February 3, 2011--Founders Intent

While expressing reverence for the Constitution and the Founders who framed it, Tea Party members, Sarah Palin and now more and more Michele Bachmann keep getting tangled up in their version of history and interpretation of what is actually in the Constitution.

The latest incident comes from a speech Congresswoman Bachmann gave in Iowa, home of the nation's first presidential caucus. (Any meaning to be read into that?)

With I-can-only-imagine tears welling up in her eyes as she looked back to her view of the revolutionary past--back to the America she wants to restore--she spoke about how long and hard our Founding Fathers worked to eliminate slavery. In her words:

We . . . know that the very Founders who wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States. I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forebearers who worked tirelessly -- men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country.

Forget for the moment that John Quincy Adams was not a "Founder"--she probably meant his father who was--forget, for the moment that our representatives do not have to be history professors; but do not forget that they and she should at least know the CliffNotes version of the history of slavery.

She should also know that with the exception of John Adams the elder every one of the Founder-presidents were slave owners: George Washington owned 317; Jefferson 237 ; Madison (the Father of the Constitution) had 118; and Monroe owned 30-40. In fact, nine of our first 18 presidents owned slaves, including Ulysses S. Grant, the great Union Civil War hero.

And Bachmann should know that we had to fight the Civil War to finally end slavery, 72 years after the Constitution was ratified, a war in which more than 600,000 Americans died.

Then, when embracing the original Constitution as if it were our secular bible, and calling for it to be followed according to the original intent of its framers, it appears that the Constitution Bachmann and Palin and the other Tea Party members are calling for us to follow strictly is the one written by our Founders. That part of it then would include the first 12 amendments since they were added by 1804, at a time when Jefferson was still president. (The remaining 15 were ratified after the Founding Fathers had passed from the scene.)

For non-history buffs who know their Bill of Rights but maybe not so much about the others, the 11th Amendment clarified the role of the federal judiciary and the 12th the functions of the Electoral College. Both corrected flaws in the original Constitution. Make note of the flaw-correcting that even our Founders, based on experience, saw the need to undertake.

In calling for the the strictest interpretation of the Founders' Constitution, I wonder what Tea Party leaders have to say about some of its quirkier parts. Quirky at least to some of us looking back on it from a 21st century perspective.

Are they still OK with both low-population and high-population states having the same number of senators? Two for huge California with its 34 million residents and the same two for Wyoming with 500,000? This, in effect, leads to functionally disenfranchising citizens in the larger states.

Are they all right with the Electoral College (in spite of the 12th Amendment corrections) that has resulted, during our history, in four presidents being designated president by them in spite of the fact that they received fewer popular votes than the losers? This happened to Al Gore who "lost" to George Bush as recently as 2000.

Are they happy about lifetime appointments for federal judges? So that, as we have too often seen, even the Supreme Court has had members serving well into their senility.

Regarding slavery, one of Bachmann's interests, is she happy with the so-called Three-Fifths Compromise worked out between northern and southern states during the Constitutional Convention? In the final language of the original Constitution it reads:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

This section of the Constitution, incidentally, was omitted when Republicans recently had the "entire" Constitution read on the day that they took control of the House of Representatives.

And of course I wonder how Ms. Bachmann and Ms. Palin feel about their original Constitution limiting the right to vote and hold public office to propertied, white men.

Perhaps the next time they are in Iowa they will comment about this.