CommentsTHE VIEW FROM HERE - The Democrats not only killed Roe v Wade, but they have also mortally wounded all forms of Liberty.
The first person to warn the Dems not to go down this path was Benjamin Franklin, when he answered the question “What sort of government had the Constitutional Convention given us?” Allow me to translate his answer, “A Republic, if you can keep it,” into current vernacular, “Certainly not a Democracy, you effing numbskull.”
Ben did not have to resort to such crude language since virtually everyone at that time knew about the absurd dangers of democracies which degenerate into tyrannies. It’s a matter of which is sovereign? the Constitution or the Voters. As the Federalist Papers pointed and out as de Tocqueville stated in the 1830's, "The despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an individual." Since it is almost 200 years since de Tocqueville wrote, his statement also needs translation: “Nancy Pelosi’s tyranny of the majority is as lethal to liberty as an unrestrained Donald Trump.” It takes an extraordinarily uneducated public not to realize that when the voters rule, no liberty is safe.
For years, political leaders grasping for total power have been turning the American Republic into a democracy. Almost everyone from the President downward has no use for the republic or for Liberty. In commemorating Juneteenth Day (June 19th), President Biden referred to it as a celebration of “Equality.” Wrong! Juneteenth Day has nothing to do with equality. The American value is freedom, the inalienable right of liberty. The solution of enslaving Blacks was not to equally enslave Whites.
Together, the Dems and GOP Have Returned to 1858
During the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Sen. Stephen Douglas promoted Popular Sovereignty as the way to keep Blacks enslaved. Rather than recognizing that the inalienable right to liberty applied to Blacks, Douglas proposed that each territory vote whether human beings could be enslaved. There would be no federal ban on slavery, but instead a man’s freedom rested on the will of the majority of the voters. Under popular sovereignty, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were subservient to the majority of the voters on a state by state basis. Sound familiar? (Again, please note that Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) also denied Blacks the inalienable right of Liberty. Liberty v Equality)
Under a republic, however, the US Constitution’s purpose was, inter alia, to secure the Blessings of Liberty. The Constitution then used the word PERSON to make clear that all the rights, privileges and immunities applied to everyone. The Founding Fathers then created a Republic with its division of powers in order to thwart any faction from imposing its will on everyone else. Both monarchies and democracies lent themselves to tyranny. Each rests ultimate power with the individual(s) at the top who could abrogate any rights. The king, ruling under the divine right of kings, could make or break any law, and the same principle applied to majorities in democracies.
Republics Limit Power in a Several Ways
Most well know is the division of the government into the Legislative to write the laws, the Executive to enforce the laws, and the Judiciary to interpret the laws. Congress had its power in its control over spending, while the President was commander-in-chief, but the Courts had no say in spending or over the military. The only feasible way for the Court to function was through respect for its integrity.
The Founding Fathers realized that people electing the Supreme Court would be folly as justices would soon kowtow to the passions of the mob and tilt their decisions to flow with the prevailing political winds. Thus, they established a complicated system to keep the Court as insulated as possible from the voters. The President, who was not popularly elected but was elected by the electoral college, nominated members to the Supreme Court. Then, the Senate, which was not popularly elected, would confirm or reject the nominees. Since the House was popularly elected every two years, it was too vulnerable to the irrational passions of the mob to have any say in who would serve on the Supreme Court.
Nonetheless, another criterion was vital to who was nominated and confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court, i.e. integrity. Under the political philosophies of the time, persons with high intelligence and great integrity were the best safe guard of our inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Thus, the Senate had the sacred duty to confirm justices to the Supreme Court.
Integrity (Virtue) Is the US Constitution’s Greatest Weakness
Ben Franklin listed thirteen virtues.
Number Four was: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
The supreme court justices take the following oath. “I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will 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. So help me God.” (Bold added) 5 U.S.C., § 3331
A person lacking integrity to perform his sworn duty will blithely use evasion to secure confirmation to the Supreme Court. Nominees Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett all engaged in evasion in order to obtain Senate approval. Each candidate intended to overturn Roe v Wade and answered questions with deceitfully parsed language about stare decisis in order to deceive the gullible Senators, most notably Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Political leaders devoid of integrity had trashed the Constitution before these Senate confirmation hearings. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had thrown our individual inalienable rights overboard decades ago with her Identity Politics which replaced Liberty (freedom) with Equality. GOP leaders were of similar ilk pretending that imposing the religious beliefs of right wing Christians on all America was within their liberty. They promote as a freedom, their religion’s right to trample on the rights of everyone else. This twisted thinking is characteristic of people who inhabit the extremes. The far right wing believes religious freedom allows them to violate the US Constitution and then have the government fanatically support their politico-religious agenda. The far left wing Dems likewise promote tyranny of the majority of voters, albeit foolishly long before the minorities are the majority and when it is unlikely that the majority of minorities agree with Pelosi’s Identity Politics. After all, Pelosi and not Donald Trump has been the most hated person in American politics.
Pelosi and Her Minions like Little Adam Schiff Dealt Constitutional Integrity More Serious Blows
As repetitively noted with his pages, Nancy Pelosi sabotaged the Constitutional impeachment process, twice, for her own political benefit. 12-5-19 Law Profs re Pelosi’s Subversion of Impeachment and 12-12-1919, A Nation of Vicious Back Stabbers Cannot Long Endure and January 18, 2021, Joe Biden’s Biggest Threat Is Nancy Pelosi.
When we listen to the presentation of testimony before the House’s January 6th Committee, we should remember that much of this information is not new. In light of where the nation stands today after Pelosi had stopped the presentation of evidence during Trump’s January 2021 Senate Trail so that he would not be convicted and barred from running for public office, the Jan 6th committee’s combination presentation and bona fide testimony is crucial, but it may be too little too late.
Pelosi Shares the Honor of Being Devoid of Integrity
Sen. Mitch McConnell trode in Pelosi’s footsteps when he would not allow nominee Merrick Garland to have a Senate hearing on the grounds that the voters should have a say, and thus, there would be no confirmation until Trump was elected President. McConnell knew that what he was doing was a 100% violation of his oath of office. Let’s remember that President Trump promised to nominate only persons who would over turn Roe v Wade. It takes recklessly naive person to think that Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, would even have been nominated unless they had first guaranteed that they would reverse Roe v Wade.
The Supreme Court Has Subverted the Declaration and the US Constitution
No one should be surprised that Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___, has taken the nation back to 1858 and Sen. Stephen Douglas’s position that individual inalienable rights depend upon the popular vote in each state. Compare a map of the Confederacy with a map of states with the most extreme anti-abortion laws. These states are the ones who are extremely hostile to liberty except for their freedom to impose right wing Christian bigotry on Gays, Blacks, Hispanics, women and anyone else whom the majority of voters should disdain. Ironically, at the same time that individual liberties are subverted by the passions of voters, the 2nd Amendment, which is not an individual inalienable right, has been transformed into a individual liberty.
Is there a Solution? Probably Not!
The best we can envision is Walk Away. Both parties are hostile to individual inalienable rights, preferring to seize power at the ballot box and when that fails to murder the vice-president. Perhaps Nancy Reagan was right, “Just say no.” June 13, 2022, CityWatch, The Power of One: The Great American Walk Away
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected])