Response from a reader on the EU post

Loved the Quotefish today, and it keyed in with some research that I did a while back on the Constitution.

I found a text version of the US Constitution, and put it thru the WordCounter website processor; here are the results:

· Total Number of words (publisher count): 7692

· Sentences: 144

· Paragraphs: 117

· Average word length: 5 letters

· Average sentence length: 32 words

· Reading level: 11-12^th grade

· Average Time to Read: 17 minutes

· Average Time to Recite: 25 minutes

· Number of unique words: 886

Here is an excerpt from a Cato Institute article on the EU Constitution; the contrast between the two documents is stark:

“The vast majority of the European public has not read it [the EU Constitution] and does not know what is in it. That has partly to do with the length of the Constitution (70,000 words) and its impenetrable language. In contrast, the U.S. Constitution is 15 times shorter [the author is using a different standard here for the Constitution; WordCounter lists it as 4509 significant words-BAA] and easily comprehensible. Not surprisingly, its chief architect, James Madison, believed that “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”

It has always been my contention that the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights for that matter, are the People’s Documents.  They are not the property of the Judicial Branch, and we do not need a Secular Clerisy to hand down to We the People what these documents mean.

There, I feel better now…

https://wordcounter.net/

cato.org

Archives.gov

Thanks Bruce