Before elected officials assume their honored position of representing the people, they are required to swear an oath, and pen their signature to the written version. The sacredness of this covenant is marked by ceremony and meaningful pomp.
Every four years, we witness the very public swearing-in of the President during the inauguration. The Vice President also raises the right hand on the same day as the President. Traditionally, the Vice President also administers the oath for incoming senators in his role as President of the Senate.
Article VI of the United States Constitution reads, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.” The highest office is the only one where specific wording is constitutionally required, “I do 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.”
Both U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives take an oath that begins, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Legislators in the State of Colorado take an oath that reads, “I do solemnly swear by the everliving God, that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Colorado, and faithfully perform the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.” The commonality for all of these oaths is an emphasis on supporting the U.S. Constitution.
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I call attention to the state example of Colorado here because that is the epicenter of an imminent constitutional earthquake. The stress on the local tectonic plates began with a highly effective takeover of the Governor’s office along with the majority in both the State House and the State Senate. A targeted campaign, documented in the book The Blueprint, turned all of these strongholds from Republican to Democrat in a mere eight years.
With the last chock removed from the wheels last November, Democratic lawmakers are now passing one gun-control bill after another. And the majority party leadership recently got plenty of help from Washington to ensure that those bills passed both chambers. Overreaching into Colorado’s business, Vice President Joe Biden directly telephoned some of the more timid Democratic senators and representatives in the Rocky Mountain State with offers of re-election help to secure their votes.
Moving from the Colorado House to the Colorado Senate this week is a bill that “prohibits the sale, transfer, or possession of an ammunition feeding device that is capable of accepting, or that can be readily converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition or more than 5 shotgun shells.” Weapons accessory manufacture Magpul has threatened to relocate its operation out of Colorado if this bill becomes law. Democrats amended their proposal to allow sales of high-capacity magazines outside of the state. But that olive branch was received with all of the sincerity that was intended and at least three other states have rolled out the red carpet to Magpul (see for example www.facebook.com/BringMagpulToTexas).
The word among observers in the Denver capitol is that Republicans are winning all of the debates while losing all of the votes. Republican State Representative Chris Holbert has asserted the most instructive and compelling arguments regarding the Democrats’ disregard for the original intent of the Second Amendment. And Republican State Senator Greg Brophy boldly defied the Democratic aggression on the Senate floor with, “I do not like saying this, but I am going to tell you right now: I will not obey this law.”
This aggression by liberal politicians against Americans’ inalienable right to defend themselves is astonishing. They patently trust more in their own judgment than in the everlasting wisdom of the Founding Fathers who wrote, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Evidence of this was clearly on display back in Washington this week when United States Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) challenged Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) in her thinking on gun control. In one succinct and lucid question, Cruz put Feinstein’s intentions on trial:
“The question that I would pose to the senior senator from California is: Would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the Second Amendment in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment? Namely, would she consider it constitutional for Congress to specify that the First Amendment shall apply only to the following books and shall not apply to the books that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights? Likewise, would she think that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against searches and seizures could properly apply only to the following specified individuals and not to the individuals that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?”
Senator Feinstein responded by rambling on passionately about her qualifications and her informed perspective, but she avoided getting anywhere close to a direct answer to Cruz’s reasoning. The senator from Texas did not let her off the hook. But the arrogance of the senator from California is forever recorded for all to see and understand, effectively summed up as, “Listen here, whippersnapper. I am Diane Effing Feinstein.”
We The People should be able to trust that those sworn to support the Constitution would suspend personal expedience in order to remain true to their oath. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution reads, “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
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