Support, Defend, Preserve, Protect

And Maybe Know What You're Talking About?

This is a 2018 video of the swearing in of public officials where I live. Give it a listen, and if you’re the impatient type just hop ahead to 5:31,

Note the key promise of the oath, in which the new office holders

…do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States…

I served in the U.S. Army from 1977-1983. under the promise

…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…

We spend billions of dollars on our federal elections, including the election of a President who will

…solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

What are some provisions of this Constitution that so many swear to support, defend, preserve and protect?

How about just the First Amendment?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

In our overheated politics, there are efforts — sometimes taken by those who have sworn to uphold the Constitution (and sometimes through captured “private” interests) — to restrict the free exercise of religion, to censor speech, and to silence a free press.

The climate is unfortunate, but there appears to be increased public awareness of the First Amendment as the controversies become too loud to ignore.

Several studies show increasing public knowledge of the content of the First Amendment. And unusual alliances across political lines are speaking up for free speech and other rights that restrain the state.

Loyalty to the Constitution will not bring happy clappy unanimity to a diverse and contentious America. That’s not why the Constitution was framed.

But defense of the Constitution will maintain the pressure releases of individual, municipal, and state decision making that limit those who would impose utopian or, more often, crassly selfish or tribal agendas on the unwilling.

And defense of the rights enumerated in the Constitution will frustrate the efforts of those who are traitors to their oath to preserve and protect it.