by
M.
Richard Maxson
Woodrow
Wilson was one of the first politicians to define and aggressively
advocate the
idea of a living, breathing, Constitution
in his book Constitutional Government in the United States, and
while stumping on the campaign trail in 1912. By living and
breathing, he
meant
the Constitution was written as a “dynamic” document; flexible,
so it can change with the times without
a pesky Constitutional amendment.
So
this contract with the American people is flexible.
Instead of maintaining a fixed meaning, judges, lawmakers and
bureaucrats mold its various clauses and provisions to fit the needs
of the day. Wilson
stated, “Society
is a living organism and must obey the laws of life, not of
mechanics(i.e.
the Constitution) -
it must develop. All that progressives ask or desire is permission..”
Many
Americans today falsely
view
the Constitution “is
a living, breathing document.” As a result, we live under the
largest government in history.
America’s
founding document essentially serves as a contract between the people
of the states. Through the Constitution, they formed the Union, set
up a general government to administer specific objects and delegated
to it specific, enumerated powers.
Legally,
you can’t have a living, breathing contract. Think about it. Would
you sign a living, breathing mortgage? Would you enter into a living,
breathing employment contract? Would you sign a living,
breathing agreement with a builder to put an addition on your house?
No, because you would have no idea what that contract really means.
Contractual provisions have a fixed meaning. When you sign a
contract, you expect it to remain constant over time. When
disagreements come up, both parties argue their position based on how
they understood the contract when they signed it. Nobody would accept
a any official saying, “Well, I know the contract meant so-and-so,
but now it means something different. It’s a living breathing
contract.”
People
can only live together and cooperate in a society with an agreed
upon, consistently applied set of rules. We call this the “rule of
law.” The principle roots itself in the idea that no individual or
institution stands above the law, and that rules consistently apply
equally to all people in any given situation. Rule of law creates a
bulwark against arbitrary power, whether wielded by a totalitarian
leader, promoted by mob rule, or exercised by duly elected
legislators.
The
rule of law requires consistency. Otherwise, government becomes
arbitrary. When the limits on government power become subject to
reinterpretation by the government itself, it becomes limitless in
power and authority.
That’s
exactly what we have today. The federal government makes up things as
it goes along. The feds claim to power to do all kinds of things
never authorized by the Constitution, all based on Wilson and his
miss-guided ego thinking himself above the people, above the
Founders, and above the Constitution itself.
James
Madison asserted in
his letter to Henry Lee ,the
sixth president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation,
“On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to
the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit
manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be
squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the
probable one in which it was passed.” In
his full letter Madison
wasn’t
merely making a theoretical observation, when he was actually
launching a full attack on what we would now
call
“living constitutionalism.”
So
we see, this is not a new idea. Anti-originalists
will
contend that originalism is a creation of modern conservatives.
History renders this claim false.
What
it is to the Constitution
is a cancer that is slowly destroying it. It’s
time to kill this idea of a living breathing Constitution before it
completely kills our
Republic.
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