Constitution in Crisis

Conservatives must stop putting imaginary restrictions on themselves from wielding power and protecting the Constitution.

This past Sunday marked Constitution Day, where on September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was signed by delegates to the Philadelphia convention. Debate has recently erupted in Conservative circles over the significance of the Constitution. Some believe the document is infallible, holding to a version of Constitutional interpretation, originalism, that was invented out of thin-air in the 1980s that has no grounding in historical precedent or reality. Others believe that the document has failed to protect our rights and political traditions. With all this said, however, what actually is the Constitution? 

Over the last several decades, not only have the rights of all Americans been violated, but the fundamental nature of the American political order has shifted in favor of an older, European-style of politics. So today, in our post-Constitutional order, we must ask, is the Constitution of 1789 viable, and do we even need it today? If the document is such a great guarantor of rights and political tranquility, why has it failed to conserve our most basic liberties?

Yes, we need the Constitution. There is no alternative, and why exactly should there be? I am sorry to disappoint some who were looking for a more revolutionary answer. I am certainly not the first to put this idea forward, but it is true that the words on the paper are proportionate to the rulers that enforce them and the people that abide by them. We need the document to effectuate our vision just as much as it needs us to survive for the next generation.

Today, the problem is not so much the words themselves as our inability to live up to them. The true constitution in any polity is the unwritten one — the customs, traditions, and culture that make and define a people. However, underlying this assumption is a more pressing demand: before there can be a tradition, written or unwritten, there must be order, which is what we ultimately lack today and why our frame of government is not working.

This brief essay is not intended to be an outline of how to reestablish American order. Instead, I hope to appeal to those on the American Right who are afraid to use the Constitution to their advantage. A certain group of right-liberals hold to the aforementioned originalist interpretation of the Constitution, gripping tight to a lost sense of strict constructionism, separation of powers, and federalism.

Most of these concepts are fine in and of themselves. The problem is that none of them exist in practice anymore — not least to the Left, anyway. The American Left ruthlessly persecutes its political opponents with flagrant disregard for our political tradition and norms. If the ruling class does not believe in the Constitution, can it really be said to exist at all?

While right-liberals and Republicans fear the use of state power and clamor over the rule of law, procedure, and above all, argue that if we somehow just decreased the power of the federal government, everything would be fine, the Left wins. Not only do they control the written mechanisms of government, but the unwritten culture as well.

Therefore, I would like to present an alternative. Fight for the Constitution. Stop holding to abstract principles about “small government” and the limited use of power. Stand up and fight. If any semblance of a limited state, political rights, and self-government are the goal, they will not be won back from the Left by doing nothing, echoing talking points on Twitter, and dreamcasting a utopian, libertarian political order that never even existed historically or at the Founding. Every great regime in history has been birthed by those who were willing to force political change. The American Republic will not be saved by cheap talking points, platitudes, or hoping for success at the ballot box. Fight the Left on their own turf and go on offense.

For those arguing that the Constitution failed, they too miss the mark. We failed. We let our elite corrupt themselves and the entire nation’s political tradition without batting an eye. For those arguing that the Constitution must be replaced, I would like to see what exactly they would replace it with, especially in terms of compatibility with the American people and tradition. If we want to be practical, however, we need to use the powerful, federal mechanisms of the Constitution to our just ends of the common good, just as it was designed.

Maybe the thing that we can all agree on the Right is that our political traditions, heroes, and Founding Fathers are worth revering and heeding their wisdom. They build this country, after all. If we are truly to be the heirs to our republic, founding, and great traditions, which themselves were built on a foundation of revolution, then we must do whatever it takes to annihilate liberalism.

The Constitution is a glorious document with the means of establishing political order, both then in 1787 and now. While the document will survive in name and the Left will at certain times pay homage to it, insofar as it remains an idol rather than a weapon of the Right, everything it says will remain ink on paper. Honestly, would either George Washington or Thomas Jefferson say we need to sit back and allow the Left to destroy our country in the name of “principles?” We cannot forget that words also build empires. The Word became flesh. We just need the courage to take our ideas that we have put on paper and make them a reality.

If one side will not play by the rules, there are none. Conservatives must stop putting imaginary restrictions on themselves from wielding power and protecting the Constitution. If one side will not follow it, make them. If you do not, you will lose the document and your rights in the process.

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