|
Today, September 18th, is Constitution Day. Hallmark has yet to create an appropriate card, so news of the “holiday” is getting out slowly. We found out by watching MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The hosts interviewed the author of a new children’s book on the Constitution. Lynn Cheney (aka Mrs. Dick Cheney) has written a book for youngsters explaining how the Constitution came to be.
Good for Mrs. Cheney.
A reconsideration of the Constitution is particularly pressing at this moment in our history. At this moment, we are facing a balance of powers issue, one created by an executive branch that believes itself to be more co-equal than the other two branches. Mrs. Cheney’s husband is a strong proponent of “Executive First”. Vice President Cheney is a strong advocate of the concept that the executive is far and away the senior partner with the judicial and legislative branches.
This administration has pushed the power of the presidency far past that imagined by the Founders. The system of checks and balances that we all learned in 6th grade civics has been skewed by a do-nothing Congress that cannot rein in White House excesses because of gridlock, deadlock and partisan rancor.
The judicial branch, led by Justice Scalia, purported to be a strict constructionist, is stuck in 5-4 decision mode. Five to four may be a win for the conservative side, but it is barely persuasive precedent where issues of constitutional interpretation are concerned.
The powers of commerce are playing out on the pages of the Wall Street Journal as the federal government becomes more than just a regulator of commerce, but a full participant in it. Franklin D. Roosevelt was scorned by Republicans for his New Deal tactics, accused of turning the free enterprise system on its head to relieve Americans suffering under the worst economic downturn in our history. Today’s White House bails out Wall Street companies, apologizes, and moves on to the next bail out.
The Constitution affects our lives every day. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to vote, freedom to bear arms, freedom from self incrimination, freedom to travel are rights we Americans take very much for granted. These rights came from amendments to the Constitution.
What our political leaders seem to have forgotten is the fact that the Constitution was put together through a series of compromises between competing interests no less passionate than our modern Republicans and Democrats. Compromise is the art of working out a solution that may not please everyone, but moves problems from impossible to in-progress. Compromise is not the loss of one’s principles, but the recognition that small steps gets the country farther along toward solutions than addressing them not at all.
The Founders put the issue of slavery aside until it erupted into a war between the states. Our nation has never completely healed those wounds. If we do not address issues like immigration, we may lose the opportunity to compromise on them at all.
Happy Constitution Day! |
