Promising the electorate.

Authored: January 15th, 2009 @ 9:20 AM

Every person who runs for President does so for the privilege of being allowed to promise one thing and one thing only …

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

This simple sentence with its slightly multicultural “swear (or affirm)” is the only promise we demand of our president. NPR’s story brought this to mind and reading it reminds us that the Constitution is the law of the land, it is the covenant we all need to live by. It is the document that I swore to defend when I took the oath to become an Air Force officer (many years ago).

One of my favorite quotes, one that was brought to my attention years ago, reminds us that the law is the only thing that stands between us and chaos.  From A Man for All Seasons

Alice: Arrest him!
More: Why, what has he done?
Margaret:: He’s bad!
More: There is no law against that.
Roper: There is! God’s law!
More: Then God can arrest him.
Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication.
More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what’s legal, not what’s right. And I’ll stick to what’s legal.
Roper: Then you set man’s law above God’s!
More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact — I’m not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can’t navigate. I’m no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I’m a forester.I doubt if there’s a man alive who could follow me there, thank God.
Alice: While you talk, he’s gone!
More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake

This reminds us of the importance of being a law-based society.  Just as in 2000, when the law guided us to a conclusion of an election, we can expect the same in our current senatorial situation.  We watch the law, dispassionately, bide our time, and work to grow the party and educate the public.  Watch this space, it could be a rocky couple of years!

UPDATE:: The Chief Justice stumbled on the oath, Obama corrected him, but the oath was later sworn again (correctly this time). This is not the first time a president has re-sworn the oath after the fact to ensure there could be no Constitutional challenge. Of course, the added “So help me God” violates the Constitutional phrasing too, but that must be considered to be a personal touch that has no force of law.