You Big Mouth, You!

Smokey 1987-2003

Have fun with Midnight and Tuffles.

WE LOVE YOU!

We’re in mourning, and I’m fighting the mother of all stress headaches.

I’m glad Elizabeth Smart was rescued.

This is the oath new citizens of the United States take, apparently gladly and willingly. Too bad so many of the citizens born in the United States haven’t taken it.

I hereby declare, on oath,

that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;

that I will support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic;

that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;

that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law;

that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law;

that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and

that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose or evasion: So help me God.

An Australian, living in my neck of the woods, last week had an op-ed piece in the local news on dead trees, in which he maintained that America was not the greatest country. I’ve given the subject a lot of thought since then. I do believe that America is the greatest nation on the planet today, and I’d like to express why. There are a lot of great things about the United States, its natural beauty, its resources, its immigrant population. However, I wanted to try to identify what the unique thing was about us that makes us great. A document that I love became the reason that I believe the United States of America is the greatest country on Earth. The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution represents the junction of many political, social, religious, and philosophical ideas, formed into one unique and special document. From its beginning, the Preamble, the Founders set on paper concepts and assumptions that would forever change the course of world history.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

There may have been governing documents set forth in writing before this one. I don’t think that there were any that were as thorough, or that merged so many different concepts in one document. Ours has been the example for constitutions in dozens of other countries. Even the Soviet Union felt compelled to have a written constitution, making our Constitution even more remarkable as both a living document and as an example to the world.

In this document there are three elements that I firmly believe constitute the true source of our greatness. They are:

• three separate branches of government
• pluralism
• the Bill of Rights

I don’t pretend to be a Constitutional scholar. And, I’m not going to spend a lot of time quoting the Founders on their intent. I want to express my view that the Constitution, as written, and as practiced, has made us the great nation that we are today.

The Separate Branches of the Government

The judicial, legislative and executive branches of the government form a tripod that keeps our system in balance. Oh, the system tilts on occasion, making one branch more powerful or influential, but the tilt is always corrected and balance restored. When you look at nations that merge the legislative branch and the executive branch, you see the beauty of our system.

In a parliamentary system, the party with the most seats, or a coalition of parties, controls the executive branch. This is, in actuality, a dictatorship of the minority. In this system, the party(s) in power have the ability to pass legislation and implement policy changes without resort to the wishes of the voters. The voters elect a member of parliament, and then must wait until the government calls another election or until a mandated one occurs, usually after some years. In the meantime, the party in power can pretty much do what it wants.

As we witness every day, that doesn’t happen here. Even when the Congress and the Presidency are controlled by the same political party, nothing is a sure thing. Our elections don’t depend on the whim of the party in power, and the Founders wisely set a very short time frame for legislative elections, every two years. American voters have the opportunity to revamp their government every two years. The executive who doesn’t pay attention to the legislative or the legislative that doesn’t pay attention to the executive will hear about it, within two years.

The judicial branch, nominated by the executive branch and confirmed in office by the legislative branch, provides the third leg of America’s strength tripod. This is both the battlefield of the other branches as well as their common ground. An independent judiciary, interpreting a written constitution, laws passed by an elected legislature, and policies implemented by an executive branch, is the hidden backbone of America, giving strength and authority to all that we stand for.

Pluralism

The United States is unique in another way. We have no established, state church. Indeed, our Constitution forbids it. As citizens, we are free to practice whatever faith we choose and the government can neither interfere, direct us, prevent nor promote our faith. As we look across the world today, we see nation after nation where the official religion is an instrument of oppression. Other nations are racked by civil war with conflicts between religions at the heart of the war.

America has become the refuge of religion, the safe haven where oppressed religions can go to practice in peace. Tibetan Buddhists, Moslem Sufis, the Bahai, Sikhs, Maronite and Chaldean Catholics. All of these and more have come to the United States because they can practice their beliefs here without fear of the government or other citizens.

This is a strength. America holds people of faith free of and defended by their government and that freedom and defense helps make us great. The British don’t have it. Nor do the French. America stand nearly alone in the world in permitting unfettered religious expression and practice. Our pluralistic society, where government is not dependent upon religion and religion free of government, has allowed us to flourish, to prosper, in ways that other nations cannot even imagine.

The Bill of Rights

The first thing I noticed when reading the Bill of Rights last week was that it wasn’t, in fact a Bill of Rights. On the contrary, it was a set of limits on the government, preventing its interference with rights that pre-existed the establishment of the government. Most of the amendments contain the phrase “shall not”, directly limiting the government. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments cover this quite nicely.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Look at that. The people retain rights. In other words, their existing rights are not taken away by the creation of the government of the United States.

The Bill of Rights, with its implicit expression of rights that do not derive from the government, are not granted by the government, is perhaps the most powerful collection of ideas ever put on paper. It was added, first and foremost, to prevent the domination of this new federal union by the large and powerful. That was, and is, an earthshaking concept. And it begins with the assumption that the government does not provide your rights, and that the government should be limited in its interference with your rights.

There you have it, my reasons why the United States is the greatest nation on Earth, the ideas set down in our Constitution.