The political debate in America has become alarmingly toxic between those who seek to change the nation and those who want to preserve it. Now both sides of the political spectrum are working hard to press their particular vision upon the other. Each wants change immediately and are seemingly willing to forsake the Constitution to accomplish their ends. Why the haste? One word sums it up. Fear.
One side of the political spectrum is fearful that we’re in the process of “losing our democracy.” They are wrong. They have conflated “losing their power” with “losing their democracy.” They seem to have forgotten that they lost their power through a democratic process.
The other side is fearful that we’re about to “lose our country.” Similarly, they are conflating losing our “republic” with “losing our power” to stop it. They too are missing a point that the republic will survive as long as the constitution is respected. Bypassing its provisions is the fastest way to lose the republic.
Both sides want change. One side wants to remake the nation into something it is not and never was designed to be, namely a welfare society whereby the government’s primary role is to guarantee successes for all people. The other side seeks to sustain the republic to conform to our founding intent. It is the side I find myself firmly rooted. And the change that side seeks is to move away from the socialist march toward serfdom whereby the government is the sovereign over us, and we are relegated to be its servants. Those who see us as servants have it completely backwards. The founding intent was—and remains—that the government is the servant, and the people are the sovereign. And when the government becomes the sovereign, we must act to correct it.
For that reason, those of us who view the Constitution as the supreme law of the land have an equal obligation to oppose any effort—no matter how compelling—to bypass its requirements. We must resist hasty actions to implement policies that we may well believe are urgently needed. That means the Congress has a special obligation to move with an orderly dispatch to repair the damage done to the nation by those who think it is deeply flawed. It’s not flawed. But it can be if in our zeal we prefer executive orders to congressional bills, impoundment of funds to congressional recission, and sweeping actions to prudent and dutiful consideration to avoid negative unintended consequences.
To be sure we need change. Our government is bloated. Our bureaucracy is empowered beyond any semblance of the founding intent. Moreover, the programs we have proliferated in government are wasteful, unneeded, and ill-advised. This is particularly so when they induce dependency or inhibit initiative, inventiveness, and risk-taking, all elements of entrepreneurial spirit. The challenge is to be patient in obtaining needed change in a way that preserves constitutional order.
Therein lies a truth. The way one does a thing is often more important that the thing one does. In other words, how you do things can add or distract from the good you seek to do. The business of sweeping change can lead to the subversion of law and adherence to constitutional prerequisites in achieving change. Patience, therefore, is a virtue among those who seek constitutional order to secure change.
Nevertheless, that can be unsatisfying for those who are fed up with the damage inflicted on the country by those who think they have a right to upend constitutional rights with progressive policies that often result in the destruction of rights. One needs to look no further than expressing speech, practicing faith, or owning and using firearms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, the very first amendments to our Constitution notably obtained through serious deliberation in Congress. In the race to repair our nation, it is better to be a thoughtful tortoise than a panicked hare.
Yet that deliberate process in the fast-paced and evocative environment of social media and “breaking news” is thought to be too slow. We’re starved for action, but the constitutional recipe often involves waiting until the meal is ready. So is the case when harm swiftly rendered must be deliberately repaired. We cannot allow fear to provoke irresponsible haste.
So, we should endure the regular order required by our constitution to repair the damage to our polity. That will take time, not only in Congress but in our society as we conform to a world view that elevates orderly behavior. That includes the view that all power is vested in the people by our Creator. And when we grant the government the right of governance through elected representatives, they must follow our constitution or be removed for abusing it.
That requires fidelity to the law, not fear.
0 Comments