The American Spectator

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Mike Dooley /p> p> DEFENDERS OF THE CONSTITUION br> Re: Lisa Fabrizio's You Say You'll Change the Constitution : /p>

Ms. Fabrizio submits an interesting column. One is tempted to uncritically agree with her thesis and simply move on to the other columns. I find myself unable, however, to do that. Ms. Fabrizio ends her missive thusly; "It's not the U.S. Constitution that has been found wanting; it is those who have sworn to uphold it."

No, Ms. Fabrizio, that is precisely the wrong conclusion to reach. Those who are sworn to uphold the Constitution, i.e. the politicians, are merely playing by the rules of the game as they find it. Surely, one can not blame the standard issue pro or college basketball player if fouls for traveling, charging, palming the ball, hanging on the rim, etc. are not called. They are simply playing the modern, obscene version of the game as the referees are administering the game. Also the referees are only calling the game the way that the various leagues and ruling bodies dictate. The leagues are only responding to the modern basketball fans and the ghettoized version of the game that they demand. The rules will be enforced, or not, in direct accordance with the wishes of the fans, as expressed by their purchase of tickets and their tuning in on their TVs, and their various messages to the league offices, however delivered. Similarly, if baseball fans voted with their dollars to reject the obscenity of a designated hitter and actually make pitchers play the entire game, the designated hitter would be gone in one season. If the fans actually took effective steps to demand that batters NOT come to the plate wearing all kinds of body armor so that they can hang body parts into the strike zone, AND if the umpires actually refused to award first base to a batter who gets hit by a ball delivered actually in the strike zone, as the rules call for, then batter's behavior and mechanics and positioning would change in a NY minute.

So it is with our politicians. If the majority of voters actually voted to punish those that make a mockery of our Constitution, then the politicians would change their tactics in the blink of an eye. Politicians simply respond to what gets them elected and re-elected so that they can pull down significant salary and benefits without having to actually work for a living in a respectable job. The majority of our American society totally agrees with the TV ad that intones that, "I want it all, and I want it now." Politicians legislate by earmark because that is what their constituents demand. You have another column in this issue relating to the trouble that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is in. What is his sin? Why it is injecting some economic discipline and good government principle into the government of the state. That is NOT what the "I want it all, and I want it now" crowd wants or will accept.

p>Ms. Fabrizio, we get EXACTLY the kind of government that we demand. No the kind that we SAY that we want, but the kind that we vote for every election. Who cares what we SAY that we want? It only counts when you determine what we will actually vote for on Election Day. When it comes to our egotistical, arrogant, semi-criminal politicians and bureaucrats (and that is a whole other essay), the problem is that we have met the enemy, and he is us." br> -- Ken Shreve /p>

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