Constitution Day
By Ann Huggett (10/12/03)
Now in it's seventh year, US Constitution Day was celebrated 2:00 PM, Wednesday, September 17, 2003 with US President George W. Bush leading 120,000 schools across the nation in the FOX News simulcast recitation of the Preamble to the United States Constitution.
Switching from the ceremonial headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the festivities next centered in the ersatz Independence Hall in Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, California for a roll call of all 50 states by their governors beginning with Delaware and ending with Hawaii. Finally, the teleconference ended with a Freedom Foundation ringing of "Bells Across America" from Valley Forge, PA in honor of the First Amendment.
Earlier in the day, President Bush, appeared in the National Archives rotunda in Washington DC with Chief Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert at his side to witness the unveiling of the newly restored US Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. Noting that the charters of freedom's ideas apply to all peoples and nations, Bush said, "The ideals of our founding documents have defined America's purposes in the world. Since July 4, 1776, to this very day, Americans have seen freedom's power to overcome tyranny, to inspire hope even in times of great trial. We have seen freedom's power in Europe and Asia and Africa and Latin America, and we will see freedom's power in the Middle East. Every person in every culture has the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America owns the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but the ideals they proclaim belong to all mankind."
These are fine sentiments indeed but it has been 216 years since the Constitution of the United States was written and life in the US, as framed by the Founding Fathers, is far different from what was originally proposed. Excessive taxation and governmental fees economically strip citizens of their personal freedom. For a nation founded on a tax revolt against a British 2% levy on imported tea, an American middle class family sees over 40% of its earnings disappear into state, local, and federal coffers. When the nation was founded its citizens paid no taxes and were 100% free but with that big a tax bite, the taxpayer is only 60% free.
Unconstitutional laws abound and later day Supreme Court decisions make one wonder if the majority of judges are literally ignorant of the Constitution or hallucinating rights where none exist. Just a few short months ago Supreme Court decisions institutionalized racism through Affirmative Action and state sodomy laws were struck down. Justices Breyer and O'Connor openly admitted that they were trying to bring US law into conformity with foreign laws. It is not unusual for lawmakers to refer to the Constitution as a "Living Document" which means it is open to their politically correct interpretations for social engineering experimentation. Amendments 4 and 10 are routinely ignored in Search and Seizure. The 16th Amendment of the Constitution, which established the Income Tax in 1913, was never fully ratified by the necessary number of states to pass an amendment. Presidential Executive Orders, especially under the Clinton Administration, routinely circumvented constitutional law.
In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt suspended the Constitution itself on March 9th, 1933 when he declared a state of national emergency. Congress, which granted him executive powers to deal with the Great Depression, never demanded that he lift the suspension and no US president to this day has removed it. Even worse, President Bill Clinton's Executive Order 13083, which essentially seized and federalized all the powers of the states, is not even on the Federal Register for viewing. While it was suspended, it was never revoked.
The famous line by Clinton Presidential aide Paul Begala, "Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool." shows that the Clinton Administration knowingly and with great malice aforethought used executive power dictatorially and unconstitutionally in order to force laws through which would have been stopped dead by Congress. Congress and the Senate are even blocked from access to Bill Clinton's Presidential Decision Directive #225, which places the US Military under United Nations Authority.
So blatant has the abuse of the Executive Order become under modern administrations, both Democratic and Republican, that Missouri Congressman and Democratic 2004 hopeful Dick Gephardt said, "When I'm president, we'll have executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day."
Yet voters did not protest in outrage over Gephardt's bragging. What should have disqualified him to run for the highest office of the land is a non-issue because the educational establishment, which is a progressive stronghold, has purposely dumbed down the populace. Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution guarantees the states that the federal government will ensure a republican form of government to them and protect them from invasion. Yet America's borders are dangerously porous especially since 9/11 and politicians like Senator Hillary Clinton constantly tell the voters that the US is a democracy instead of a republic.
Understanding that ignorance of the voting populace is the greatest threat to our nation's history, House Speaker Hastert did say on Constitution Day that, "If we don't teach them why they need to vote, why they need to participate in our democracy, we risk losing all that we have gained in the last 216 years." Perhaps a purge of incompetent, leftist teachers as well as subversive politicians, a complete review and suspension of unconstitutional laws, and interim appointments of strict, constitutional judges to federal courts might bring the US back to what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they signed the US Constitution on September 17, 1787.
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