6. Your Proposals Are Un-Constitutional, Let’s Not
Talk About Mine
Some years back, when John Edwards was running for President, I saw him
on a late night talk show. The host asked him what he thought about a recent
action President Bush had taken. Edwards said that Bush was wrong. The host
asked why. Edwards responded with something like this, “Well, you see, there’s
this little thing called the Constitution.” In other words, Edwards believed
that Bush was violating the Constitution with his actions. Later the host asked
Edwards about healthcare. Edwards began espousing his solution to healthcare
availability and cost. It involved a lot of intervention by the federal
government. All of it was clearly un-Constitutional given that the Constitution
nowhere grants the federal government the power to set policy for the
healthcare industry. Yet, he clearly did not see the irony in his words.
Edwards’ two-faced view of the Constitution is not unique to him. I
have heard many politicians do the same thing. It seems that today the
Constitution is no longer the document it was intended to be. Originally, the
Constitution was to be an overarching law describing how the government was to
be structured and selected as well a list of powers the citizens would allow
the government to have.
For years now the Constitution has become a political bludgeon. It is
only used by Politician A to beat Politician B over the head when the latter is
attempting to do something the former dislikes. And just like with a real
bludgeon, it is never used on one’s own head.
Also, for some people, the Constitution is subservient to the law. I
have actually heard it said that some provision of the Constitution was null
and void because the law forbids it. Sorry folks, that’s not how it works. The
Constitution is the law of laws. It comes first. Any laws enacted by Congress
MUST be in accord with the Constitution or the Supreme Court is supposed to
strike them down.
Come on people, now. Smile on the Constitution. It is our friend.
Without it our federal government could run roughshod over our country.
Minorities would have no protection from majorities. This being the case, why
do so many people want to do an end-run around the Constitution? Well, I
believe it is because the Constitution, like every other document written by
humans, is not perfect. As people discover the problems with these
imperfections, they want to do something about them. But here’s the kicker. The
Constitution itself has provisions in it on how it can be modified. It’s done
through the amendment process. Granted, it is not an easy process. But, we wouldn’t
want it to be easy lest it be modified so much as to make it unreadable.
Politicians, however, like to expedite matters. So, they like to simply
violate Constitutional law and then hope the Supreme Court can be convinced
that they have not. In fact, oftentimes the President will select Supreme Court
justices that are favorable to his or her particular un-Constitutional actions
and are willing to adjudicate in such a way.
We really need to start electing leaders that want to be obedient to
the Constitution and are only willing to modify it legally rather than subvert
it via law and the Supreme Court. If we ever stretch our Constitution to a
breaking point, we will find ourselves on the road to serfdom.
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