But why is the constitution so hard to change ... times change as do public opinions and attitudes ... at least they do in a progressive society ... so why make it so hard to change the constitution?
That's why I'm baffled by the constitution and I feel I must be missing something.
It's hard to change because it is the basic blue-print for an over-arching government in the US. Laws in relation to specific circumstances and such can always be changed as the time goes on, but the idea behind the way the government is set up is that if there is a legitimate cause for concern that the government itself isn't functioning properly, then an amendment to solve the issue will inevitably come through. If an amendment can't gather enough steam, then the "issue" in question probably isn't important enough to warrant a change anyways.
Also, there was something of a fear at the time of writing in regards to the rather nebulous structure of British government, in which there is theoretically no well-defined law or statement keeping them from doing anything they want (and in the eyes of the Americans, the British were doing just that prior to the ARW). Thus the need for a written constitution that could only be changed if the vast majority of the country felt it was necessary.