Retired social studies teacher worries about executive branch’s threats to Constitution

Editor:

As one who taught teens about the Constitution for 29 years, the incremental threats to the document crafted by our Founding Fathers to provide us with a republican form of government worry me greatly.  Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and James Madison would likely be concerned as well.

Was it an accident that those who gave us a representative democracy with separation of powers described the branch of our government that they did in Article One? The legislative branch was first among equals.  And what rights were allotted a measure of protection in Amendment One?

Article Two empowers the head of the executive branch to enforce the law. Grant and Lincoln were among the many presidents who have done so—both Federalist and anti-Federalist, Republican and Democrat. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by the president who appears on our five-dollar bills and one penny pieces—a president with humility, character and integrity.

In my opinion those who head the executive branch should ideally be role models for our young people.  And those of us who care about maintaining our status as a sort of beacon on a hill had better start defending our Constitution against all enemies—foreign and domestic—while we still have a Constitution to defend.

Sincerely yours,

Gary F. Kent

Albion