When I
was 16, my grandmother and I travelled to Washington DC for a union
conference. While there, we visited The
National Library. Situated in a rotunda,
enclosed in a case of bullet-proof glass and argon gas, lay the original
documents that founded our country. My
grandmother stood behind me as I read the original words of the Declaration of
Independence and the United States Constitution, encouraging me to connect with
our ancestors who founded Jamestown, and fought as patriots of this
nation. Thomas Jefferson stated, in the
Declaration of Independence, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments,
long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes.” The founding fathers did not take the
creation of our country lightly.
“We the people,” begins the
document that guides the three branches of our Federal government. Laid out, in plain, are the words of our
founding fathers as they formed “a more perfect union.” With 26 amendments, the United States
Constitution is a meaty read, but an important one, especially with the current
political climate.
I sometimes feel as if this
President has ripped those precious documents to shreds and imposed his own
will, rather than that of the people who created this country and the documents
they left behind. He seems to forget
that he swore to uphold the constitution in his inauguration. Our constitution gives him limits; limits he
seems to ignore every day. He enabled
interference in the 2016 elections, he used his office to try putting pressure
on his political opponents, he flouted the system of checks and balances by
dictating the terms of his own impeachment and he is interfering with the
justice system now, by pardoning political supporters and tweeting official
policy.
What would our founding fathers
have thought about this interference? Of a President who makes policy on Twitter and
flouts the checks and balances that enabled this 245-year-old document to
survive the test of time? It’s hard to
know, but I believe that the answer potentially lies in The Federalist Papers,
which I encourage all Americans to also read.
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Grade: 9/10
Professor Comments: (highlights the last sentence) Given how few Americans have even read the Constitution, this may be hoping for too much.
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