The Constitution (still) matters
I’m scared for the future of our Republic. No, it’s not because of the weak financial market, though I am very concerned about that. And no, it’s not because of terrorism, which is a threat we should never underestimate.
I’m scared of the views of some of the people voting.
Rasmussen Reports recently completed a survey which stated that 71 percent of Obama supporters believe that Supreme Court justices should not base their rulings on the Constitution and 18 percent of McCain supporters agreed with the statement.
What these people fail to see is that if the Supreme Court doesn’t uphold the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, then the Constitution will crumble. As it is, our court system is the only defense for the Constitution from power hungry legislators, Presidents and Governors that try to side-step this important document for their personal gain.
As a libertarian minded Republican, I love the Constitution. And it is this love that often puts me at odds with my own party over constitutional issues like the Patriot Act, wiretapping and Campaign Finance Reform, to name a few. It also puts me at odds with Democrats on issues like the second amendment and hate crime (really “thought crimes”) legislation.
From a strictly constitutional sense, both parties are right on some things and wrong on some things. And when these issues arise, they are taken to our court system and justices, who have spent their entire careers studying the Constitution and deciding which side is right.
There are a number of reasons the Constitution is an important document. For one thing, it creates the framework of our government and enumerates the powers of each branch to avoid confusion over who has the authority to do what.
But that’s not what’s most important. Our rights, as U.S. citizens, are protected and guaranteed under this 221 year old document. These rights include everything from voting, to freedom of speech and religion, to legal safeguards in trial, and even the abolition of slavery. In fact, there is no amendment in the Constitution that limits your freedom (Side note: The 18th amendment did limit freedom through prohibition, but was repealed by the 21st amendment).
The Constitution doesn’t exist to limit your freedoms, but instead limits the power of the government. I would have thought that both Republicans and Democrats would agree that the Constitution is essential in Supreme Court rulings, especially considering that Republicans claim to be the party of small government and Democrats are always skeptical of Republican leadership.
Another issue that surprises me about this, is the vast number of Obama supporters who hold this opinion. Barack Obama is a Constitutional scholar, who was the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Obama knows the Constitution extremely well, and from what I have seen, he generally supports this important document. Why then, are so many of his supporters so disrespecting of the Constitution?
I honestly don’t know why. I hope it’s not because they are scared of the ideology of freedom and limited government power, which is the basis of the Constitution.
I do think that Barack Obama is, for the most part, a believer in the Constitution. And he should show his supporters that the Constitution is a very important document that should be used in court rulings. John McCain should also do the same to the 18% of his supporters who don’t hold that belief.
Over the course of this Presidential campaign, Obama and McCain have given major speeches on issues like race relations in America and the state of our economy. I think it’s time they give a major speech on the state of the Constitution and how they will work to uphold it.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 3 2008. Filed under Opinion.
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