Congress Betrays Founders' Vision

Congress Betrays Founders' Vision

Geoff Metcalf
Monday, July 4, 2005

Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking. – former Congressman J.C. Watts

We sit as observers to the very worst of mean-spirited, petty abuses of power. Even before the ‘super bowl' battle to fill Supreme Court vacancies, partisan rancor and the perpetual political whizzing match between ‘us' and ‘them' has been sufficient to gag any self-respecting maggot.

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Once upon a time 56 remarkable men pledged to each other their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. They were honorable and good men and serious beyond the ken of contemporary would be/wannabe/supposed to be statesmen.

Although the framers intended for the Constitution to serve only as a bridging mechanism to fix the errors of the Articles of the Confederacy and to chill interstate commercial battles, they (and we) got lucky.

The time between George Washington's big win at Yorktown and the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was an awkward transition. America as a nation was really a fiction … perception but not reality.

The extraordinary sacrifices of the War for Independence could have been squandered had not the Constitutional Convention hit a home run.

Gary Hildreth wrote "The Price They Paid" ( http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/421.html ) in which he encapsulated the fates of the 56 signers of the Declaration. They were educated, successful men:

43% of them were lawyers and jurists (before the jokes).

20% were merchants.

16% were farmers.

They understood what they were doing and that there would be consequences (good and bad) for and from their actions:

9% of the signers were captured as traitors, tortured and died.

21% had their homes ransacked and burned.

16% fought and died of wounds or hardship.

They didn't just talk the talk (like so many today) … they walked the walk, and although some lost their lives and fortunes, "with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence' their sacred honor is etched in foundation of this country.

The Declaration of Independence was intended to secure rights. The framers were clear that in order "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Got that? Government powers (which were intended to be VERY limited) come from the "consent of the governed" … not the other way around.

Congress has become a two-dimensional stereotype of venal excess. The "consent of the governed" has been abrogated by the hubris of the anointed.

Years ago, I suggested (facetiously at the time) that we should throw away ALL the law Congress has enacted and have a massive do over.

Start with three documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the original ten). And with special attention to the "Congress shall make no law" part, begin afresh.

The Declaration notes, "whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government." It adds the significant stage direction "laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

The "safety and happiness" of the American people is not served or enhanced by the sophomoric bitchfest that presumes to maintain the fiction of Congress.

The framers specifically crafted a government that was ‘supposed' to consist of three co-equal branches. The executive, the legislative and the judiciary each were intended to be equal but different from the other. Each branch had (has) specific job functions that did not overlap.

History, inertia and malfeasance have altered the government that brilliance and serendipity provided us.

Various presidents (Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Clinton and Bush) have presumed to assume more power and authority than ever intended.

Members of Congress have contributed to the overreach of the executive largely through malfeasance and diffidence in doing their prescribed jobs.

The judiciary (perhaps recognizing the testosterone deficiency of Congress) has presumed to not just ‘judge' but to legislate from the bench.

Congress has the authority (and responsibility) to declare war. However, the gutless wonders have not done so since Pearl Harbor despite having granted various presidents the authority to dispatch military adventures all over the globe over 150 times since World War II.

Most Americans grouse about Congress. The usual refrain is "They are ALL incompetent bastards … except MY Congress critter." And so incumbent after petty incumbent continues to return like metastasizing cells to grow in strength and eviscerate the essence of what the republic is supposed to be.

Former congressman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma once observed that "Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking." That kind of character is grounded by principle.

Congress is so corrupted by special interests, personal interests, egos and sports analogies of win/lose that they have become incapable of doing what's right regardless of who is or isn't looking.

The Geoff Metcalf Show can be heard Monday to Saturday 6-9 a.m. Eastern time. Call Geoff at 1-877-528-TALK.

Geoff is a ninth-generation commissioned officer in the U.S. Armed services, a former Green Beret, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. Geoff hunts down the stories the rest of the media ignores and exposes them for public scrutiny. Metcalf fans know more than anyone about what's really going on in industry, business, government and the military.

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