Constitution Café is simply a space for ordinary citizens to engage in the extraordinary act of rewriting our Constitution. It’s a natural outgrowth of Phillips’ popular Socrates Café, a forum (or, rather, hundreds of forums, around the country) for ordinary folks to talk philosophy. But Constitution Café is more: Constitution Café is a call to arms, a real vehicle for real change in our constitutional system. Thus Phillips takes us on a journey around the country to meet with groups ranging from a sixth grade class to a Tea Party affiliate to engage with, discuss, and wrestle over the Constitution—and ultimately to change it for our times.

Next week is the State of the Union address, and I thought I’d offer a little last minute, unsolicited advice to the president and the White House speechwriters. Some may think it presumptuous, but as one of “we, the people,” I think it’s allowable. It’s not like they have to take the advice, after all . . . but it sure would be nice to see and hear something like this.

Beginning in January 2011, we’ll be sucked into the black hole of Tea Party Anti-Government Mythology, in which many of the things the US Constitution says will be ignored or misread out of existence.