Mastering the basics

Elected officials swear allegiance to the Constitution, so why not learn about it?

Several times in my life as an elected official I raised my right hand and swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. Moreover, I keep a pocket copy in my desk for handy reference.

On that note, I brought up the Institute on the Constitution awhile back in one of my more popular posts. I think it was originally set up behind a paywall, but I freed it a week or so later.

A quick little blockquote and I’ll start:

Institute on the Constitution. Imagine, if you will, an educational entity dedicated to teaching about the Constitution, one that provides an eighteen-week online course that is “nationally recognized.” That, my friends, is a threat that must be stopped!

Yes, my tongue was well-wedged in my cheek on that one.

So I’ve known that the Institute on the Constitution teaches courses on its main subject, even though I haven’t taken one - at least not yet. (Eighteen weeks is the equivalent of a college semester.) They also feature a course on the Delaware Constitution, which they note in a recent e-mail:

Our State Initiative is producing fruit! In Delaware, we have been able to graduate State Representatives and State Senators on the Delaware State Constitution, with some of the leadership showing interest since we held classes in the House Chamber at Legislative Hall in Dover. Hope is on the horizon!

So this begs the question: why aren’t all 62 state legislators in this class? To me, there are two reasons:

1. The Constitution, whether state or federal, is an impediment to the legislator’s cherished dream of gaining power for himself and creating a fiefdom that makes him the recepient of significant graft as a powerbroker.

2. The leader of the IotC is Michael Peroutka, who was once associated with a group called The League of The South, and ran for President in 2004 as a nominee of the Constitution Party.

I’m going to detour into the League for a moment because I wrote about them back in April, 2012. They were having an event on the Eastern Shore (which I didn’t attend.)

Unlike a lot of their critics, I didn’t look at the group in a racial sense. As I said back then:

There are some aspects of Southern life which could stand a revival. A couple in particular are the restoration of state's rights and the Southern emphasis on family and community - the definition of which comes from achieving the greater good through local, privately-based efforts rather than a government program.

Many have taken the leap because of that association to criticize the Constitution as a racist document because, as originally written, it did not eliminate slavery. (It took an entire cycle of division, secession, and war to solve the issue with the Thirteenth Amendment.) But its whole idea was to provide for a more perfect union, so there was the intent to change it in a legal manner - hence the 27 amendments so far. (It’s also the reason the Left hates the idea of an Article V Convention, because it would be a legal check on federal power.)

Thus, the question I have is: why shouldn’t you vote for a legislator who learns about a document they swear to uphold? Asking whether they’ve taken the time to learn about our Constitution is a question worth asking of them.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.