No One Asked Me But… (September 28, 2022)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… While many Americans believe that America is a democracy (notice the little “d” in democracy), many Americans are wrong. America is a republic (notice the little “r” in republic).

Our federal government is a representative government. While all political offices, with the exception of the presidency are filled by a popular vote. That popular vote is for a representative to vote for the people on the issues of the day. In a democracy the people would vote directly for or against a proposed law. This does not take place at any level in the governance of Americans.

American citizens do not vote for the President of the United States. The President is elected by a majority of 538 representatives selected by the people from the various states. Electors are apportioned to states based on the number of Senators and Representatives each state is allotted. In all but two states, members of the Electoral college are selected by political parties on a winner take all basis.
This being said, the crux of what I want to discuss today is the Constitution that is the back-bone of this republic established 235 years ago.

The Constitution opens with a Preamble which explains the purpose of the document. This short paragraph sums up the role of the federal government. I states that the new government was established “to form a more perfect union.”

The Articles of Confederation, which preceded the Constitution, was hastily thrown together to overthrow British rule. The founders felt that the Articles, established for the thirteen independent colonies, was not working in an efficient manner. So a second “revolution” was needed. This new government had to have new rules and those new rules needed to be codified.

The Constitution stated this new government would “establish justice” for all citizens.
The founders felt that the new federal government would “insure domestic tranquility.” One must wonder how well we are presently doing with that one.

A more centralized government with greater powers would “provide for the common defense.” The founders truly believed that a strong national military would make for a strong country. However, they feared a strong standing military presence and their answer was to be found in a militia as expounded in the Second Amendment to the base document.

They expressed the belief that the federal government should promote the well-being of all citizens or the “general welfare.” This provision has been interpreted as an “elastic clause” which has at time been stretched to the breaking point.

The final decree of the Preamble said the federal government would secure liberty for Americans as long as the nation exists.
When one considers there have been only 27 changes to Constitution in its 235 years of existence, one must surmise the founders did a pretty good job in setting up a working government.

Those changes have been designated Amendments. I would suggest the first 10 Amendments which have been designated the Bill of Rights should not be considered Amendments at all. A basic definition of the word amendment is: “a change or addition to the terms of a contract or document.” Let me suggest that the Bill of Rights does not fit this definition. The Bill of Rights was not attached after the fact but was part of the contract when it was ratified.

What is really amazing is that in the 231 years after the formation of America under the Constitution, there has only been seventeen Amendments to the founding document. Two of those Amendments are of no consequence since the 21st abolished the 18th. Therefore in essence there are really only 15 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Four years after the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, was agreed upon, the 11th Amendment was ratified. This stated the rules for lawsuits against a state. It was another nine years (1804) before the 12th Amendment was added. This deals with the process for selecting the President and Vice-President.

It took 61 years and a Civil War to produce new Constitutional Amendments including the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The 13th abolished slavery. The 14th guaranteed the rights of citizenship as well as due process. And the 15th gave voting rights to former slaves.

Forty-Three years after that, in 1913, two more Amendments were passed. The 16th gave the power of the federal government to collect an income tax. How do you like that one? In the same year, the 17th Amendment was passed giving the people the power to directly elect their Senators. Six years later the only Amendment (18th) abolished by a later Amendment (21st) was passed. It outlawed the manufacture and transport of alcoholic beverages (1919).

In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. I wonder if there was any correlation between the passage of the ban on alcohol and the right for women to vote.

Thirteen years elapsed before the passage of 20th Amendment which deals with Presidential and Congressional terms of office. This was the same year (1933) that the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment.

Eighteen years later in 1951, after Franklin Roosevelt broke the unwritten rule of two terms for a President, the nation passed the 22nd Amendment limiting the President to two terms.

Ten more years passed before the 23rd Amendment gave the people of Washington, D.C. the right to vote for the President.

In 1964, the franchise was protected by the passage of the 24th Amendment that outlawed the poll tax that was being used to disenfranchise the poor and most often those of Americans of African descent in many of the southern states of America.

In 1967, there was a rather extensive Amendment, the 25th, explaining who would take charge of the country if the president was to become incapacitated.
This was followed by a rather short Amendment in 1971, dropping the voting age to 18.

And in 1992, the most recent Amendment, the 27th, regulates the salary of the Senators and Representatives.

So, if you take out the Bill of Rights, for they are really part of the document ratified by the people in 1791, there has been only 15 changes to the Constitution of the United States. This is amazing when one considers America has grown from a nation 3,929,214 people in 1790, to 331,449,281 people today.

Thought of the week…The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.”
– Henry Clay