Dear Future President: herein lies a guide to your constitutional responsibilities. Read, learn, follow. It's also a citizens' manual - after all, We The People hold the cards in this democracy, at least in theory. The author explains in clear language how the most critical parts of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights came about and how the reasoning of Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson - despite their blindness to the rights of non-white, non-male, non-landowners - set up basic commandments on how to avoid autocracy. Implicit, without being heavy handed, is the author's summary of the differing approaches of our prior and current presidents to the magnificent framework. "When you get to be president, there are all those things - the honors, the twenty one gun salutes...you have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency." - Harry S. Truman

Quotes: "You should never use the bully pulpit to speak in a way that is contrary to the values of the Constitution."

"Today, a primary duty of a president is to continue the process of making "We The People" become more inclusive. Refusing this duty warrants the most severe constitutional punishment."

"The idea of America is that minority religions don't have to sit quietly and watch the pageant of bigger religions take place on a larger stage. We are a nation that refuses to establish one religion as true or official." ( )