Beware anybody who believes that the answers to the problems of the world can be found in a single book. Marxists poring over Das Kapital, Maoists waving the Little Red Book, mullahs demanding fidelity to the Koran – it is never good news.
The US is now also home to a political movement that seeks inspiration from a single historic text – in this case, the US constitution. The constitution is, of course, the basis of the American legal system. But the Tea Party movement and the followers of Michele Bachmann, the rising star of the Republican party, see it as far more than that. They want the constitution to inspire a return to ancient, hallowed principles – above all, the idea of
a limited government that leaves a yeoman citizenry to its own devices.