Is the Constitution irrelevant today? My students hear me teach and they think I’m from outer space because the actual Constitution, compared to the daily news, doesn’t match up for them. Apparently, some of you feel the same way. Let’s take a closer look at the relevancy of the U.S. Constitution today.![]()
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Our Constitution is a document of omission. That is, it limits the government, not We the People. Americans are surprised to hear that because they have been conditioned to believe that our government has all the power and we are its servants. Not so. Our Constitution spells out 18 specific powers that our federal government can exercise. The Constitution is still the Supreme Law of the Land, so these limited powers are still in effect today:![]()
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-Tax and spend for debts, the common defense, and general welfare of the People (not specific people or groups)![]()
-Borrow money![]()
-Regulate commerce![]()
-Make rules for naturalization and bankruptcy![]()
-Coin money, regulate its value and fix weights and measures![]()
-Punish counterfeiting![]()
-Establish post offices and post roads![]()
-Make rules for copyrights and patents![]()
-Establish federal courts below the Supreme Court![]()
-Define and punish felonies and piracy on high seas![]()
-Declare war, make rules concerning captures on land and water![]()
-Raise armies and support them (non-naval forces)![]()
-Provide and maintain a navy![]()
-Uniform Code of Military Justice (discipline)![]()
-Call the militia into Federal service![]()
-Organize, arm, and discipline the militia![]()
-Control Federal property (limited to post offices and post roads, military facilities, and the seat of our government, Washington, D.C.)![]()
-Do what is “necessary and proper” to carry out ongoing powers and other powers granted to Congress![]()
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You can find a more detailed description of these eighteen powers in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. If it’s not there, the government has no power to do it. Re-wind. If it’s not there, the government has no power to do it. So then, the Constitution is relevant in that it limits the government, not the People, by spelling out specific powers that We the People grant to it. Our Founders saw that top-down organizations didn’t last long before the top was “toppled,” if you will. Our Constitution gives us the power, but it is not a self-enforcing document. We have to enforce it. Failure to do so is to forsake our freedoms by turning more and more power over to the federal government. Therefore, the Constitution is relevant today if we wish to live in liberty.![]()
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Another reason that the Constitution is relevant today is because it acknowledges a Higher Authority (or Power) than the State. Where the State is the highest authority, there is tyranny. Where the Creator is recognized for the “blessings of liberty” and the document is signed (originally) “in the year of Our Lord,” these words demonstrate a recognition of a higher authority than civil government. The result is a Republic.![]()
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A third reason that our Constitution is relevant today is that it has served generations for over 230 years as the Supreme Law of the Land. It is time-honored, tested, and it works when We the People enforce, guard, and protect it with our lives and our votes and when we teach our children to do the same. ![]()
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Can you think of additional reasons why our Constitution is still relevant today?![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship. 🇺🇸![]()
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Important:![]()
No naming, blaming, or shaming political figures or parties in your comment. Principles, ideas, and experiences educate us. Venting does not. No additional links or pictures, please.
Five Things to Learn from Dr. Martin Luther King's Legacy![]()
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-"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ![]()
So why have we resurrected the melanin debate and are now teaching our youngest children to judge others by skin color? Bravo to the parents who believe Dr. King's words and are acting upon them! When I was a young student, I heard MLK speak these words. They made common sense to me. Regardless of what older adults thought, I knew that this was the right way to think about human beings. Character matters.![]()
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-" I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers."![]()
Years after Dr. King said these words, a white girl (freshman) and a black girl (sophomore) were college roommates. She was two years older than me and treated me like a younger sister. ![]()
Another thing: If you place a toddler in a multi-racial playgroup, they know no color. We can learn lessons from infants, as well we should today. Our youngest citizens have never read the Constitution, the Bible, or other religious books, yet they know how to behave as the Creator intended. Dr. King's dream was the same as the Creator's intention for you and me.![]()
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-"If Americans permit thought-control, business-control, and freedom-control to continue, we shall surely move within the shadows of fascism." ![]()
MLK wrote the above quote 68 years ago. He was correct then, and his words call out to us today. In what ways are we allowing our thoughts, businesses, or freedoms to be controlled by the State? If so, we are trading in liberty for fasc-ism. Simple as that.![]()
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-Dr. King understood his First Amendment rights. He showed us how peaceful protest is done. The people of his day did not understand how to respond to a peaceful protest. They thought it wise to treat peaceful protesters as criminals if they (the ruling class) disagreed with Dr. King. In other words, if those in power disagreed with Dr. King, he and his followers were treated as criminals. King was jailed. His followers (our fellow Americans) were hosed down, mistreated, and more. Yet, their cause was just, and in the end, their cause brought change.![]()
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-"And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children… will be able to join hands and sing… Free at last! Free at last!![]()
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"![]()
Dr. King knew t's a matter of conviction in the human heart. Today, we can choose liberty, not division, e.quality over e.quit.y, love, rather than hate, peace rather than war, as far as possible with us. ![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.🇺🇸![]()
Important:![]()
No naming, blaming, or shaming political figures or parties in your comment. Principles, ideas, and experiences educate us. Venting does not. No additional links or pictures, please.
