With all of the turmoil, destruction of property, and unnecessary deaths in our United States Capitol last week, I thought it might be a good time to review some basic constitutional standards and American history.
Generally, the American Revolution began in 1775 due to excessive taxes upon the 13 colonies and lack of representation in British Parliament. Due process in the court system was also greatly lacking. Great Britain was deeply in debt and decided to tax the colonies to get out of debt.
The Stamp Act (taxing nearly everything on paper from business licenses to newspapers), the Townshend Act (taxing paint, paper, lead, glass, tea) and the Tea Act (allowing East India tea to be shipped to the colonies duty-free but taxing it upon arrival) eventually led to events such as the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party. As colonists grew ever weary of taxation without representation, King George III and Parliamentary ministers increased their stranglehold on the colonists, which eventually led to outright war. Cue names like John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere.
Interestingly, neither George Washington nor Benjamin Franklin supported the Boston Tea Party, viewing dumping all of that tea into Boston Harbor as going “too far.”
These and other formative events led to the Declaration of Independence in the Second Continental Congress in 1776, with the famous second sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
After the American Revolutionaries won the war, the United States Constitution was created and later ratified in 1788, which laid out the framework of government such as the three branches of government, separation of powers, a bicameral Congress and state rights and responsibilities. The preamble to the U.S. Constitution reads:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It has been hailed as one of the greatest documents ever written.
Since then, the U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times. The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution and was a compromise for anti-Federalists who sought to tamp down on too much perceived federal power. We can thank Virginian James Madison for much of this work. These include guarantees for personal freedom and rights, limits on the government’s powers in judicial proceedings and ceding all other rights to the states and the people.
Within the first ten amendments is the First Amendment, which reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The original framers of the Constitution were extremely careful in the selection of each word in every sentence of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Note that Congress would not be allowed to make any law to abridge the freedom of speech or the right to peaceably assemble. The United States Supreme Court has reviewed these particular portions over the years and has limited certain extreme speech (such as obscenity and inciting imminent lawless conduct) and has shot down governmental attempts to limit or otherwise restrain peaceful assemblies.
What occurred last week at the U.S. Capitol was an affront to the very foundations of our democracy. What we witnessed was an abhorrent display of the misuse and degradation of the right of free speech and the right to peaceably assemble. Imminent lawless conduct was stoked and encouraged at the highest level and the very structure of our democracy was subsequently disrupted and attacked.
The world watched in horror and dismay at the all too quick unraveling of American government. Interestingly, the United States annually spends 740 billion dollars on national defense yet a marginal group of fomented rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol in a few hours, led in part by a shirtless man with horned headgear and a spear.
The Declaration of Independence was written to shake off the shackles of an oppressive, dictatorial King and Parliament. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights layout specific personal freedoms, checks and balances on the government, and create clear separation of powers in order to prevent the chaos that occurred last week. In the end, we are a nation of laws, elected representation, due process, and fairness.
That is what separates us from banana republics and dictators. Many impartial courts ruled on the fairness of the presidential election and we must stand by those rulings. Regardless of your party affiliation, no American can support rogue, radical insurgents overtaking the halls of Congress simply because an election did not go their way.
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