-By John Armor
The end of the year is traditionally a time of appraising the last year, and estimating what the next will bring. I’ll skip my personal history and my estimates for my family. Instead, the subject is what I have done for almost 40 years, now.
I’ve spent those years primarily in research, writing, teaching, and practicing constitutional law. At this time, I conclude that the Constitution is in serious trouble.
The idea of creating a democratic republic was extremely rare in 1776 when the intent was stated in the Declaration, as in 1787 when the Constitution was written. The irony is that our nation under that document has prospered mightily, and has survived longer than any other government under any other written constitution in the history of the world.
This success is understood even by barely literate peasants in third-world nations, who risk their lives to enter the US illegally. It is the opposite of most of the world’s nations, where beleaguered peasants risk their lives to escape theirown nations.
And yet, and yet….
In the teeth of this success, an operative majority of Americans are now engaged in the death of the Constitution, some intending its murder, many more just acquiescing in its suicide.
The far left, some of whom have nested at places like MoveOn.org and the Daily Kos – not to mention the old standbys, the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers, the “Progressives” – want the American government to fall, It should be replaced by a “better” government.
Of course, the better government these political fools prefer has been tried repeatedly. It has failed repeatedly, at the cost of more than a hundred million lives. These hard-core enemies are few, and would have no chance of success without the willing help of those participating in the suicide of the Constitution.
Read the website of the National Education (?) Association and you will see that the Constitution as a law to be understood and respected, is dead as a matter of knowledge in the next generation of public school students, Read the catalogs of most universities, and sadly, of most law schools, You will see that the Constitution is dying there, too,
Most law schools are breeding lawyers, some of whom ultimately become judges, who think the Constitution is whatever the judges say it is, no more, no less. When you have judges who believe such perfidy, and citizens who don’t know any better, the Constitution’s days are numbered.
Thomas Jefferson, among other Founders, understood that America could only survive if her citizens were educated. Included in that was an understanding of what it meant to have limited government, and federalism which scattered both decisions and responsibility among all the states and local governments, now 50 states and about 250,000 local governments.
But the natural tendency of all governments is to accumulate power at the center. When the Constitution fails of its most basic purpose, to define and limit the power of the national government, then the United States will become no better than the majority of the governments in the United Nations, which are dictatorships of one description or another.
Will the Constitution be thrown away entirely? I don’t think so. The five-page parchment document will remain preserved in the National Archives. Four pages will be on daily display for citizens who still think it matters. The fifth page is displayed just on September 17th.
The Constitution will still be referred to as a talisman, like the Blarney Stone. But it will be an empty husk, with its vital purposes removed.
It is not too late for education concerning the Constitution to be turned around. The history and purposes for which it was written are easily stated, and easily understood between any competent teacher and competent student.
Still at this year-end assessment, I am pessimistic, I don’t think the Constitution will survive as anything other than a failed symbol beyond the end of my life. At least I’m doing what I can to avoid that. My latest book is not about Tom Paine, as intended. It’s about the fate of the Constitution,
The title is, “America’s Owner’s Manual.” Details are here: www.AmericasOwnersManual.com
I am, in the words of John the Baptist, “a voice crying out in the wilderness.” Whether it is, or isn’t, enough, it is a task which must be done.
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John Armor is a graduate of Yale, and Maryland Law School, and has 33 years practice at law in the US Supreme Court. Mr. Armor has authored seven books and over 750 articles. Armor happily lives on a mountaintop in the Blue Ridge. He can be reached at: John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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