OBy Marcus Morrill
Guest Columnist

ur country has been experiencing consequences that are the direct result of two branches of government acting as one. With the Supreme Court as the final arbiter, I fear that the state of the union is in peril.

Being in an undeclared war against an ideology (terrorism) without any definable success cannot be won and justification is not believable. The cost in human suffering has been intentionally obscured from view.

It is audacious to state that we have to give up our liberties to be secure. To explain, making laws that circumvent the Constitution as a measure to preserve liberty is a false representation of the role of government. It is an attempt to permanently gain control of the people.

The Weimar Republic, a constitutional democracy in Germany, ended with a power grab in 1933. Immediately following a fire set by the Nazis which burned the German Legislature building, the Reichstag, a decree was issued that suspended their constitution under the guise of being under the siege of communists.

After quoting a provision in the Constitution, which permitted suspension of the constitution in a time of urgency, it was decreed that:

“It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom (habeas corpus), freedom of opinion, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.”

While it is possible that the administration was legitimately placed in power it is also possible to then abuse that power by using it illegitimately.

The Revolutionary War was fought for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The Declaration of Independence states: “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”

Since consent to be governed has already been given through the election process one might believe that “we the people” are powerless. But to the contrary, when no other options are possible, it is the election process that ultimately is the way to redress grievances.

The Republican Party, having occupied all three branches of the government, has yielded bad laws and ill-concealed attempts to compromise the Constitution. The only way to reverse these usurpations is to overturn them through the Supreme Court and by replacing much of the Congress in order to institute new protections for the Constitution’s principals.

If we cannot maintain commitment to being bound by the Constitution, we have no self-government. Lacking this, we the people are at the mercy of a government that has no conscience.

In a time when globalization and diversity are imminent, what unites the people could never be more important.

The best things that corrupt congressmen can do for the country is resign and allow for the principled to rise up and govern with honesty and integrity. They should do it now and let us make our way back to being a constitutional democracy.

Marcus Morrill is a University employee. Please send comments to [email protected].