Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
. . . John Adams in 1798
To Officers of the First Brigade
of the Third Division of
the Militia of Massachusetts
We without question have failed to live up to the requisite standard. That failure is demonstrated by:
* The refusal of the current president to comply with his duty under Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution that he "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." There is no exception made for laws that an incumbent president dislikes or that he finds politically inconvenient. For some of the very serious ramifications of this, see this essay.
* Tolerance of an national administration staffed at high levels by (i) individuals who routinely lie to the people they supposedly serve as well as to congress but suffer no penalty when their perjury is revealed, and (ii) individuals who have been exposed as having cheated on, and failed to pay their taxes.
* The viability of (and often even successful) candidacies for election to high offices of individuals who would have been shunned in a virtuous nation -- individuals like the dishonorable Richard Blumenthal, the U.S. senator from Connecticut who prior to his election was exposed as having falsely claimed heroic military service, not to mention the despicable Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer, who currently are back in public life, running for offices in New York State, after having been outed as sexual miscreants -- lechers and in Mr. Weiner's case also a pervert.
* Our having been content to live sumptuously first by eating the seed corn bequeathed to us by prior generations and then by borrowing and bequeathing to future generations the obligation to repay the debts we incurred to finance our profligacy.
We have been reduced to participating in a low rent sequel to the Roman Empire . . . but it all is occurring with our approval or consent.
* Tolerance of an national administration staffed at high levels by (i) individuals who routinely lie to the people they supposedly serve as well as to congress but suffer no penalty when their perjury is revealed, and (ii) individuals who have been exposed as having cheated on, and failed to pay their taxes.
* The viability of (and often even successful) candidacies for election to high offices of individuals who would have been shunned in a virtuous nation -- individuals like the dishonorable Richard Blumenthal, the U.S. senator from Connecticut who prior to his election was exposed as having falsely claimed heroic military service, not to mention the despicable Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer, who currently are back in public life, running for offices in New York State, after having been outed as sexual miscreants -- lechers and in Mr. Weiner's case also a pervert.
* Our having been content to live sumptuously first by eating the seed corn bequeathed to us by prior generations and then by borrowing and bequeathing to future generations the obligation to repay the debts we incurred to finance our profligacy.
We have been reduced to participating in a low rent sequel to the Roman Empire . . . but it all is occurring with our approval or consent.
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