Politicians and Constitution

Much to her surprise the first few lines took her breath away.A woman not so different from the rest of us sat in her living room watching a town-hall debate between Senate candidates.

During opening remarks, one of them pulled a copy the Constitution out of his pocket and held it up to the camera.

“I’m the Constitution candidate,” he explained proudly.

He said his policies were exactly what the Framers had in mind, one-hundred percent. He would defend each of the articles and all of the amendments. “God bless the Constitution of the United States of America and my opponent is an idiot.” he concluded.

Then it was the other candidate’s turn.

She whipped out her own pocket-sized Constitution. She could recite it by heart if you wanted her to, she said. She explained that her opponent posed a serious threat to the freedoms we enjoy and that his ideas would make James Madison roll over in his grave.

As the woman watched the two argue back and forth, she wondered how politicians wearing the same flag pins, reading the same Constitution, could disagree on the basics of our democracy. It occurred to her that they might be twisting things around just to get votes. She sometimes watched pro wrestling, maybe it was like that.

The woman decided to check out the Constitution for herself. She downloaded it and started in at the beginning, with the Preamble. Much to her surprise the first few lines took her breath away.

She yelled upstairs to tell her husband Clive she was doing something, and would he mind going out to eat later than usual? Clive yelled back that he had had a late lunch and he didn’t mind at all.