Recognizing the futility of resolving to get rid of that paunch, cut down on eating great chunks of chocolate, or to stop watching endless "Seinfeld" and "Law & Order" reruns, I pretty much gave up making New Year’s resolutions a long time ago.
This year it’s different. There is something I need to promise myself I’ll do – and do forthwith: I hereby resolve to stop styling myself as a "conservative," now and forever.
Why, after a lifetime of membership in the vast right-wing conspiracy, would I abandon the political faith of my fathers?
I’ll tell you why. In recent years the word "conservative" has all but lost its meaning. The right wing has now divided into such subheadings con and neocon, resulting in multiple definitions of conservatism some of which more resemble a barely restrained totalitarianism than the traditional libertarian creed of the right.
Henceforth, I shall call myself what a conservative used to be – a Constitutionalist (or Const) – a fervent, unapologetically rabid adherent of the Constitution of the United States and all that its founders meant it to be. And a strict constructionalist of that document to boot!
What an incredible document, this work of some of the most politically enlightened human beings this world has ever seen. Men schooled in the harsh academic discipline of living under a monarchy enthroned 3,000 miles away with nary a thought about the welfare of its American colonists other than to dream up new and unique ways of taxing and otherwise inconveniencing them. Government without representation.
Out of that experience came the realization that, as George Washington is said to have put it: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
Recognizing the inevitable tendency of government, if left unchecked, to move inexorably toward tyranny, the founders created a system of checks and balances designed to keep the federal government they almost reluctantly created within bounds.
The Constitution they designed was the first human expression of the then unheard of concept that the people were the masters and their government their servant.
In writing the Constitution, they left little to chance. In most respects its provisions were designed to meet all future contingencies, written as they were with a startlingly clear understanding of human nature, its virtues and its flaws. Most important, it was, and remains, a set of clearly stated dos and don’ts meant to withstand the passage of time.
It was not meant to be a "living" document, as liberals in the judiciary today style it, but rather a series of strict guidelines meant to be interpreted in the light of the founders’ intentions, and not those of jurists swaying in the winds of the present – rules bent to conform with the fashions and creeds and political passions of the moment.
As Thomas Jefferson put it: "On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." - letter to Judge William Johnson, from Monticello, June 12, 1823.
Washington echoed that belief: If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed." - Farewell Address Farewell Address, 1796.
According to Madison: "Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government."
That is the Constitution of Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Franklin. That’s my Constitution, and I swear eternal hostility to those who would transform it into a will ‘o the wisp, subject to witless interpretation at the drop of a designer hat.
Taking the Constitution and its provisions seriously nowadays is anything but easy. For the most part, those who govern us, who make our laws have long ago stopped legislating and enforcing the law in the light of the Constitution’s dos and don’ts. They seem to regard the Constitution as something of a quaint relic of our post-colonial days meant to be trotted out on civic occasions or those honoring the memory – but never the intent – of the geniuses who wrote it.
You can search the Constitution from now to doomsday and not ever find authority for much of what the government – more and more our "fearful master," is doing today. And therein lie much of our present-day problems. As the world suffers the consequences of ignoring and violating the Ten Commandments – God’s constitution for the human race - so America suffers the consequences of ignoring and violating the Constitution of the United States.
Where in that document, for example, can we find authority for the provisions of the so-called McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform" law that prohibits some freedom of speech in political campaigns? Where does the Constitution authorize the federal government to deny citizens the right to bear arms? Where does the Constitution authorize the federal government to dole out billions in foreign aid?
Those are the questions Americans are going to start asking themselves if they want to restrain that force against which Washington warned. They are the kind of questions I’ll be asking myself henceforth as I venture forth as a newly minted Constitionalist.
The Constitution of the United States is the sole guarantee Americans enjoy of their life, liberties and their right to pursue happiness. Without it, we are, like the Founders before the revolution, subjects of a tyrannical monarchy masquerading as a republic. Begin to shred it, and you begin to shred your God-given rights to liberty.
It’s your Constitution. Use it or lose it.
Happy New Year.
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