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Me the People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America Audio CD – Unabridged, May 29, 2012

by Kevin Bleyer (Author, Reader)

4.0 118 ratings

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The United States Constitution promised a More Perfect Union. It’s a shame no one bothered to write a more perfect Constitution—one that didn’t trigger more than two centuries of arguments about what the darn thing actually says.

Until now.

Perfection is at hand. A new, improved Constitution is here. And you are holding it.

But first, some historical context: In the eighteenth century, a lawyer named James Madison gathered his friends in Philadelphia and, over four long months, wrote four short pages: the Constitution of the United States of America. Not bad.

In the nineteenth century, a president named Abraham Lincoln freed an entire people from the flaws in that Constitution by signing the Emancipation Proclamation. Pretty impressive.

And in the twentieth century, a doctor at the Bethesda Naval Hospital delivered a baby—but not just any baby. Because in the twenty-first century, that baby would become a man, that man would become a patriot, and that patriot would rescue a country . . . by single-handedly rewriting that Constitution.

Why? We think of our Constitution as the painstakingly designed blueprint drawn up by, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, an “assembly of demigods” who laid the foundation for the sturdiest republic ever created. The truth is, it was no blueprint at all but an Etch A Sketch, a haphazard series of blunders, shaken clean and redrawn countless times during a summer of petty debates, drunken ramblings, and desperate compromise—as much the product of an “assembly of demigods” as a confederacy of dunces.

No wonder George Washington wished it “had been made more perfect.” No wonder Benjamin Franklin stomached it only “with all its faults.” The Constitution they wrote is a hot mess. For starters, it doesn’t mention slavery, or democracy, or even Facebook; it plays favorites among the states; it has typos, smudges, and misspellings; and its Preamble, its most famous passage, was written by a man with a peg leg. Which, if you think about it, gives our Constitution hardly a leg to stand on.

[Pause for laughter.]

Now stop laughing. Because you hold in your hands no mere book, but the most important document of our time. Its creator, Daily Show writer Kevin Bleyer, paid every price, bore every burden, and saved every receipt in his quest to assure the salvation of our nation’s founding charter. He flew to Greece, the birthplace of democracy. He bused to Philly, the home of independence. He went toe-to-toe (face-to-face) with Scalia. He added nightly confabs with James Madison to his daily consultations with Jon Stewart. He tracked down not one but two John Hancocks—to make his version twice as official. He even read the Constitution of the United States.

So prepare yourselves, fellow patriots, for the most significant literary event of the twenty-first, twentieth, nineteenth, and latter part of the eighteenth centuries. Me the People won’t just form a More Perfect Union. It will save America.

Praise for Me the People

“I would rather read a constitution written by Kevin Bleyer than by the sharpest minds in the country.”—Jon Stewart

“Bleyer takes a red pencil to democracy’s most hallowed laundry list. . . . Uproarious and fascinating.”—Reader’s Digest

“I knew James Madison. James Madison was a friend of mine. Mr. Bleyer, you are no James Madison. But you sure are a heck of a lot more fun.”—Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Team of Rivals

From the Hardcover edition.

Print length

10 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
Publication date

May 29, 2012
Dimensions

5.09 x 1.1 x 5.9 inches
ISBN-10

0449009130
ISBN-13

978-0449009130
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

“I would rather read a constitution written by Kevin Bleyer than by the sharpest minds in the country.”—Jon Stewart

“Bleyer takes a red pencil to democracy’s most hallowed laundry list. . . . Uproarious and fascinating.”—Reader’s Digest

“I knew James Madison. James Madison was a friend of mine. Mr. Bleyer, you are no James Madison. But you sure are a heck of a lot more fun.”—Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Team of Rivals

“Irresistible . . . an extraordinarily entertaining, enlightening and sometimes even wise combination of eye-opening scholarship about American constitutional history and rambunctious comedy.”—The Buffalo News

“The Constitution has served us well for centuries. Thanks to Kevin Bleyer, those days are over.”—Stephen Colbert

“Sharp and intensely witty . . . an endlessly enjoyable . . . experience.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Two centuries from now, the finest robot documentarians from around the world will climb over one another to make the definitive film on the genesis of Kevin Bleyer’s brilliant constitution. Which makes me glad I’m alive today.”—Ken Burns, human director of The Civil War, The Congress, and Prohibition

“As far as I know, Kevin Bleyer is an American citizen. So why shouldn’t he rewrite the Constitution? What do we want? A government controlled by elite, well educated wig-wearers who we all have to bow down to just because they are dead? So I say we give Bleyer a shot.”—John Hodgman, New York Times bestselling author and expert on all world knowledge

“In Me the People, Kevin Bleyer makes a number of good points. And an even larger number of terrible ones. For the safety of the republic, we should all read this, to know what we’re up against if a guy like Bleyer ever finds himself in a position of real influence.”—Dave Eggers

From the Hardcover edition.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (May 29, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 10 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0449009130
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0449009130
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.09 x 1.1 x 5.9 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.0 118 ratings

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Eric Selby

Sarah Vowell-esque: or Does Bleyer Rhyme with Liar?

