Being Constitutional is everybody's business and concern - not just the Judiciary - Granite Grok

Being Constitutional is everybody’s business and concern – not just the Judiciary

NH State Rep. Sandra Keans (R, now D): “I don’t try to justify anything by the Constitution, it’s not my job and I don’t want to do it”.

NH State Rep. Susan Almy (D): “Well, you don’t get to decide what is Constitutional and I don’t get to decide what is Constitutional, the judiciary decides what is Constitutional”.

of the Constitution?Actually, it is my job, and it is your job, and it is the job of those we elect and those that have chosen to be public servants. The Constitution(s) underlie everything we do governmentally and in that sphere, it determines how we are to govern.  It is NOT simply the job of the judiciary – it is the job of everyone concerned with governance and politics to know and to hold to the Constitution’s Letter and Spirit.  Else, we have anarchy and no longer The Rule of Law but will pass (have already passed?) to The Rule of Politics and the Dictatorship of the Ruling Class / Strong Man?  Certainly, Progressive Democrats dearly wish to “progress” past being Constitutional – but that will end up being regressive in result and for certain end up back into an Aristocracy mode of Rule – but with them at the helm.  Sadly, we see many Republicans (like the Rogue Republicans in the NH State Senate, chief among them NH State Senator Chuck Morse, NH State Senator Jeb Bradly, NH State Senator Bob Odell, NH State Senator Nancy Stiles and NH State Senator Dave Boutin) outright ignore these precepts as well.  Ditto for erstwhile, self-proclaimed “conservative” Scott Brown.

I come from a software background, the last 18 years dealing with manufacturing companies.  The difference between the winners and the losers organizations can be attributed to many factors, but one stands out in particular: Everyone takes it personally.  Not everyone is responsible for every aspect, to be sure, but it seems that when everyone keeps both the big picture and their individual piece of it mindful at all times, things turn out better.  The customer doesn’t care about that but does care about what is purchased – and the best companies seem to have that “we are all responsible for the service and product they receive.  And the best organizations put Quality first.  Always.  Each organization, knowingly or not, has a set of Principles by which they operate by – and that gestalt gets put into their Quality manuals.  My company goes so far as actually have us put them on our desktop screens as a reminder.

Thus, I just don’t understand why our elected,  appointed, and employed Government officials and employees don’t get this ethos.  We elected them, and hire them, to create new laws and to faithfully execute them (and the bureaucracy regulations resulting from those new laws).  Many businesses agonize over their Quality manuals – for government, it’s already been done for them.  It’s is clear and conscise – it’s called the Constitution.  Federal Legislators only need to be mindful of one – State level legislators have two (and I think that the NH one, in many ways, is better than the US one).  When they don’t, we get their attitude of “not my problem, mon” and we get the UNconstitutional  laws and actions we saw that the Supremes kicked to the curb this week:

  • Free Speech – the buffer zone to silence pro-life advocates at abortion mills
  • Separation of Powers – the US Senate gets to determine when it is in recess and not the President making that decision in order to fill recess appointments that would contravene the “advice and consent” of Congress.  In this case, appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
  • Search and Seizure – warrants must be obtained before law enforcement goes through your phone

And on Monday, we will find out whether the First Amendment Right to our exercise of religious over (a Right that should not be imposed upon by Government) will give way to a mere regulation by a Federal government agency under the made up “right” to reproductive freedom which enslaves most for the benefit of the few (e.g., Hobby Lobby and Conestoga).

Here in NH, everyone in the political sphere has been all atwitter about the effect on the newly passed SB319 that established a 25 foot buffer around these baby killing factories (as opposed to the MA law WHICH SCOTT BROWN SIGNED which held to a 35 foot offset).  The details do differ as well as what the pro-killers hold to as to the underlying philosophy, but the effect is the same – to silence, to take away the Right to Free Speech, from those that opposed something they feel is repugnant and immoral.

And this is the problem I see – all kinds of details and supposed “nuance” from those that either could care less or remain willfully (and woefully) ignorant of our basic governing philosophies on which we were founded.  Look, this is not rocket science.  In each one of our professional lives, there are bedrock axioms we just do not cross because we know only ill comes afterwards if we do.  It is my contention that the poor state of our current being is a lack of adherence to the Constitutional values.  All the confusion, all of the flack, all of the details, always always always come down to simple basic Principles.  One can should ignore Principles at their terror.  Actually, that is our terror for when our elected officials ignore them, we get bad law that affects us personally.

And in each and every case, like those above, the taking away of our Liberty happens – and we should view each and every one as a failure by our elected officials to perform their jobs a their most basic level.  Yet, as we see from the quotes, many of these folks could care less.  How far we have fallen!

The TEA Party holds, as one of its three main Principles, that we need to return to Constitutional Governance.  Simply returning to our base Principles – the REAL social compact (as opposed to the never seen one that is thrown at us by Liberals) – but for that we are slammed by the Left (that hates the idea of a limiting government) and the Establishment (that hates the idea that we keep reminding them of what they say they praise in word but ignore in deed).

All we ask is that our elected official write Law that does not violate those strictures.  If they did, they would silence us forever (but they just can’t learn that lesson).  Instead, their work is simply thrown out.  Just think if, like in the private sector where and when leadership makes bad decisions, elected Legislators suffered a bad consequence immediate to their being overruled?  Instead of only being punished once every year (or two, or four, or six)?

Everyone, ESPECIALLY Legislators, should always be mindful of Constitutional issues when drafting legislation instead of “leaving it to the Judiciary” – otherwise you get this kind of crap.  Including those lazy little heads quoted at the top; Whattsa matter, Almy & Keans, don’t want to worry your pretty little heads about it?

>