Vote for Constitution

                The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution is not on any ballot for this election, but the election is very much about the Constitution. Depending on whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is elected, the Constitution will be strengthened or weakened.

                The next President of the United States (POTUS) will have the opportunity and responsibility to determine several justices for the Supreme Court. The President, Vice President, and any justices chosen will take a specific oath. They will promise to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me … under the Constitution and laws of the United States.”  

                There are different opinions about the Constitution in our nation. There are those people who believe the Constitution should be upheld and honored, and there are others who believe the Constitution is irrelevant. Some people believe Americans should study the Constitution while others believe the Founders and their work are outdated.

                Richard Posner is a Judge on the Seventh Circuit; he is also a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He sees no value in studying the Constitution: “I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day[s], hours, minutes, or seconds in studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries – well, just a little more than two centuries, and of course less for many of the amendments) …. Eighteenth-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21^st century.” As explained by the Judge, the original Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the post-Civil War amendments “do not speak to today.”

                Compare the above statement by Judge Posner to that made by Cal Thomas, an advocate of Liberty, after quoting the above statement: “Imagine if such illogic was applied to other creations of the 18^th century. There was much literature and music, in addition to political writings, that came from that era. Are Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Goethe, William Black, Henry Fielding, all of the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton … and the music of Bach and Beethoven, to mention a few, also irrelevant today?

                “This is the arrogance of some judges who think they know better than the Founders. It is the choice in this election between a president and the judges he or she will appoint who believe, as late Justice Antonin Scalia did, that the Constitution sets boundaries for limited government in order to guarantee liberty to American citizens, or whether it means only what an unelected judge says it does.”

                I have studied, pondered, and prayed for months about this election. I am definitely no fan of Donald Trump, but I believe he will nominate more conservative judges than Hillary Clinton will. I believe that Clinton will nominate justices who will forget their oath of office to defend the Constitution and rule according to their own thoughts and desires.

                Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post adds further understanding to our situation: “While I understand well the nature of presidential character as exemplified best by our first commander in chief, George Washington, and while I believe neither Clinton nor Trump even register on those character scales, I also understand that the outcome composition of the Supreme Court for the next quarter-century. Think about that before you decide to stay home or to cast a `protest vote’ for a third-party candidate.

                “I would state emphatically that those who choose to sit this election out or `choose neither’ are making a choice. If you’re reluctant to vote for Trump, then at least vote for the Supreme Court. And make no mistake: A vote this year for a third-party candidate in any state where the Clinton v Trump contest is close constitutes a vote for Clinton and a third term for Obama. Period.”

                There you have it, folks. A vote for anyone besides Donald Trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton and against the Constitution. I will vote for the Constitution and the freedoms, liberties, and rights it protects - and pray that conservative Senators and Congress members can hold Trump in line!