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2012

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Kevin Bleyer is a writer for Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" as well as an occasional writer of jokes for President Obama--did he write that one about Romney with his two Harvard degrees being such a snob while the President has but one? In other words Kevin Bleyer--it must rhyme with liar--is a satirist and hardly a two-penny type either because this is one of the funniest political satires I have ever read. And this is when we all need something good to take our minds away from the mess in Washington as we all go down the tubes, sort of like that line from Shakespeare, "laughing in the throat of death"!
Anyway, I wander. It is important to note the subtitle of this book: "One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America" with special emphasis upon "selfless." And as I was saying back up in the title, or trying to, if you, like me, like Sarah Vowell's satire--the one about the assassination of our presidents is the funniest, such a great satirical topic don't you think?--then you will love this one as well.
I never knew that with the exception of one of our forefathers--a Patterson from New Jersey who was a total prude, ironically so since he was representing the state that would do just about anything to attract gambling dollars and all other things sinful including the way the people there talk and drive--they were all drunks. Did you know that? And did you know that they were worse than our current Congress, unable to agree to much of anything except, of course, to cut out early at the little meeting they arranged in Philadelphia to write the Constitution, specifically to get to the nearest bar for a very early happy hour. And since they were without the little wives back home plowing the fields and all, maybe to pick up a little fun object in the form of a bar maid or two. Well, some of this isn't exactly in the book, but it is implied, hidden in the footnotes.
And I'll bet you didn't know this either: Thomas Jefferson--hey, this is right from the book, not me--said that the Constitution should be rewritten every nineteen years. What!? Nineteen? Why that number? Why not twenty? Well, as I said: with the exception of Patterson--I guess he gave his name to that city filled now with sinners--they were all drunks.
So realizing that when you get two white men together--you did know it was a bunch of white men, no women, and no minority groups, not one single Mexican in fact--you will have complete chaos, Kevin Bleyer set out to write our newest Constitution, the one after reading this review you will be buying and reading and loving, and did so by doing something the forefathers did not do. They never went to the country that founded democracy. Greece! But Mr. Bleyer did, mostly, of course, to get a firsthand look at the architecture. What, you are wondering, does the Greek architecture have to do with writing a Constitution?! Everything! Just look at the buildings in our nation's dysfunctional capital--at the capitol itself. And that will tell you why. But it seems the Greeks are sort of drowning at the moment in the remnants of democracy. And guess what? The day he was to see the insides of a few noted Greek buildings, the workers were on strike!
Oh well... That hardly stopped Bleyer. With a single dollar bill he got himself to Philadelphia and that is where he wrote single-handedly our new Constitution.
Get set for a lot of fun.

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N. Bilmes

Learn While You Laugh

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2013

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I wish all my history teachers were as funny as Kevin Bleyer. This book taught me more about the formation of the Constitution than all of my high school and college courses ever did, and much more vividly. As a classroom teacher I appreciate the author's ability to deliver information along with humor.

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Ivy

Funny and Informative, but moves slowly

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2012

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Constitutional law is not necessarily the most interesting or even funny topic, yet Blyer is able insert wit and the observational humor that makes "The Daily Show" so entertaining into this book. I certainly gained a great deal of knowledge regarding the constitution and appreciate the research that Blyer cites. My only concerns about the book is that there are several long rants which, in my opinion, detract from the book and do not add a great deal of humor or insight. That being said, I would recommend the book if you enjoy "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report", but I would say that this book moves slower than other books produced by "Daily Show" writers.

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2012

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Kevin Bleyer's "Me the People" fills a serious gap in American Constitutional history--he makes it makes interesting. Now, no longer are we required to wonder, "How many Americans have actually read the Constitution (besides Henry Rollins, to whom Bleyer gives props), but we can actually enjoy reading the document.

Bleyer almost convinces me that he wants to be a real historian. His research is nearly complete, and where he skips out on necessary follow through he provides a sufficiently long and incorrectly cited footnote to fully disclose this fact.

Bleyer speaks with the movers and shakers in Constitutional politics, including Justice Antonin Scalia and several archivists in buildings that house replicas of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. He never gets his hands on the actual parchment himself, unlike Nicholas Cage, which is probably a good thing.

As someone who not only enjoys real scholarship on this stuff and teaches it, I'm going to give Kevin Bleyer's "Me the People" an A+ for effort, content and entertainment. I think the American people have something to learn from Bleyer here--the Founding Fathers were real people in a chaotic time doing their best to write a document that even they were not sure would work. Bleyer writes no hagiography here--he gives an honest assessment of what it might have been like to be in the room with some of the people American textbooks worship most. He deconstructs them individually, and then adds them back to the mix as a whole.

Bleyer kept me laughing the entire time. Although I'm not sure he will convince the nation to convene a constitutional convention any time soon, his message underscores the seriousness of the Constitution in the development of the nation, and offers some insight into politics today.

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BigBen

Kevin Bleyer is a zombie. A brilliant, hilarious, zombie.

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2012

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I'm pretty sure Bleyer is either a shape-shifting time traveler, or else he's made a secret pact with the devil in exchange for access to 40-hour days. There's no other way to explain how he could possibly have had enough time to write for The Daily Show (it is, after all, daily), have a life, and craft a book this hilarious and informative. The research alone must have required thousands of hours and a staff of minions - demonic ones, no doubt. Of course, it could be that he just doesn't sleep. Zombie. Yep, that would explain a lot. And as a zombie, I'm sure he must know that the founding fathers are rolling in their graves...from laughter...in the best way.

Seriously, this book is as entertaining as it is educational, which is to say - tremendously. Makes me wish I were a high school or college history teacher just so I could assign it to my students and blow their little minds. Can't wait to see what he rewrites next!

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2012

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Intelligent, good satire, and proof that the founders were no more human and superior than the rest of us who are thinking, concerned people. He meant to prove we should not only criticize the Constitution, but he believe we can rewrite it....and that is what we need to do.

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Me the People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America Audio CD – Unabridged, May 29, 2012

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