There has been a renaissance of scholarship during the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Continued implementation of the Constitution requires that its text, its structure, and its principles be widely known and respectfully understood. U.S. citizens need to respect the Constitution as it was understood by those who framed it. Underlying the Constitution is a "science of politics." The principles of this science of politics (federalism, separation of powers, representation, an extended republic) decisively influenced the framers as they drafted the Constitution. The Constitution is a political document, but it cannot be identified with a political agenda, whether right, left, or center. The Constitution sets up institutions through which people make political decisions. Leadership on the basis of definite political values and objectives is the province of the legislative and executive branches. The judicial branch's role is to exercise judgment. Judicial review, by enforcing the terms of the Constitution, protects the long-term public will against short-term popular passions. As the United States enters its third century under the Constitution, citizens would do well to remember that just as the Constitution cannot be reduced to a political agenda, it is also the measure of all political action taken. (SM)