Donald Trump recently said he wasn’t sure if a president is obligated to uphold the Constitution—a striking admission from someone who’s twice sworn an oath to do just that. Trump’s indifference to the Constitution continues to pose a serious threat to American democracy. At the same time, this moment invites deeper reflection on the document itself: What exactly are we defending, and does the Constitution deserve the near-sacred status it's acquired in American political life?

In this episode of THINK BACK, I talk with Aziz Rana, professor of law and government at Boston College and author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them. We explore how the Constitution has historically limited democracy, from its roots in elite counterrevolution to its Cold War-era transformation into a quasi-religious symbol of American exceptionalism. Rana’s work urges us to revisit older debates—once common in American life—about the Constitution’s flaws and the urgent need for reform or reinvention in the face of democratic backsliding.

Aziz Rana, The Two Faces of American Freedom (2010) and The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them (2024)

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