Yes, Virginia, there is a Constitution

Dear Editor,

I am a citizen of the United States. Some of my fellow citizens say there is no Constitution. My congressional representative, a good liberal sort, tells me, "If you see it on Daily Kos, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Constitution? - Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be adults' or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, a person is a mere insect, an ant, in his/her intellect as compared with the boundless world about him/her, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. No one is greater evidence of the limitless ability of humankind to misunderstand the world than the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Constitution. It exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Constitution! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no freedom then, no civil rights, no hope to make tolerable this dark age. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which liberty fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in the Constitution! You might as well not believe in laws. You might get your president to fire United States Attorneys in order to politicize all the branches of the Justice Department, but even if you did not see the corruption, what would that prove? Nobody sees honest Republicans in public office, but that is no sign that there is no Constitution. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor adults can see, typically because Republicans have taken great pains to ship those who have seen them off to be tortured in Gitmo. Did you ever see Karl Rove dancing on the White House lawn after committing a federal offense? Of course not, but that's no proof that he didn't commit such crimes. He tends to do his dancing in a bunker under the West Wing. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the horrors there are unseen and unseeable in the world, thanks to BushCo's military grade paper shredders.

You tear apart the chambers of Congress and see what makes the hot air inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest person, nor even the united strength of all the strongest people that ever lived could tear apart. Only justice, freedom, equality, responsibility, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Constitution! Thank God! it lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, it will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

•  Happy holidays to all...

  ...and can we please get going on this already?

  by wiscmass on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:10:45 PM PDT

  •  With apologies...

    ...to then-young Miss O'Hanlon.

    by wiscmass on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:12:07 PM PDT

    •  Indeed

      Francis P. Church would be proud.

      Very well done!

      by The Maven on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:42:26 PM PDT

•  My faith in the constitution

  My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

  Barbara Jordan

  more in my diary

  by plf515 on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:15:27 PM PDT

•  Well said.

  Why aren't this letter and reply on every opinion page of every newspaper in the country. Why, I ask you.

  by revbludge on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:22:09 PM PDT

•  I wish I had your optimism.

  I think we really are on the verge of losing our democracy, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.  It's not clear to me that any of the Democrats running for the Presidential nomination have the ethical and moral fortitude, or the gravitas required to restore what has been lost.  We may be in for an extended period of darkness.

  by gizmo59 on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:29:03 PM PDT

  •  At the Risk

    of engaging in candidate-related activities, which I generally try to avoid like the plague around here, I have to say that Sen. Dodd seems to have shown the greatest commitment to the concept of restoring the Constitution to its rightful, central place in the American political system.  It's certainly something that he gets very animated about.

    But on the whole, I share your concerns.

    by The Maven on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:46:06 PM PDT

    •  You have a point there.

      But what's his likelihood of winning the nomination?  Every time he acts to defend the Constitution, he gets a surge in the straw poll here, but it doesn't last.  What's up with that?

      by gizmo59 on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 09:00:12 PM PDT

      •  Sadly, What I Think

        it shows is how little most voters seem to truly care about the Constitution.  Oh, I don't mean to suggest that they're indifferent to it, but merely that the degree to which it's been horribly abused during the Bush Administration (abetted mostly by Congressional Republicans, though the Dems sure haven't been putting up much of a fight) really hasn't sunk in yet.  And unfortunately, by the time they all realize what's been going on, it may be too late to completely recover.

        As for Dodd's campaign, I can't say I understand what's going on there.  That he didn't even bother to submit nominating petitions a couple weeks ago to get on the primary ballot in New York State does make it seem like his presidential bid exists only in fits and starts.  It's puzzling.

        by The Maven on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 09:11:19 PM PDT

  •  I Really Think the Verge Was Some Years Ago

    Fortitude is not really the issue. For a couple of them there is clearly a pretty aggressive policy to keep everyone concerned about these issues beyond the reach of a ten foot pole.

    by Gooserock on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:53:50 PM PDT

•  sometimes i wonder.....

  can it live with its heart cut out?
  
  larger version

  by nonnie9999 on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 08:43:00 PM PDT

  •  Yup.

    US District Court Judge John Shabaz held Tuesday that my arrest for collecting ballot access signatures on the grounds of the PUBLIC University of Wisconsin was valid. Appeal to the 7th Circuit coming soon.

    by ben masel on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 09:29:44 PM PDT

    •  That's truly frightening! (n/t)

      by gizmo59 on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 10:11:04 PM PDT

•  Does that mean we are living George Bailey's

  vision in It's a Wonderful Life?  You know, the part where he gets to see what the world would be like without him, and discovers life is worth living?

  We are getting a taste of what the nation looks like when not enough people in our government believe in the Constitution.  

  Me, I'm ready to go back to Bedford Falls now.  

  by Femlaw on Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 09:05:30 PM PDT

•  Excellent work, wiscmass!

  I hope you'll consider sending it to newspapers like USAToday, and sites like Common Dreams. This deserves a wide audience. Thank you!

  by Ekaterin on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 01:17:52 AM PDT