What the Constitution Means to Me is a relatively recent play, written, I imagine, in response to the first Trump administration by Heidi Schreck. In some ways, it’s a memory play, drawn from Schreck’s experience competing in constitutional debate competitions to earn college money. But as the piece progresses, the character of Schreck sheds her 15-year-old self, and the performance shifts into something more direct, more urgent, as she speaks as her adult self.

Much of the show focuses on women’s rights and abortion, but it also touches on immigration and broader questions of who the Constitution actually protects. Watching it now, it’s hard not to feel that if it were written today, it would go even further, because things have gone even further.

There’s a moderator, played here by Dan Hopman, and at the end the structure breaks open. The actor playing Schreck, Stephanie Cousins, drops the role, introduces herself, and brings out a local student debater. They argue whether the Constitution should be abolished, with an audience member serving as the final judge.

It’s sobering. It’s powerful. It’s deeply thought-provoking.

Or at least it was in 2018.

Now, with the benefit, or burden, of everything that’s happened since, it lands differently. Not while you’re watching it. Schreck’s script is laced with humor; it’s engaging, even disarming in the moment. The weight hits later, on the drive home, or when you sit with it. Or, in my case, when you’re asked to be the judge and actually decide.

Both sides make compelling arguments. But as I stood there considering them, I had a sinking realization: it doesn’t matter.

I used to think, naively, that our political divide was about different ideas of what’s best for the country. I was raised in the Christian faith, and thus I aligned myself with Democrats, as they are clearly the party of compassion. Even in high school, I couldn’t reconcile that with what I saw from Republicans. The hypocrisy was obvious to me at fourteen. I never understood how so many people couldn’t see it.

I understand now. People see what they want to see, especially when it gives them permission to believe or do terrible things.

But even after realizing that, I still believed there were guardrails. That the Constitution would ultimately protect us.

It took Trump, someone who doesn’t even pretend otherwise, to shatter that illusion. Someone who openly operates in his own self-interest, who uses power to enrich himself and those around him. A man with no moral compass, a convicted sexual assaulter, and worse. Someone who installs loyalists and media personalities into positions of power precisely because they will do what he says. Someone who, every time he speaks, demonstrates his disregard for the Constitution itself.

And nothing happens.

That’s the realization that settles in: the Constitution doesn’t protect us. It protects those who know how to manipulate it. Those who twist it. And when they can’t, they ignore it, and still, nothing happens. It becomes a tool to maintain power, not to check it.

So I voted to abolish it.

But even that feels futile. Because who writes the new Constitution? The same people who benefit from the current one. The same power structures. The same imbalance.

If this sounds like I didn’t like the show, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I loved it. I think everyone should see it.

But it forces you to think, and right now, thinking leads to some very dark places. Maybe this is just what it means to finally grow up politically: to recognize that the country doesn’t stand for what it claims to stand for. Maybe it never did. And when you see how many people continue to support all of this, it’s hard to believe it ever could.

I don’t know how you overcome that level of willful ignorance and/or evil.

And yet… if there is a way forward, it probably starts with exactly this kind of conversation. With work like this. With people sitting in a room together and actually engaging with these questions.

What the Constitution Means to Me runs through June 7 at Artistry in Bloomington. For more information and tickets go to https://artistrymn.org/constitution

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