Remember Your Oath To Protect The Constitution, Mr. President

February 14, 2013

U.S President Barack Obama (L) takes the oath of office from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (R) as first lady Michelle Obama (2nd L) holds the bible and daughter Malia (C) and Sasha looks on in the Blue Room of the White House January 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Mr. President, perhaps amidst the merriment surrounding the inaugural festivities you misremembered your oath. Sir, you solemnly swore “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” But these few weeks hence, your State of the Union speech essentially disavowed America’s cherished founding charter. Many left-leaning pundits applaud your “bold” vision to radically redefine America. President Obama, you are understandably emboldened by re-election, but you were not made king. Regardless of whether you agree with constitutional precepts, you’re still legally bound; still compelled by the sacred oath you swore.

Perhaps while lecturing college students on Constitutional Law you read it. What authorization supports the myriad initiatives you presented to Congress? Those few matters you articulated within what was entrusted to the federal executive betrayed a radical departure from the Founder’s vision. Defense at least falls within your legitimate purview, but your desire to push women into combat seem more about repudiating America’s heritage than buttressing her military.

Congress's Policies Steal
Our Freedoms While
Rewarding Irresponsibility

The SOTU address advanced the progressive agenda suggested at your inauguration – which you delivered mere moments after vowing subservience to the very Constitution you have consistently abused in word and deed. A bloated government exceeding its constitutional scope has become increasingly accepted, but Washington drifts rudder-less in fiscal disarray. The economy stagnates, long-term unemployment lingers and regulatory burdens strangle businesses. Please reconsider the proper sphere of federal power. Your government-centric business sector and government-dependent populace sap our national vitality.

Not that presidents plowing past constitutional parameters represents anything novel. Figure politicians have long showered public money on anything they found expedient. But your obsession with parlaying politically correct causes surpasses anything your predecessors conceived. Under pretense of “investments,” you propose funneling taxpayer funds into “sustainable” energy, education geared toward yesteryear’s realities, and then you transparently wish to accelerate entitlements – all while prattling about deficit reduction and lambasting “special interests.”

President Obama, your speech represented a paean to corporatism. Public “investments,” “manufacturing hubs,” and “energy security trusts” all reek of crony capitalism. In a lecture catering to economic concerns, you cast nary even an offhand bone about bolstering the dollar, yet you bemoaned rising energy costs. Restoring sound money would better serve poor families than all your corporatist gimmicks combined. The Constitution tasks government as an impartial referee guarding the “general Welfare.” Washington was not empowered to promote the particular welfare of political favorites.

Per the Constitution, the federal apparatus primarily pertains to matters of foreign policy. Government is best when limited and delivered locally. Little Washington does domestically enjoys constitutional approbation. Less still, think the post office, fares well compared to private efforts. In those areas the central government must act, the Framers enumerated very specific powers to what became Washington. But they then erected a barrier – the Bill of Rights – declaring federal authorities could do nothing that went unspecified.

Most domestic duties remain with the sovereign states – or citizens privately. Government ought to only oversee what preserves the inalienable rights resident in our persons and property: fire, police, military and foreign diplomacy, the legal infrastructure and certain other functions difficult for markets to coordinate such as roads. The benefits of freedom far exceed the economic realm, but this prescription for free enterprise spurred the unparalleled prosperity Americans consider their birthright.

Professional politicians only perceive past glory and project it forward. Mr. Obama, you may presume because America has flourished historically that you can raid public coffers for pet causes with impunity. Who cares, you seem to suggest, America remains strong. But America is broke. Well, more accurately, Washington is insolvent and finances are the least of it. Government displays severe deficits in character and restraint. Private markets would thrive anew if government reverted to the constitutional limitations which launched America’s greatness.

Recall George Washington’s eternal warning, government behaves “like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” State power represents little save a monopoly on legalized force. Caesar may only rightfully wield his sword to preserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The state lacks capacity for compassion, or any of the myriad qualities liberals naively bestow on it. Higher minimum wages will merely spawn higher unemployment. Yet, federal power surges under the false auspice that Washington attends to problems it cannot successfully solve and has little right to pursue.

If men were just or all could defend themselves, laws would be redundant. We can’t, thus government, but our Forefathers feared if loosely defined, federal authority might infringe on freedom. The Framers crafted a republic predicated on natural, unalienable rights. They were mortified that democracy might cede to demagogues’ leeway to diminish liberty. Thomas Jefferson noted, “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Majority rule or which party prevails should matter little. Every politician must swear allegiance and submission to the law.

The Constitution rests on checks and balances between branches of government and levels of government. Even should the entire nation unanimously support something contrary to the requirements of liberty, the Constitution restricts government from violating our unalienable rights. Washington should remain shackled by due process, limited by enumerated powers, bound by the Bill of Rights.

Sadly, America has lost her bearings. Federal power no longer conforms to constitutional constraints, except perhaps procedurally. Pandora’s Box rests ajar. Only Hope and maybe Nostalgia remain of limited, constitutional government. Those few spheres still free from political meddling lay exposed. With the box open, those rights we retain are merely vestiges of autonomy which the government has not yet absconded.

Liberty taken for granted quickly becomes liberty lost. When presidents exceed constitutional boundaries government’s monopoly on force embodies an instrument of coercion. Paraphrasing Augustine, “What is a kingdom without justice but a gang of criminals on a vast scale?”

President Obama, your authority derives by the Constitution. Your marching orders remain relegated by that enumerated therein. The law must remain preeminent.


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