Nix the Fix; Resolve to Solve

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For years now I have, with a timorous mixture of humor and disappointment, watched those on ‘my side’ of the political aisle do Constitutional aerobics on issue after issue. We let problems, easily solved with constitutional diligence, fester for years and years until they run their natural course of destruction on our republic and then with exasperation and complete absence of insight, we invent a ‘fix’. We have in fact become addicted it seems to the elixir of the ‘fix’. What is the fix? It is simply a device to ignore our laziness and ignorance. We take this beautiful machine of a constitutional republic and we add device after device to succor our selfish desires for it to do more than it was intended. What results is a Rube Goldberg government that is inefficient, incompetent, oppressive and disastrously expansive. Why is it so hard for American citizens to simply read the U.S. Constitution and determine whether their representative is respecting the limitations placed on government by that document, and vote accordingly? To go beyond selfishness, ignorance or laziness is impossible for me to infer.

The latest boondoggle fix is the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. This is supposed to cure our politicians’ inept attempts to control themselves when it comes to doling out government largesse in return for votes. Never mind that the government has no business doling out largesse in the first place. Where in the Constitution is the clause that invests the federal government with the power to send checks to citizens? Citizens who have not prepared for ill health, old age or acts of God are an unfortunate drag on society and have to be dealt with in some manner. However, this is not the purview of the federal government. Fellow citizens may of their own good will decide to assist such citizens. People close to the individual cases of the individual citizens are best equipped to determine the worthiness of said effort. By abrogating our duty as citizens to a federal bureaucracy we invite corruption, fraud and waste. It is no wonder that the outcome is eventual bankruptcy both monetarily and morally. So as we find ourselves at the eve of destruction of the greatest nation conceived by Man, we conflate fixing something with solving it, and propose an amendment to make the corrupt, power-hungry and dishonorable politician, prudent, honorable and decent again. Does anyone in the real world of common sense believe that politicians who have taken this nation to brink of civil war for their own personal power and accommodation are not going to find ways around a ‘balanced budget’ in order to appease the voters appetite for other people’s money? The problem is not the politicians. The problem is the people who would trade dignity for dollars and are perfectly willing to re-elect corrupt politicians who disregard the U.S. Constitution they swear to uphold. Our politicians are a reflection in the mirror. The problem: unconstitutional government redistributing prosperity. The fix: a Balanced Budget Amendment. The solution: government within the confines of the Constitution, personal responsibility, education, virtue, principled voting. Can you not see the futility of amending the Constitution to fix our disregard for the Constitution?

Another perennial fix is the term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In order to save us from our inability to stop voting for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans willing to sacrifice this nation’s solvency for their own power and financial gain, let us amend the Constitution to say we cannot vote for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans more than three times. There. That should do it, No?!? Here’s an idea; don’t vote for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans. Jus’ sayin’. The Founding Fathers warned us in very lucid terms that all Men are corruptible, that government by its very nature will devolve into despotism, that therefore we must be vigilant, educated and virtuous in order to be self-governed. If we cannot be so we deserve not the Liberty given us by our Creator, but the chains of slavery.

A contemporary fix is the amendment to the Constitution to describe what marriage means. How impossibly idiotic is this notion? The Constitution, the most revered document known to Man to espouse the relationship between the government and the People who loan it the power to protect our Lives, Liberty and Property, is relegated to a dictionary for the purpose of reminding a wayward generation of their millennial religious history! Marriage is a bond mutually agreed upon, blessed by God for the purpose of tranquil societal relationships in order to raise safe and well adjusted children. Five thousand years ago when the Jewish people were roaming the desert, we had marriage. Long before any government bureaucrat inserted themselves into the equation. The government has no business whatsoever involving itself in this traditional religious custom. Churches have religious freedom in America. If a church decides it wants to reject God’s admonition against homosexuality, then it should be allowed to marry whomever they want. It is then for the community and the congregation to decide if they want to support or protest that church. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech will prevail. The government’s only role is in providing security for the rights of its citizens to engage in these freedoms. In the end, it will be God who decides the sinners and saints. As for equality, what right does a hospital have to tell a patient that someone he/she cares for cannot visit them? That is the patients right to determine, not some hospital administrator. What right does an insurance company have in telling someone who the recipient of their insurance policy should be? What possible difference should it make to a company whether they pay patient A or patient B? Again, if the government would get out of the way with the exception of protecting our rights this problem would solve itself through societal negotiation. We propose an amendment to the Constitution to alleviate the problems associated with the governments unconstitutional intrusion into the People’s lives and communities.

My friends I challenge you to think beyond the empirical characteristics of any problem. Think in terms of the role of the People as opposed to the role of government. Think not of how to change the Constitution but think instead of how to honor the Constitution. Nix the fixes; resolve to solve our problems with a finality that protects the Liberty of future generations. I respectfully submit to you here that in every case; The Solution is the Constitution.

by: Keith D. Rodebush