Leaders need a better understanding of Constitution

Carol L. Cooper | Las Cruces Sun-News

Midterm Election Day, indeed, was a good day for “democracy” (majority rule), not only in Doña Ana County and New Mexico, but I think for our United States in general. Unfortunately, a loud “democracy” is not the goal in the United States; instead, “we the people” should see in election results a reflection of an engaged, thoughtful “constitutional republic.”

Our United States Constitution (Article IV, Section 4) stipulates that “the United States guarantees to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” Now quoting Noah Webster from his paper “An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution.” October 17, 1787: “In a republic, the Constitution protects rights which cannot be taken away by the government even if it has been elected by a majority of the voters.”

“The first object of the Constitution is to unite the states into one compact society for the purpose of government. If such union must exist, or the states be exposed to foreign invasions, internal discord, reciprocal encroachments upon each other’s property-to weakness and infamy, which no person will dispute, what powers must be collected and lodged in the supreme head or legislature of these states? The answer is easy: This legislature must have exclusive jurisdiction in all matters in which the states have a mutual interest. There are some regulations in which all the states are equally concerned-there are others, which in their operation, are limited to one state. The first belongs to Congress-the last to the respective legislatures….However flattered each state may be by its independent sovereignty, we can have no union, no respectability, no national character, and what is more, no national justice, till the states resign to one supreme head the exclusive power of legislating, judging and executing, in all matters of a general nature. Everything of a private or provincial nature must still rest on the ground of the respective state constitutions.”

The US Constitution preamble 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 of the United States of America.”

Our Constitution is the “law of the land” based on “matters of a general nature” — the law that prescribes the job descriptions of the Executive Branch (President and his/her cabinet), the Congress (House of Representatives and Senate), and the Judiciary (Supreme Court and lower courts) and withholds certain powers from the States.

When our elected representatives take their oath of office, “I will faithfully execute (the office) to the best of my Ability, and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” and in fact do faithfully execute the office and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, “We the people” are free to bear the responsibility, do the work necessary, and reap the rewards of living our private lives in these United States. Freedom from private ills (poverty, ignorance, illness, etc) is not the promise of our Constitution; rather, our Constitution enables each of us to use the resources God has provided to secure the means to productive, peaceable lives.

As recipients of the Blessings of Liberty for many generations, let us as citizens 1) pray and trust God for his Will (in His Way, in His Time) to govern policy-making at all levels 2) commit ourselves to refreshing our knowledge of the Constitution to discern what public policy our elected representatives in Washington and our state capitols should be deliberating 3) insist that our representatives refresh their knowledge of the Constitution before they begin their policy-making sessions and not venture into the “private and provincial” (for example, representatives in Washington confine their efforts to Article 1, US Constitution, 4) tend to our own private and provincial matters, and 5) prepare our children, grandchildren to take on their responsibilities in our “constitutional republic”.

Carol L. Cooper is president of the Republican Women of the Mesilla Valley.