Taking the U.S. Constitution seriously

Our whole system is set up to keep the government from becoming the State.

–Jonah Goldberg

 

What does it mean to take the U.S. Constitution seriously?

In the first place, it means taking the U.S. Constitution seriously as law.  The Constitution declares itself the supreme law of the land, a claim ratified by the Founder’s generation and, we believe, still accepted by most Americans today. The Constitution establishes the legal framework for what is presently the most powerful nation on the planet, and that alone would be reason to take it seriously. All actions by or regarding the U.S. government are legitimate if they accord with the Constitition; they are not legitimate if they do not.  This is with the understanding, of course, that there is serious debate about what the Constitution dictates in certain situations.

In the second place, it means taking the Constitution seriously as an outstanding intellectual accomplishment. We agree with the British statesman, William Gladstone: “The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”  Its authors were men of outstanding ability and education who had studied the history of human conduct and human government far more deeply than the average American of today, or even most of the American elite of today.

In the third place, it means taking seriously the political worldview of the authors of the Constitution. It means taking seriously their understanding of the nature of man and God, and of the universe into which God had placed man.

In the fourth place, it means understanding both the experimental nature of much of what they constructed, and taking seriously the means they put in place, and expected us to use, to modify the Constitution in light of experience. It means taking seriously the amendments to the Constitution, the amendment process itself, and proposals for future amendments to the Constitution. Above all, it means giving due respect to the lessons learned at great cost by our forebears.

On the latter point, which will be a recurring theme at this blog, we agree with Edmund Burke, the father of Anglo-American conservatism: “…we have consecrated the state, that no man should approach to look into its defects or corruptions but with due caution; that he should never dream of beginning its reformation by its subversion; that he should approach to the faults of the state as to the wounds of a father, with pious awe and trembling solicitude. By this wise prejudice we are taught to look with horror on those children of their country who are prompt rashly to hack that aged parent in pieces, and put him into the kettle of magicians, in hopes that by their poisonous weeds, and wild incantations, they may regenerate the paternal constitution, and renovate their father’s life.”

All of the themes introduced here will be explored in future posts.