Happy Constitution Day! – RedState

We live in an age in which there’s a commemorative day for almost something and every part one might presumably think about. For occasion, September 17 is acknowledged as National Apple Dumpling Day, National Professional House Cleaners Day, National Monte Cristo Day, and so on.

Although some people would possibly assume it mandatory to have fun these trivial issues on this day, I consider September 17 needs to be recognized without end as Constitution Day.

On this day, 238 years in the past, the U.S. Constitution was formally signed by 39 daring, good delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Less than a yr later, the newly minted Constitution was formally ratified by 9 of the 13 states, making it the supreme law of the land for the United States of America.

Amazingly, the U.S. Constitution has stood the take a look at of time. In fact, it’s “the world’s longest surviving written charter of government.”

Despite its longevity, many Americans are woefully ignorant of the Constitution. Last yr, almost one-third of U.S. adults couldn’t title all three branches of authorities under the Constitution. Approximately 20 p.c couldn’t determine a single proper protected by the First Amendment, whereas only 7 p.c might determine all 5: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, proper to meeting, and the precise to petition authorities.

This is a unhappy state of affairs; however, I must admit that I’m far from stunned.

Civics training in the United States has gotten short shrift in current years. Trust me, I do know from first-hand expertise. Not that long in the past, I used to be a high faculty social research instructor at public colleges in Illinois and South Carolina.

Specifically, I taught programs such as American Government and U.S. History and the Constitution. While I used to be excited to educate my college students about the great features of our nation’s founding, I used to be undoubtedly in the minority.

To my chagrin, the final narrative espoused by virtually all my colleagues was that the U.S. Constitution was a hopelessly flawed and outdated doc written by racist, sexist, slave-holding white males to perpetuate their privilege and energy at the expense of all others.

That is sort of a slender view of the Constitution, not to point out traditionally inaccurate.

Make no mistake, the Constitution was not excellent. After all, it was crafted by fallible males who had been keenly conscious of their shortcomings and inherent flaws.

The Founding Fathers studied historical past. They discovered from the errors of their elders. They knew that the federal government constitution they created wouldn’t be excellent.

However, they did all that they might to study from the errors of historical Greece, Rome, and other short-lived republics in shaping what would ultimately turn into the U.S. Constitution.

Men like George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton compromised, cooperated, and ultimately crafted a wonderful legal framework for a new nation.

They foresaw a world in which basic rights and liberties could be protected by a restricted, consultant authorities.

They put in place ingenious mechanisms like checks and balances, separation of powers, the rule of law, republicanism, well-liked sovereignty, and federalism to guarantee that energy was decentralized.

They added the Bill of Rights to guarantee that particular person and state rights had been inviolable. Even better, they knew that the Constitution they had been creating would need to be revised in the future. So, they included different methods in which amendments to the Constitution might be enacted when mandatory.

Nearly 240 years later, the U.S. Constitution stays the world’s best authorities constitution. It has been used as a guiding gentle for quite a few nations as they’ve sought to chart a comparable course.

But the U.S. Constitution is exclusive. It can’t be merely copied and applied. It is more than just phrases. It is an ethos, an preferrred.

In its most simple kind, the U.S. Constitution embodied the unconventional thought for its time that “We the People” can “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.”

Happy Constitution Day, America!

Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.

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