(credit: Michelle Malkin)
224 years ago this day, the Constitution of the United States of America, the founding legal document of this nation (as opposed to the founding philosophical document, the Declaration of Independence) was signed by representatives of 12 the original 13 states (Rhode Island didn’t send anyone).
Sometime in the ensuing two-and-a-quarter centuries, the oath that every elected officeholder takes, specifically to
..support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.
has become meaningless. Mere platitudes uttered to put an “X” in the proper box.
The Constitution has become, through decades of erosion, undermining and entropy, a façade behind which politicians and pundits, activists and enemies hide.
P.J. O’Rourke famously said “The U.S. Constitution is less than a quarter the length of the owner’s manual for a 1998 Toyota Camry, and yet it has managed to keep 300 million of the world’s most unruly, passionate and energetic people safe, prosperous and free.” I have said that the Constitution may not be the single greatest work ever set to paper, but it beats whatever it is that the government is using these days.
Happy Constitution Day! May we continue to remember it with reverence, and hope that its equal may some day return, and keep an unruly, passionate and energetic people safe, prosperous and free.