature of giving man rule over sovereign men, that power causes those given that power to seek greater power, in virtually every case.
So, you have to be very careful over the powers given to government or the potential arrives where you can wind up with a dictator. Its happened many times through history, and that is why we must keep government as much within the bounds of the constitution, or the people could very well lose control of the government... (it could be argued that the government has already gone out of control, but that's another issue)
There are reasons why the founding fathers wanted a limited government... Though some of those founding fathers saw the constitution as a means to give the government ever expanding powers.