'This Week' Transcript: The Battle for the Constitution

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2011 — -- AMANPOUR: This week --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the Constitution.

AMANPOUR: A tug of war over the Constitution. The 200-year-olddocument that still inspires people all over the world. It's areflection of America's past and its promise, and it's now at the heartof a fierce political debate. We examine the cornerstone of the U.S.government and the American dream, making sense of the melting pot asthe country of immigrants grapples with tough times.

And then the dream deferred.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything was so insecure from what Ithought. Everything changed.

AMANPOUR: As the rich get richer, millions of Americans are findinghope harder to come by. They're down, but not out.

AMANPOUR: Live from the Newseum in Washington, "This Week" withChristiane Amanpour, starts right now.

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AMANPOUR: Welcome to our special Independence Day edition of theprogram from the night studio of the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

This week, focus on the founders. With Washington tied up in knots,thousands of American troops fighting overseas, and millions of citizensstruggling to get by, we go back to the original blueprint of thisdemocracy, the Constitution. A document that endures and guides theUnited States and is now at the heart of a fierce political battle todefine just what this country stands for. Here's ABC's John Donvan.

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JOHN DONVAN, ABC NEWS: The original lives under glass, has no pricetag, is the world's oldest operative Constitution at 223 years, and it'sshortest in written length, 4,400 not entirely correctly spelled words-- sorry, Pennsylvania. And while it's our habit to speak of it inreverential terms--

RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a covenantwe've made not only with ourselves but with all of mankind.

DONVAN: In holy language.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It provides a compass that can help us findour way.

DONVAN: As something sacred.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Constitutionprovides a perfect path towards a more perfect union.

DONVAN: Here's the other way we've long tended to treat theConstitution -- as wrapping paper, as in wrap yourself in it to makeyour case sound even better type of wrapping paper, to put a nice bow onit. Which is really nothing new. Every case that ever gets to theSupreme Court gets there because both sides argue they have theConstitution on their side. Richard Nixon, refusing to give up histapes, said the Constitution protected him. He lost. Folks that wantto burn the American flag say the Constitution protects them. Theygenerally win. People who argue the Constitution protects the unbornhave yet to win their battle.

The point is, the Constitution, which we think of as a set of rules,is really a departure point for a good, strong argument about thedetails. The details of who we are as a nation and what we stand for. Although this year, since the Tea Party arrived in force in the halls ofCongress and actually launched its tenure with the reading of theConstitution--

REP. JOHN A. BOEHNER (R-OHIO), HOUSE SPEAKER: We the people of theUnited States.

DONVAN: The argument has become a more big picture thing. The TeaParty arguing that the country has slipped its constitutional mooringsin a wholesale way.