Congress and the Constitution: What Would Lincoln Do?

Congress and the Constitution: What Would Lincoln Do?

By Ron Futrell | January 07, 2011 | 13:33

You’d think Republicans read the Communist Manifesto from the floor of Congress this week.

Perhaps the activist old media, or their friends in the Democrat Party would’ve been happier with a little Karl Marx, or maybe bring out Steven Colbert to read some Groucho Marx on the floor would’ve made them happier. The outrage over the reading of the U.S. Constitution is as despicable as it is instructive of who the left is in this country.

The examples of the media calling it a “fetish” that conservatives wanted to have the Constitution read from the floor of the House are everywhere on the internet. Norah O’Donnell called it “a gimmick” and of course, Ezra Klein, the 24 year old child star of the Washington Post, thinks that the text is confusing because it’s more than 100 years old. It’s actually 223 years old (not counting amendments) and next Sept. 17th it will turn 224. Maybe the left thinks I have a fetish because I have those dates committed to memory.

Here’s what another youngster once said about the Constitution.

Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, given when he was just 28 years old, contains a brilliant paragraph about the reading of the Constitution.

Let it [the Constitution] be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;--let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation.

You may have heard that Lincoln was a Republican and that both the left and the right in this nation have put him in a rather prestigious place of reverence. Abe says read the Constitution early and often and even went the next step by referring to it as the political religion of the nation.

Lincoln had reverence for the Constitution.

Good thing this group of activist old media folk were not around when he was rising to power. Norah, Ezra and the rest of their ilk would’ve tried to ridicule him out of Congress.

The Founders called it the “miracle in Philadelphia” that they were ever able to craft and pass this divine document during three sweaty months in that city. George Washington and James Madison used that phrase to describe the results of the Constitutional Convention. You can’t turn a page in the Founders writings without them giving credit to God for the words on those four pages of parchment. You can read their writings in something called the Federalist Papers. Maybe they should be read aloud next (at least read Federalist 10 and 51.)

The activist old media, that so often points to the First amendment as their Holy Grail that allows them to freely exist without government intervention, is the first to blast Republicans for wanting to follow the words of Lincoln and put the Constitution in a special place of reverence.

The battle lines are drawn, are you with the Founders or not? Some liberals and members of the activist old media could’ve easily joined in this celebration of our Founding documents. Instead, they chose to try to ridicule those who did.

Fine, let's go. I'm happy to be on the side of Lincohn.