As Our Birthday Beckons...

More than a hundred years ago, so-called "Progressives" began a campaign to undermine the Constitution's strict limitations on government, which stood in the way of self-anointed political crusaders imposing their grand schemes on all the rest of us. That effort to discredit the Constitution continues to this day, and the arguments haven't really changed much in a hundred years.

The cover story in the July 4th issue of Time magazine is a classic example of this arrogance. It asks of the Constitution: "Does it still matter?"

A long and rambling essay by Time magazine's managing editor, Richard Stengel, manages to create a toxic blend of the irrelevant and the erroneous.

The irrelevant comes first, pointing out in big letters that those who wrote the Constitution "did not know about" all sorts of things in the world today, including airplanes, television, computers and DNA.

This may seem like a clever new gambit but, like many clever new gambits, it is a rehash of arguments made long ago. Back in 1908, Woodrow Wilson said, "When the Constitution was framed there were no railways, there was no telegraph, there was no telephone,"

In Mr. Stengel's rehash of this argument, he declares: "People on the right and left constantly ask what the framers would say about some event that is happening today."

Maybe that kind of talk goes on where he hangs out. But most people have enough common sense to know that a constitution does not exist to micro-manage particular "events" or express opinions about the passing scene.

A constitution exists to create a framework for government -- and the Constitution of the United States tries to keep the government inside that framework.

The elite have forever hated our Constitution, as it leaves no ground for true royalty. And Mr. Stengel of Time magazine...being  liberal down to the fiber of his genetic being...knows in his heart of hearts that the smart, sophisticated people should but snap their smart and sophisticated fingers to get things done, regardless what we, the dumb and unsophisticated happen to think about it.

King George was a lot like that too.

The Constitution itself is a wonder of simplicity. Simply ask yourself, what would a free man of good will do, and bingo, there's the answer to every question in the known universe.

"Free" being the operative word. A word Mr. Stengel and his liberal brethren despise.