Sometimes I feel like I am beating my head against a wall. But being a stubborn German from the East of France, I just won’t let things rest, particularly when our rights are being usurped by those who beat the chest of liberty who are really selling us a bunch of snake oil.
So, from the bully pulpit, I will once again set some things straight about our country. First and foremost, unless you are a scholar and have studied the actual writings and philosophies of our forefathers extensively, please don’t bore me with all that Don’t Tread On Me nonsense and that everything we need is in the Constitution. The Constitution is a living, breathing document. If it were still in its original form, only white men would have rights, women wouldn’t have the right to vote and we’d still have slaves. Wait, maybe that’s what all the Don’t Treaders really want.
Our Constitution has managed to keep our country together for the last 228 years largely because it is a living document. It wasn’t written in stone. Other countries have totally rewritten their own documents in the intervening years, but ours is still our guiding principle, largely because we have had the privilege to be able to modify it when it no longer suits our needs.
So, before I go on, which Constitution do you want to use? The original one without the Bill of Rights that allows me to write this? The one where we still have slaves? The one before the government was given the right to collect taxes on income? Or the one that still allowed segregation?
A lot of people seem to pick and choose which Constitution they want us to follow. Certainly the Tea Party and many in the GOP are famous for this. Now, before all my Tea Party and GOP friends get their panties into a bunch, the Democratic Party does this too.
I only pick on the GOP this week because they don’t seem to understand the beauty of the system our forefathers came up with, that crazy idea of having checks and balances. Oh, you know the one. It’s where Congress can’t pass a law without the President signing it, at least not without a two-thirds majority of both houses. And either way, the Supreme Court gets to weigh in on the issue, deciding if it’s legal or not within the framework of 228 years of law in this land.
Yes, the Constitution plays into that decision making by the Supreme Court. But so do all the other decisions that have come down previously that have interpreted the Constitution. This is the only reason why our country is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.
But somewhere along the way, those that want to get into power are convincing all the weak minded people in this land is that this isn’t how it really works. They say that the decision is flawed, that the deciding justice should be impeached, that he wronged the country and crippled the Constitution.
Again, spare me here. The very foundation of democracy is “majority rules.” I know this is a hard concept for those with their own agendas to swallow. Certainly, Al Gore didn’t seem to get this in the election that brought George W. Bush to office. And the members of the GOP don’t seem to understand this right now.
Rather than take this opportunity to recognize that the system continues to work in our country, they want to brutalize the very concept of our democracy. Majority rules is so simple. It is what keeps our often fragile system moving forward. We are one of the few countries in the world where an entire government is replaced peacefully every four or eight years by majority rules. No coup. No dictator. We vote, a person wins by a simple majority and we change our government.
And this is what bothers me. It seems like this very foundation of our land is under fire by those who will do absolutely anything to seize power by any means possible.
By questioning the Supreme Court, you are in essence questioning the wisdom of our forefathers who came up with that brilliant idea of checks and balances. You don’t have to like their decisions. That is your right. Hell, I don’t like a lot of their decisions. But they are final. They are the law of the land, in as much as the legislative and executive branches are. Checks and balances folks, one of the true beauties of our Constitution.
And I have to say that over the last two plus centuries, the Supreme Court has done a pretty good job. Sure, just like an NFL ref, they’ve blown a call or two. Hey, I don’t think corporations should have the rights of individuals, and I own a corporation that benefits from it. But that is the law. So is the fact that any child born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen automatically. This wasn’t just some wild idea a president came up with a week or so ago. It’s in the damned amendments.
That is perhaps the scariest thing here. Those who scream the loudest don’t appear to have ever read the Constitution. Certainly, members of Congress who have created some supermajority bullshit haven’t read it. It’s not in the Constitution, but the GOP seems to be really in love with that idea right now, as were the Democrats before them.
The simple truth is, the system works. Sometimes better than others. But it works. Let’s move on. Majority ruled. In November, majority rules again. Well, not really. However, you can blame that damned Constitution for that – you know, the Electoral College that every politician says he or she wants to get rid of until they get into office. Then they decide it’s a pretty good idea after all. “We’ll keep that part of the Constitution we haven’t bothered to read,” they will say. “But that majority rules thing? Seems a bit too democratic for my tastes.”
In the Emerald City, remaining blissfully politically agnostic,
– Robb