Title: False Things You Believe About The Constitution
Headings: False Things You Believe About The Constitution
False Things You Believe About The Constitution
Myth: the Constitution was America's first government
Myth: the First Amendment is first for a reason
Myth: the Constitution states all men are equal and guarantees a democracy
Myth: the Constitution contains the word "God"
Myth: the speaker and the president pro tempore have to be members of Congress
Myth: the president can veto an amendment
Myth: the Constitution outlines every aspect of our government
Myth: the states unanimously embraced the Constitution
Myth: the Constitution forbade women from voting
Myth: the Bill of Rights immediately applied to every state
Myth: income tax is in the Constitution
Myth: you have to be a citizen for the Constitution to apply

Content: But it doesn't. As the National Archives notes, the Constitution simply states that the "House shall chuse their speaker" and "The Senate shall chuse ... a President pro tempore." ( And yes, that's how they spelled "choose.") In other words, it's only tradition that makes Congress choose elected members for these roles. This is fascinating when you remember that the speaker of the House is third in line in the presidential succession, and the Senate's president pro tempore is fourth, meaning that it's entirely possible that someday, someone who has never won an election could potentially become president of the United States. Myth: the president can veto an amendment
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For a country that was founded because our forebears couldn't tolerate the unchecked authority of their government, there are a lot of crazy ideas about just how powerful our president is. As The Atlantic reports, the Constitution is actually kind of vague and skimpy on precisely what the president is able to do. Over the years, the accepted authority of the office has changed, and some modern theories have emerged that try to retroactively make the president a much more powerful figure than the Constitution actually describes. Known as the Unitary Executive Theory, the general idea is that the president has complete and total authority over the Executive Branch of the government, and it's done a lot to promote the idea that the president can do a lot of things they really can't — like veto an amendment to the Constitution.