A uniquely American idea

Dr. Walter Williams takes up the abandonment of our constitution in his recent column for townhall.com. As I have argued here,  here, and here, the U.S. Constitution, once the most revered government framework on earth, has become an afterthought in the democrat-controlled Congress (when it is thought about at all).

Most conservatives believe as I do, that America is an exceptional nation of exceptional people.  On occasion, one may even hear the comment that this trait or that trait is "in our DNA," as Americans.  Make no mistake.  That is not the case. Dr. Williams explains:

We Americans, as human beings, are no different from any other people, including Germans, Russians, Chinese, Africans and other people who have produced tyrannical regimes such as those of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Idi Amin. As such we are just as capable of committing acts of gross evil that have been a part of mankind throughout his history. We’ve not been a perfect nation but we’ve never approached the level of hideousness seen in other nations. That’s despite the fact that our population consists of people who have for centuries been trying to slaughter one another in their home countries, whether it’s between the French and Germans, English and Irish, Japanese and Chinese, or Palestinians and Jews, Igbos and the Hausa of Nigeria. Thrown into the American mosaic are religions that have been in conflict for centuries such as Catholic and Protestant, and Christian and Muslim. The question is: Why is the United States an exception and will it remain so?

 He goes on:

At the heart of the American idea is the deep distrust and suspicion the founders of our nation had for government, distrust and suspicion not shared as much by today’s Americans. Some of the founders’ distrust is seen in our Constitution’s language such as Congress shall not: abridge, infringe, deny, disparage, violate and deny. If the founders did not believe Congress would abuse our God-given rights, they would not have provided those protections.

The emphasis on those words is mine.  They are certainly telling reminders of our forefathers intent. They harbored a basic distrust of government and intended to place enduring restraints on its power.

If you will allow me a metaphor, the U.S. Constitution is the very firewall that separates our great nation from dictatorship, slavery and economic ruin.  It's time to remind our representatives that they are not above it, but bound by oath to uphold it.  If they will not, it is our obligation to remove them in favor of others who will.