A People United in Their Constitutional Understanding Can Never Know an Unjust Government

I know that I haven’t posted anything in over a month but that doesn’t mean that during that time I haven’t given thought to many issues.  With elections coming up in a few months we, the voters, should be thinking of these issues in preparation of making a decision in regards to these issues.

Most of the prominent issues of today deals with the idea of who has the Constitutional power and authority to make decisions in regards to the issue in question.  From the position taken by a lot of persons it would appear that they have little regard to the value of a Constitutional government.

This lack of regard for the Constitutional authority may simply be the lack of understanding of what a constitution is or they consider the issue so important that dealing with the problem takes precedence over the abiding by the Constitution.  Another influence would be that the problem is considered to be so urgent that people are unwilling to address the issue in a constitutional manner.

The most basic understanding of the meaning of a constitution is that it is a legal and moral contract.  It is consider a legal contract in that every court in the land has the obligation to uphold the provisions as declared within that constitution.  It is a moral contract in that it declares who has the authority to make the decisions in regards to any issue that might be righteously determinable.

In order for a constitution to have any meaning it must recognize that men have a free  will in regards to their decisions for no contract can be considered as valid unless all parties enter into that contract willingly and consensually.  It would also mean that men are willing to accept the responsibilities that is inherent in the making of their own decisions.  This would mean that no one can deprive another man of the benefits that may result from those decisions as well as each individual must be willing to accept the consequences of their own decisions.

If the above is considered as a truth then the concept of determinism or as some would say, predestination, cannot be used as a defense for their decisions.  It would also deny that circumstances outside of one’s control dictates or is the cause of particular decisions as some would claim.

In order to understand the purpose of a constitutional government we must first accept all of the above premises.  With the acceptance of all of the above premises we will understand that contracts can only be entered into by persons for only individual persons can possess the above attributes.  We know that only individual persons can violate the terms of a contract and only persons will seek disregard the terms of the Constitution when enacting laws.

We know then, that a constitution is a contract between the people who rule and those people ruled.  We know that only those people who rule will seek to disregard the terms of a constitution because it is they who are limited in addressing the problems of a society not the people ruled.  We can also say that just because the people who are ruled are in agreement with those who rule on any issue doesn’t justify disregard of the terms established within a constitution. 

This, in turn, recognizes  that the people must be united in the meaning and understanding of those terms within that constitution.  And if we are to recognize the justness of a constitution then it must remain consistent in its meaning and understanding for as long as the people recognizes its existence and declare that the people should abide by it.  Without this, the rule of law cannot exist for it no longer exists for the benefit of the people ruled.  It can only exist for the benefit of the people who rule.