Independent Editor,
They would weep.
Those who wrote our Constitution, averaging 42 years of age, did so in order to create a new form of Government considering the failings of past rulers. They recognized its imperfections yet crafted it around the “rule of law” and the oaths of men, leaving mechanisms for future generations to improve it. Most importantly they realized that in the end, the document was just words on paper. To be a strong nation required not only a well-founded Constitution but the honor, allegiance, good will, faith and proper conduct of those living under its shelter.
Our Constitution was never meant to be a set of rules to a game to be won. It was rather, a set of constructs and values meant to guide a nation whose goal was to rise above the tyranny of men. The Founders compromised in their endeavor in order to move in a positive direction for all, rather than stand their ground and lose everything.
It would come with great sadness to those who came before us to see what we have become. To stand voiceless in the face of tyranny is to stand for nothing. To manipulate the words, values and intent of the United States Constitution and its laws to “win” while ignoring its call for our leaders to place country, duty and honor before self, is to dishonor the sacrifices of those who struggled to preserve our Constitutional government.
Let us not weep, let us emerge from the rancor rededicated to President Lincoln’s resolution that our government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Let us from now on have the strength and wisdom across this nation to elect into office those who have the integrity to place service above self.
“The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purpose of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
– George Washington, 1796
Brian True, Corunna