This is the first of a series on the US Constitution.
America was once a highly functional country that was the envy of the world. Despite our sometime chaotic, freedom-based society, the United States exemplified the rule of law, meaning people could expect that everyone, regardless of party affiliation and including the government, is accountable to the law, and that basic rights and legal obligations apply equally to all. The rule of law also requires that laws are clear, fair, and stable, and that there are clear and fair processes for enforcing them.
Well, that certainly got flushed out of our system over the last few years as increasingly one political party uses lawfare to restrict the activities of the other political party. This is probably best exemplified by the conviction of Donald Trump for “money laundering” in a Manhatten court a couple of weeks ago.
While Democrats celebrated that they “finally got him” a larger conversation started about whether the case was politically motivated and who might be next on the Democrats’ hit lit. I’m not a Trump fan nor am I a Republican, but I think Trump was unfairly targeted with a “law” designed specifically to match his case and Cohen’s shaky testimony. Biden supporters may see Trump finally being held accountable for what they see as a lifetime of cheating and lying, but they have no problem with their own “guy” clearly being involved in an influence peddling scheme while he was the Vice President.
Eventually, Republicans will be the ruling party once more and while they might not go after Biden because he’s really old and decrepid and it would make for bad optics to go after a senile old man, you can trust they’ll go after some Democrat with dirt under the rug because they kind of have to or the voters will replace them with another party…and it won’t be the Democrats.
The rule of law took a big hit and now we’re all left to wonder whether any of us are safe from bogus prosecution in this day and age.
This is the stuff that undermines democracy.
Whatever Happened to the Rule of Law?
Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world's longest surviving written charter of government. Its first three words – “We The People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens…not the other way around.
When it was written, several of the original states refused to ratify it. They read the document as enumerating the powers of government, but seeing no acknowledgement or protection of individual rights, they felt it would soon become a tyrannical document. Thus it was amended before it was even ratified, which is why the Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were passed as a package deal with the body of the US Constitution. These amendments have generally been held by both the courts and society as an essential part of the Constitution. Without them, there would have been no United States of America as we know it.
Most summers, I comment on the Declaration of Independence around the 4th of July, but this year, I’ve decided to focus on the Constitution throughout the summer.
Why?
Because a Facebook commenter on my liberty conversations is a British gal who insists the US Constitution is OLD and hasn’t been updated and we should toss it out in favor of a flexible constitution like they have in England where Parliament can change the “constitution” with a mere vote of legislative lights. And since it isn’t written down, who could possibly argue that they’re violating it?
I admit, I think some of the articles and amendments should be scrutinized and perhaps set aside or heavily amended, but I think the US Constitution itself has lasted as long as it has because it is difficut, but not impossible to change. And I suspect most modern Americans have no idea what is in our founding document and how the 27 amendments to the Constitution have affected the body of the Constitution, for good and for ill.
So I’m going to start with Article 1 of the Constitution and work my way through to the 27th Amendment. Maybe if we knew what it says, we’d have a better chance of rescuing the country from the slippery cliff we find ourselves on because we’d begin to understand where we’ve gone wrong.
Lela Markham is an Alaska-based novelist and commentator who is a fan of the Constitution…as originally written and interpreted, which means she’s skeptical of its current status. These days she’s in the middle of writing an apocalyptic fiction series where her characters are called upon to rebuild what is left of the United States.