It’s the constitution, stupid
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
To paraphrase James Carville from 1992 with “It’s the economy, stupid,” for 2022 may I introduce: “It’s the constitution, stupid.”
We as Americans are the heirs of the “American Enlightenment” that took place from the early 1700s to the early 1800s, wherein a large section of our population began to embrace the political philosophy of “classical liberalism” our forebears demanded both the recognition of their “personal rights” and that there should be “no taxation without representation.”
However, the British, who had exercised their dominion over their colonies for nearly 200 years at this point, failed to grasp the concepts being presented by an evolving society and insisted upon continuing to administer the colonies through a Parliament bereft of a single American representative.
Catalyzed by events like the Stamp Act of 1765 and The Intolerable Acts of 1774, American colonists began to rebel against British authority, eventually banding together to establish the First Continental Congress in 1774. Armed rebellion would begin in 1775, when the British attempted to seize the arms of the citizens who made up the local militia, wherein the citizenry had decided that they were through with government abuses.
That rebellion would evolve to become what we know today as the American Revolutionary War. With an actual fully engaged shooting war happening, the Second Continental Congress met in 1776, where they adopted the Declaration of Independence, followed later in 1777 by the “Articles of Confederation.” These articles established a decentralized government, but with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the revolution had ended, and with the United States now a free and independent nation, the Articles of Confederation would prove to be insufficient.
It was at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, where our Congress drafted our current U.S. Constitution, effective upon ratification in 1789. In 1781, the “Bill of Rights” followed as the first 10 amendments, which forbade federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteed a range of legal protections.
The Constitution of the United States, along with its several amendments, are the supreme law of these United States. The preamble to the Constitution begins with a phrase that I use quite often, “We the People” of the United States. It was with great pride that I personally swore an oath to our constitution when I enlisted into the regular United States Army in 1985, where I solemnly swore that I would “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and that I would bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
Donald Trump also swore an oath to our constitution at his inauguration in January of 2017. Trump swore that he would “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
However, Trump would fail to honor his oath, most notably after the shooting in Las Vegas in October of 2017, where Trump issued an executive order for a new federal regulation to officially ban bump-fire stocks which had been previously ruled by the BATF as being in accordance with all federal laws. I have to ask, what part of “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” do politicians find difficult to comprehend?
The point of my quick recap of how our constitution came to be and its importance, as well as a reintroduction of one Donald J. Trump, is because the former president recently made an alarming statement when, in response to the release of the “Twitter Files” on December 2, Trump posted on “Truth Social” on December 3, “… A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded on his own platform on December 4 to say to Trump that “The Constitution is greater than any president. End of story.” House Member Justin Amash followed with a tweeted response that “a presidential candidate who calls for the Constitution’s ‘termination’ is not someone who can credibly swear an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”
Amid a huge amount of backlash, Donald Trump later attempted to spin his prior remarks about terminating rules and regulations found in the Constitution, saying that the media response was more “fake news.”
My original draft of this column quoted Trump’s reply/spin post in its entirety, but because of space limitations for print, I have omitted it and shall describe it simply as the ravings of someone who has become unhinged. Please feel free to look it up for yourself.
It is my opinion Donald Trump is both morally, and now mentally, unfit to be the president of the United States, as it is also my belief that Joseph Biden is now too mentally deteriorated to be the president of the United States.
America is NOT a Monarchy to be ruled by either dictators or tyrants, and elections are NOT to be stolen. Neither are we a democracy, as the word democracy is not to be found in our constitution.
The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic. Our U.S. Constitution is the singular document that both created, and limited, our federal government, as well as the offices that so many politicians desire. Our politicians have a simple choice to either abide by their oath to our constitution or to act in violation of their oath of office.
If they shall choose the latter, they no longer represent “We the People,” and they should be removed from public office, forever condemned, and prohibited from ever seeking the opportunity to possibly betray the trust of “We the People” again.
Now that I have expressed my thoughts, what will you do to hold your elected politicians both accountable to the Constitution and accountable to the will of the of those who would like to preserve our noble experiment for future generations to experience?