Sometimes we have to dig a little deeper to find out about our American heritage. ![]()
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". . . But he who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen, on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy markets of trade, and everywhere, should share with him." There's an application for us in excerpts from Grover Cleveland's first inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1885. My commentary is in brackets.![]()
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[President Cleveland is saying that you and I should take the presidential oath and its obligations as our own since We the People run the government].![]()
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"The Constitution which prescribes his oath, my countrymen, is yours; the Government you have chosen him to administer for a time is yours; the suffrage which executes the will of freemen is yours; the laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State capitols and the National Capitol, is yours. Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust." ![]()
[Cleveland reminds us that every level of government belongs to us, from our votes, to the laws that govern our municipalities, states, and our nation. We have a public duty to take our obligation seriously and manage it well to benefit not only ourselves but our posterity].![]()
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"Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness." ![]()
[Did you catch that? We must watch over and closely scrutinize our public servants before we give them another vote or more responsibility. President Cleveland is asking us to assess our public servants' (including himself) loyalty to the Constitution and whether or not their service is valuable].![]()
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"Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil polity—municipal, State, and Federal-and this is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the Republic . . ." ![]()
[The Peoples' will directly affects government when we take ownership of our duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. We need to stay on top of it by being informed and assessing our public servants' service. It's not by venting, griping, or complacency that we affect our government. We must be informed and reasoned in our response. ![]()
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What are you willing to do? It's an elec-tion year. Some of us have been re-districted after the last census. Do you know what district you are in? Are you only getting your information via the print or broadcast media? Have you invested in new sources of information so you can compare what you are used to with what else may be out there? Have you read the portion of our founding documents that pertains to current legislation?![]()
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What was true in 1885 still holds for us today. We need to take our position as the keepers of the oath to the Constitution seriously. In today's terms, "own it!” ![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.🇺🇸![]()
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No naming, blaming, or shaming political figures or parties in your comment. Remember: principles, ideas, and experiences educate us. Venting does not. No additional links or pictures, please.
What does it mean to "think like an American?" Let's answer a few leading questions:![]()
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Do you think that we have lost our constitutional system of government and now find ourselves in the position of having to restore it?![]()
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Do you know how your federal government is supposed to work? Or do you leave it up to those in Washington (some elected, some appointed) to do the work of governing for you?![]()
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What is the basis on which our Constitutional Republic rests? That's right. It's the Supreme Law of the Land, the U.S. Constitution, in partnership with our other founding organic document, the Declaration of Independence. ![]()
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The organization of which I am a certified instructor, The Institute on the Constitution, believes that "we have lost our way because "we don't think like Americans anymore."![]()
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So I ask again, "What does it mean to think like an American?" How do we re-create the excitement of our citizenship? Ask a naturalized American who has lived in a totalitarian state. You will see their facial expression light up when they compare this country to their former one. They talk about opportunity, freedom, individuality, generosity, and variety. People who adopt this country as their own see the goodness of our country's founding principles. (Of course, two and a half centuries of Americans didn't carry out these principles perfectly because people are sinners). Still, the founding American ideals remain. They are not beyond our grasp.![]()
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When Americans think like Americans, they don't have a forced show of patriotism. Instead, thinking like an American looks something like this:![]()
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"Patriotism is not a belief in a mistake-free history of a people or a society. It is a belief in the goodness, the desired goodness, of that particular civil society." ![]()
-Kevin Roberts ![]()
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To believe in the desired goodness of a particular civil society, one has to know the pillars upon which that society was built. One must also believe in a lawful government. Where do we find our American founding principles and the Supreme Law of the Land? They're in our founding American documents. How do you know what to believe when it comes to being an American? As I always say, you will not find it in the press, from the politician, or the professor. We the People must study the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution for ourselves. And, if we agree with these principles (not the personalities involved, for they, like us, are not mistake-free), we adopt these fundamental constitutional principles as our own. ![]()
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Let's endeavor to review or learn for the first time our founding documents. Each time I teach a class, I review and evaluate these documents. This year, I hope to pass on what I learned to you. If you have become discouraged with our government, let's focus on what America was founded to be in the coming months. Let's think like Americans.![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship. 🇺🇸![]()
![]()
Important:![]()
No naming, blaming, or shaming political figures or parties in your comment. Principles, ideas, and experiences educate us. Venting does not. No additional links or pictures, please.![]()
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Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels
