Last month a law professor from Georgetown
University stated the cause of our nation’s woes can be traced to our
Constitution. He believes it is an archaic,
idiosyncratic, and evil document. This
professor of 40 years bemoans our dysfunctional system.
Here is an excerpt from his New York Times op-ed:
Our
obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political
system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our
public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about
what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.
As
someone who has taught constitutional law for almost 40 years, I am ashamed it
took me so long to see how bizarre all this is. Imagine that after careful
study a government official — say, the president or one of the party leaders in
Congress — reaches a considered judgment that a particular course of action is
best for the country. Suddenly, someone bursts into the room with new
information: a group of white propertied men who have been dead for two
centuries, knew nothing of our present situation, acted illegally under
existing law and thought it was fine to own slaves might have disagreed with
this course of action. Is it even remotely rational that the official should
change his or her mind because of this divination?
It
never fails. A liberal always has to
denigrate our founding. Yes, these were
men of property. And yes, they were
white and some did own slaves, but not all of them. Many were against the institution of slavery
and did their best to stop it. But that
somehow gets lost in the ranting of the lunatic left. And as far as making changes to that stagnant,
archaic document, the Constitution has been amended 26 times, including the 13th
which prohibits slavery. But what difference
does that make? That fact doesn’t fit
the narrative of the tenured, Ivory Towered academic who wants a streamlined
utopia. Change must come here and
now. He wants a tyranny of the majority. But he doesn’t see it that way.
IN
the face of this long history of disobedience, it is hard to take seriously the
claim by the Constitution’s defenders that we would be reduced to a Hobbesian
state of nature if we asserted our freedom from this ancient text. Our
sometimes flagrant disregard of the Constitution has not produced chaos or
totalitarianism; on the contrary, it has helped us to grow and prosper.
This is not to say that we should disobey all
constitutional commands. Freedom of speech and religion, equal protection of
the laws and protections against governmental deprivation of life, liberty or
property are important, whether or not they are in the Constitution. We should
continue to follow those requirements out of respect, not obligation.
Are we getting that respect today? I would say we’re not. The federal government has trampled all over
our property rights; freedom of speech, association and religion; and as for
life, well Planned Parenthood is a sanctioned government entity. So, I would agree with the professor that our
founder’s principles have been ignored. I will go even further and state that today’s
Constitution no way resembles that of our founding. This is the Progressives’ Constitution and
not the one our founders established.
The professor stated that ignoring our
Constitution has allowed us to grow and prosper. Yeah, we’ve prospered to the tune of $17
trillion in debt. Of course, he, like so
many of his ilk doesn’t see a problem with that. And this “prosperity” wasn’t due to ignoring
the Constitution. No, this wouldn’t have
been possible without the 16th and the 17th Amendments. We can thank the Progressives for that. Most notably, the two presidents Mr. Seidman
acclaimed in his article. With the
dissolution of States representation in the Senate and a limitless credit line,
the utopians have destroyed our founder’s federalist system. Constitutional commands are damned. These rascals have destroyed us from within. And the brilliant Professor Louis Seidman isn’t
able to see it. Too bad that Ivory Tower
doesn’t have windows.
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