The Constitution needs much more than Constitution Day
You’ve probably heard the term “post-constitutional era” before. It describes a political order in which the Constitution still formally exists, but its limits no longer meaningfully restrain government as they once did or were intended to. The enormous growth of the administrative state is often cited as direct evidence. Curtailing that power is just one of the main aims of the Center for Practical Federalism.
We all know that Washington routinely spends and intervenes in areas that would be difficult to imagine under a plain reading of the Constitution’s text, which limits the powers of the national government in favor of the states and people.
That is worth thinking about during America’s 250th anniversary. Much of America250 has rightly focused on the Declaration of Independence and the principles proclaimed in 1776. But those principles eventually required a more forceful governing structure capable of protecting liberty while continuing to restrain political power.
But the Constitution cannot enforce itself. Its limits matter only if citizens and public officials believe they are worth honoring, including when those limits frustrate their own political goals or ambition.
President Reagan often pointed out that even the Soviet Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression on paper, reminding us that written rights mean little when a political system refuses to honor them. And as former federal judge Janice Rogers Brown once warned in an address to the Philadelphia Society in 2010, the Constitution is a fragile fortress because it is “only as strong as our devotion and allegiance.”
So how do we cultivate liberty and fidelity to the Constitution? The Constitution cannot do that work by itself. Those commitments are cultivated much closer to home, in families, churches, neighborhoods, civic institutions and communities where people learn the habits of self-government and what a virtuous citizenry looks like. This is one reason hyper-progressives do not mourn the decline of civil society: The fewer buffers that exist between the individual and government, the easier it becomes to advance their political agenda.
But there is good news out there too. I’m encouraged by all the new civic renewal centers popping up on college and university campuses. The Hamilton School at the University of Florida in Gainesville is likely the most notable example. The Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at Ohio State University is another one. I wish they had institutions and centers like that when I was attending a public university.
At American Habits, I interviewed Steven Skultety, the director of the Declaration of Independence Center at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford.
There is a lot of positive creative destruction happening in K-12 education, whether it be through taxpayer funded school choice and parents just being more proactive and thinking critically about education.
When Clarence Thomas spoke at the University of Texas at Austin for America250, he didn’t just cheerlead for America but reminded us of the very real threats to American freedom and what that looks like. He reminded Americans they need to have the courage to defend the principles that made and makes this country so great. That is a great reminder for Constitution Day. We can’t merely cheer on the Constitution but be a people willing to protect and sacrifice for those principles.
At the end of the day, faithfulness to our Constitution and founding principles ultimately depends on a culture capable of sustaining freedom.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat