Don’t believe everything, including campaign promises, from the “powerful”

Editor:

“My plan is much better than his plan.” What plan? It doesn’t matter, because all of my plans are better than any of their plans. Of course, you have to take my word for it, as I haven’t really said how I will do much of anything.

But I will be great on national security, amazing on the military, better than any of our generals. I will have the best negotiators. All of our leaders are stupid. The deal with Iran is weak, because the negotiators were incompetent. What do you mean? Well, I know them, and they are incompetent. I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

Ending birthright citizenship? “A lot of people think it can be done.” Without a Constitutional amendment? “A lot of Constitutional scholars disagree (that an amendment would be required).” So, you have found some “Constitutional scholars” who think the 14th amendment can be undone without amending the Constitution? “Oh yeah, a lot of people agree.” Do any of them know anything about the Constitution? Or, did they take a course on the Constitution and put out a “shingle?”

Donald Trump makes “simple” believable. We all like “simple.” Why wouldn’t we? It is great when things are “simple.” When someone with his money asserts something is “simple,” it can have believability. Just as when Glenn Beck made one ridiculous statement after another on his television program. At times Beck appeared to be doing his best to incite frustrated and gullible people to revolution. He had a microphone and corporate sponsorship on a television network. Wow, there must be something to what he says. He has since been on a bit of an “apology tour.”

Mike Huckabee is taken seriously when he compares the “tyranny” of the unelected justices of the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution to King George III’s tyranny before the American Revolution? Same sex marriage is not the law? It is not Constitutional?

Sorry, Mike, same sex marriage is Constitutional if the Supreme Court says it is Constitutional. The Founding Fathers provided a Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution and decide exactly such matters. They provided that federal justices would be unelected in order to insulate them to some degree from politics.

About two weeks ago, I got a call from a person advocating a “Constitutional sheriff.” After a few minutes, I asked her if she was familiar with Article Six of the Constitution. She would like sheriffs to be required to take a course on the Constitution. Amen to that. Understanding the implications of “probable cause” should be a primary focus of such a course.

Based on many news reports, equal protection of the laws should be another point of emphasis. She wants sheriffs to be accessible to the public. Amen to that. She also suggested that, since they were elected, and presumably somewhat independent, they should be able to decide which laws they should enforce and which laws they should not enforce. Huh?

Though the local woman I spoke with at length does not, we have a boatload of people with microphones and, hence, perceived credibility, telling people all sorts of questionable things. I do not care if Donald Trump can find 250,000,000 Americans who think the Constitution can be changed by passing a law, it cannot. The fact that Colorado tried to pass a law imposing term limits on United States Senators in the late 1990’s did not mean it had any chance of “flying.” The Constitution would require amending to make term limits possible.

With the election of an African-American President, Constitutional amnesia has risen to a level more akin to dementia. Our Constitutional system is something we are stuck with regardless of an election’s outcome. It says what it says, whether we have read and understood it or not.

One of the things the Constitution provides for is elections and respect for the will of the majorityeven if we are not part of it. Elections have consequences. Those of us who were in the minority (evidently) suffered through eight years of utter incompetence while Cheney ruled. We are still paying for it. Though we haven’t lost 5,000 Americans in a disastrous war, Obama hasn’t succeeded in undoing the damage done by his predecessor’s Pollyanna policies.

The bottom line is that, regardless of what you may want to hear, believing something because of who says it can have its pitfalls.

Sincerely yours,

Gary F. Kent
Albion