Thoughts on the senior essay

Rousseau provides a very rigid definition of freedom to the people of a state ("You're free to do whatever you want to do within this box"). The Constitution turns that on it's head: "The Government is free to do this, this, and this. The people can more or less do whatever they want. This is all up for debate."

I think the openness to debate in the Constitution, and the perhaps inevitable evolution of what exactly what this 'freedom' nonsense consists of is an important difference. The Constitution, as a practical document, needs to be able to bend to the General Will, and I *think* Rousseau would agree on that. The exact parameters of American freedom aren't positively defined in the Constitution and have constantly changed since; what does this say about freedom? And what does it say about representative government, which Rousseau is totally not cool with?

If Rousseau had addressed the concept of state's rights my life would be much easier right now, because I need to figure out how to deal with that.