What Is Your View of the US Constitution?
Thomas Allen
Do you view the US Constitution as the one that the founding fathers gave us? Or, do you view it as the one given us by Lincoln and the Radical Republicans as furthered developed by Presidents Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and carried to fruition by the Warren Court and especially Justice William Brennan, which is the current Constitution. To find out how you view the US Constitution, take the following test. The answers follow the test.
Test
1. Did the United States precede the States, or did the States precede the United States?
2. Can the United States exist without the States?
3. Does sovereignty reside in the United States (and, therefore, in the people thereof) as a whole, or in each State individually (and, therefore, in the people of each State)?
4. Currently, how many “we the people” are there?
5. When the Constitution was adopted, how many “we the people” were there?
6. Does the Constitution establish a national government or a federal government?
7. Are the United States a republic or a union of republics?
8. Is a person a citizen of a State by virtue of being a citizen of the United States (his loyalty is first to the United States and then to his State), or is a person a citizen of the United States by virtue of being a citizen of a State (his loyalty is first to his State and then to the other States, the United States)?
9. Was the Constitution written for a propositional (creedal) country or for a genetic country?
10. Should the Constitution be referred to as the “Constitution of the United States of American” or the “Constitution for the United States of America?”
11. Does/do the “United States” take a singular or plural verb?
12. Does the General Welfare clause grant Congress the power to enact any law that it considers being for the general welfare, or is this clause intended to restrict the powers of Congress?
13. Does the Interstate Commerce clause give Congress the power to regulate manufacturing, agriculture, mining, finance, employment, the environment, and all other production and consumption activities, or does it restrict Congress’ power just to regulating the trade and exchange of goods?
14. Does the Necessary and Proper clause grant Congress the power to enact any law that it finds convenient or useful, or does it restrict Congress to enacting incidental laws necessary to execute the powers delegated to Congress?
15. Does the Supremacy clause empower the US government to ensure that federal laws and treaties have precedence over State laws and State constitutions, or is its purpose to ensure that federal laws implementing the powers specifically delegated to Congress are constitutional?
16. Does the President have the authority to legislate by executive orders?
17. Can the President execute an offensive war without a Congressional declaration of war?
18. Does a State have the right to judge the constitutionality of laws of the US government and to interpose and nullify the laws that it finds unconstitutional?
19. Does a State have the right to secede?
20. Does the Constitution grant the US government the power to do whatever it wants to do unless the Constitution expressly prohibits such action, or does the Constitution limit the powers of the US government to those powers expressly granted?
21. Do States have only those powers that the US government allows them, or do States have all powers that the Constitution has not expressly denied them?
22. Does the Constitution authorize the US government to intervene and interfere with the internal affairs of a State?
23. Does the Bill of Rights apply to the States?
24. Does the US Supreme Court have the right, duty, and power to amend the Constitution with its rulings?
25. Is the Constitution teleological (establishing a society based on abstract principles of natural rights, equality, democracy, etc.) or nomocratic (bring government under the rule of law)?
Answer
1. Lincoln: The United States preceded the States.
Founding Fathers: The States preceded the United States.
2. Lincoln: Yes, the States are irrelevant administrative districts; just as a State can exist without counties, so can the United States exist without the States.
Founding Fathers: No, if the States ceased to exist, so would the United States — just as the union formed under the Articles of Confederation ceased to exist when North Carolina and Rhode Island finally seceded from it and acceded to the union formed under the US Constitution.
3. Lincoln: Sovereignty resides in the United States as a whole.
Founding Fathers: Sovereignty resides in each State individually.
4. Lincoln: One.
Founding Fathers: Fifty.
5. Lincoln: One.
Founding Fathers: Thirteen.
6. Lincoln: National government.
Founding Fathers: Federal government.
7. Lincoln: Republic.
Founding Fathers: Union of republics.
8. Lincoln: A person is a citizen of a State by virtue of being a citizen of the United States.
Founding Fathers: A person is a citizen of the United States by virtue of being a citizen of a State; a citizen of the United State means a citizen of a States.
9. Lincoln: Propositional (creedal); therefore, it was written for all races.
Founding Fathers: Genetic; it was written solely for the White (Aryan, Homo albus) race (species) and for no other race.
10. Lincoln: The “Constitution of the United States of American.”
Founding Fathers: The “Constitution for the United States of America.”
11. Lincoln: Singular.
Founding Fathers: Plural.
12. Lincoln: The General Welfare clause grants power to Congress.
Founding Fathers: The General Welfare clause restricts the power of Congress.
13. Lincoln: Yes.
Founding Fathers: No, the Interstate Commerce clause limits Congress to regulating trade and exchanges of goods.
14. Lincoln: The Necessary and Proper clause grants Congress the power to enact any law that it finds convenient or useful.
Founding Fathers: The Necessary and Proper clause restricts Congress to enacting incidental laws.
15. Lincoln: The purpose of the Supremacy clause is to empower the US government to ensure that federal laws and treaties have precedence over State laws and State constitutions.
Founding Fathers: The purpose of the Supremacy clause is to ensure that federal laws implementing the powers specifically delegated to Congress are constitutional.
16. Lincoln: Yes.
Founding Fathers: No.
17. Lincoln: Yes.
Founding Fathers: No.
18. Lincoln: No.
Founding Fathers: Yes.
19. Lincoln: No.
Founding Fathers: Yes. (By 1791 the States had already seceded twice: once from the British Empire and once from the union created by the Articles of Confederation.)
20. Lincoln: The US government has unlimited power.
Founding Fathers: The powers of the US government are restricted to those powers expressly delegated to it.
21. Lincoln: The States have only those powers allowed.
Founding Fathers: The States have all powers not denied them.
22. Lincoln: Yes.
Founding Fathers: No.
23. Lincoln: Yes.
Founding Fathers: No.
24. Lincoln: Yes.
Founding Fathers: No.
25. Lincoln: Teleological.
Founding Fathers: Nomocratic.
Scoring
If you agreed with “Lincoln” 20 or more times, you view the Constitution as the one Lincoln gave us. If you agree with the “Founding Fathers” 20 or more times, you view the Constitution as the one the founding fathers gave us. However, if you agree with “Lincoln” less than 20 times and with the “Founding Fathers” less than 20 times, you may suffer from some kind of dissociative disorder — at the very least, you are inconsistent or perhaps ignorant.
Copyright © 2021 by Thomas Coley Allen.
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