Final answer:
The vague portions of the U.S. Constitution were included by the Founding Fathers to allow the document to be adaptable over time and to ensure that it could encompass future changes while upholding core principles of government and democracy. The flexibility of the Constitution highlights its capacity to be relevant and effective more than two centuries later.
Step-by-step explanation:
The authors of the U.S. Constitution included certain vague portions intentionally to allow for adaptability and flexibility over time. The Founding Fathers were aware that they could not predict all future circumstances and therefore wrote a Constitution that could be interpreted in various ways as needed. This decision was rooted in their desire to not limit the power of the new government excessively nor to define the rights of the people too narrowly. By doing so, they ensured that the Constitution would remain relevant and could accommodate changes over time, as seen in its ability to be formally amended only 27 times since its inception.
The inclusion of broad language was also meant to uphold core principles, such as establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defence, promoting general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty for future generations as stated in the Preamble. Furthermore, the framers designed a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government—legislative, executive, and judicial—and inferred broader democratic ideals such as human rights expansion and representative government in the states as required in Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution.