Imagine playing a board game with friends that no one has ever played before without rules. Sounds chaotic and confusing, right? How can anyone play the game and have a good time? They wouldn’t.
When we broke away from the British Empire in 1776, our founding fathers had a blank slate to formulate the rules of our country. They declared independence from an oppressive monarchy, and they wanted something completely different, distrusting any centralized body of government. As a result, in 1777, the founders first wrote the Articles of Confederation, which some refer to as our “first constitution”.
The Articles of Confederation, however, gave the states too much power and the national government had too little power to keep the union intact. After ten years of difficulties, in 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, and our founders wrote the Constitution which gave a federal government the few and defined powers to keep our union intact. Ratified in 1788 and in operation since 1789, our Constitution remains in effect to this day.
But what if I don’t agree with some of its rules? Two of the best parts about our Constitution are that, unlike most games, the rules can be changed by its citizens.
Article V of our Constitution clearly states the people have the unique ability to amend the document and change the rules it contains. In fact, we have amended it twenty-seven times. The Constitution we have today differs from the document that governed our laws in the 18th century. Our founders could not foresee the future of our country, but clearly wanted to provide the ability to modify the Constitution should circumstances require it. If we could not amend our Constitution, we would, impractically, have to rewrite it all over again.
Secondly, American federalism divides power between a central government and state governments. Our federal government has few and defined powers, and as defined in the Tenth Amendment, must yield all others to the states. This also means, when originally written as well as today, the people can live amongst those with similar values. Furthermore, when decisions are made closer to home at the local level by those who live there, democracy remains more direct, relatable. and efficient. In other words, it remains easier to have your voice heard by your local city council member than by the President of the United States.
Thus, the beauty of federalism lies directly in its few and defined powers. Theoretically, this should allow us to share one nation together–e pluribus unum, or out of many, one–rather than divide ourselves into an “us vs. them” dynamic, as we see today. At the end of the day, we should care very much about who holds political office in our local government. In fact, we should care more about those who run our city council and our mayor’s office than those vying for President of the United States. Unfortunately, though, the inverse proves our current reality. The federal government holds so much power which rightfully belongs to states and local governments.
Moreover, our rights come from God and not our government. Why? If our “inalienable” rights, such as freedom of speech, come from the government, then the government can take them away. However, if our rights come from God, no government can take them away.
Equally important, our God-given rights give us power. No one can tell you what you can and cannot say, nobody can prevent you from defending yourself or from travelling where you would like to go. If your government assumed you guilty, locked you up and threw away the key prior to your day in court, you would feel quite powerless. And like a North Korean.
Thankfully, our founders wrote a constitution that forbids taking away our God-given rights. We have the right to act as free men and women as long as we don’t infringe on the rights of others, and any politician or form of government that attempts to do so tramples on the individual power that we have as free and private people. Remember, our government works for us, we the people, not the other way around.
In conclusion, we must reread and re-dedicate ourselves to our Constitution if we wish to honor its inspiration, its time-tested, and time-proven provisions.
