I came from a shithole (USSR) and, like most immigrants, do a job native-born Americans won’t—defending the Constitution.

Ilya Shapiro

Our so-called constitutional conservatives treat the national charter the way a certain kind of Christian treats the Bible: They like to carry around copies of it, to wave it at their rivals, to talk about it, and to treat it as a kind of magic item — but if you should suggest they actually read it or apply it, well, that sounds awfully idealistic.

It is painful, and a little embarrassing, to listen to conservatives try to rationalize President Donald Trump’s plainly illegal attack on the government of murderous Syrian caudillo Bashar al-Assad. Each rationalization is shallower and sillier than the last.

. . .

One of the things that are supposed to distinguish conservatives from progressives — and once did — is an abiding respect for, even a cherishing of, process. Woodrow Wilson and his ilk despised the Constitution, just as our would-be political-speech police despise it today, because it stands in the way of what they believe to be the right thing. And no doubt it sometimes does stand in the way of the right thing — the point of the Constitution is to create a political order with a particular character, not to ensure that we get our preferred outcome in every federal matter. To see conservatives adopt the outcome-above-order attitude in a matter as important as launching a preemptive war in Syria is dispiriting.

Congressional Republicans have two choices: One, they can censure the president and insist that no further action be taken without legal authorization. Two, they can stop calling themselves “constitutional conservatives,” because those who knuckle under now are no such thing.

Censure the President

Ozymandias

The Title of Nobility Clause is a provision in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution that forbids the United States from granting titles of nobility and also restricts members of the government from receiving gifts from foreign states without the consent of the United States Congress.

“What do you do?” may be the No. 1 question asked in[side] the Beltway. It achieves two things: It gives the asker the opportunity to brag about their own job title and lets them know whether the person they’re talking to is worth their time.

Job titles and associations are the lifeblood of D.C. You’re no one unless you have a title, whether it’s “congressman,” “ambassador,” “chief of staff,” or an impressive title at a firm or media company. Unlike most jobholders in America, poli­ticians in D.C. get to keep their titles for life. Think about it: You can be the CEO or vice president of the largest corpora­tion in America, but once you leave that job, so goes the title. In Washington, D.C., you can have the title of “president,” “congressperson,” or “senator,” and that is your title for life. It doesn’t matter if you were a terrible congressperson who served only one term; you will forever be referred to and in­troduced as a “congressperson.”

It’s bizarre perks of D.C. power such as this that draw thou­sands of young, type-A recent college grads to Washington — out of a desire not to serve our country but to get a title. And if you don’t have a title, good luck getting someone to talk to you for longer than two minutes. Washington is a town ob­sessed with titles and where being an obnoxious blowhard is socially acceptable. But it wasn’t always like this, and it’s cer­tainly not what our Founding Fathers envisioned.

A Country Steeped in Humility

obnoxious blowhards and Ozymandias.

. . . we can all feel patriotic about fighting pirates.

Shut Up, Have a Cheeseburger

[The Congress shall have Power] To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

Maritime Crimes Clause – Article I Section 8, Clause 10 of the Constitution

Continue reading ‘Pirates!’ »

Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

–James Madison, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention on Control of the Military, June 16, 1788 in: History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, vol. 1, p. 130 (H.B. Grigsby ed. 1890). (Google Books)

James Madison, 4th President of the United Sates, is known as “Father of the Constitution” and “Father of the Bill of Rights” (1751-1836)

James Madison, Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States. Portrait by John Vanderlyn

Born March 16, 1751, Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly.

When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia in 1787, the 36-year-old Madison took frequent and emphatic part in the debates.

Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist Papers. In later years, when he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison protested that the document was not “the off-spring of a single brain,” but “the work of many heads and many hands.”

In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact the first revenue legislation. Out of his leadership in opposition to Hamilton’s financial proposals, which he felt would unduly bestow wealth and power upon northern financiers, came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party.

Source: James Madison – White House

When James Madison’s second term as president ended in 1817, he and Dolley retired to Montpelier. In retirement Madison stayed active and interested in politics. In 1819 he founded the American Colonization Society dedicated to freeing slaves and transporting them to the West Coast of Africa. Madison served on the board of visitors at the University of Virginia, and briefly came out of retirement at the age of 79 to attend the 1829 Virginia Constitutional Convention. On June 28, 1836, James Madison died at Montpelier at the age of 85 and was buried in the Madison Family Cemetery on the mansion grounds.

Source: “James Madison: Retirement and Death,” James Madison’s Montpelier

Books

• “James Madison and the Making of America,” by Kevin Gutzman
• “James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation,” by Jeff Broadwater
• “James Madison,” by Garry Wills
• “James Madison,” by Richard Brookhiser
• “Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, The Bill of Rights, and The Election that Saved a Nation,” by Chris DeRose
• “James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights,” by Richard Labunski
• “James Madison: A Biography,” by Ralph Ketcham
• “Origins of the Bill of Rights,” by Leonard W. Levy
• “The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction,” by Akhil Reed Amar
• “America’s Constitution: A Biography,” by Akhil Reed Amar
• “The Federalist Papers,” by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
• “The Federalist Papers In Modern Language: Indexed for Today’s Political Issues,” by Mary E. Webster
• “James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic,” by Jack N. Rakove and Oscar Handlin
• “The Last of the Fathers: James Madison & The Republican Legacy,” by Drew R. McCoy
• “The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic,” by Lance Banning
• “James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government,” by Colleen A. Sheehan

More

• The Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier
• American President: James Madison (1751–1836) – The Miller Center at the University of Virginia
• James Madison’s Montpelier
• James Madison – Wikipedia
• James Madison – White House
• James Madison at Wikiquote
• James Madison – Internet Public Library
• The James Madison Papers, 1723-1836 – Library of Congress
• “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785)”
• James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation