Law of Excluded Middle: Either the
Constitution Does or Does Not Work

Is Constitution a piece of paper? Every school child has been taught that the Constitution is inviolate. Nearly every president, Congress and Supreme Court has determined that the Constitution is anything but inviolate! The modern debate vacillates between these two extremes. As Lysander Spooner aptly pointed out, either the Constitution is the source of our government or it is simply a template without power except as given to it by its current interpreters. There are no other options, this is the Law of Excluded Middle. One is either saved or one is lost, there is no other option in the Bible would be another example of this law. But, we must satisfy the Law of Identity; that is, we must define our word Constitution and look at its historical source through the eyes of those who wrote the document.

Founding Fathers Guided by Rome's Constitutional Example

It is assumed that Rome began as a monarchy; however, this is improbable as the kings had Etruscan names. What was to become Rome was settled by Etruscans as the basic city is laid out in usual Etruscan fashion. The Etruscans did not speak/write an Indo-European language but settlers whose origins remain unknown did speak an Indo-European dialect. The Etruscans were prolific traders and quickly dominated the region which today is known as Tuscany. The people who would be known as Romans adopted many Etruscan practices such as Bema or Judgment Seat, aqueducts, sewage systems, gladiator games and governmental styles. The Etruscans elected their kings for life rather than have the usual hereditary monarchy. What made the Romans very unique was their willingness to adopt and adapt the customs of others for their needs. This hid their origins even from themselves which resulted in the development of the Romulus-Remus mythology to legitimize their beginnings and justify their expansionist policies.

The Romans broke away from the Etruscan monarchy system and developed an electoral system based on three branches of government with distribution of power to prevent the concentration of power in one office or one person. They based their government on both unwritten and written policies which they defined as their Constitution. Their unwritten policies would be familiar to us today as Common Law or precedence. The framers of America's government were classically trained. They would have known of Rome's government and constitution through various surviving works. They also borrowed from England's Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. They viewed pure republicanism, Articles of Confederation, as a failure. This is why the delegates defied their mandate to correct the Articles' problems by throwing it out and developing a Roman style Constitution. The framers wanted to limit federal government expansion to avoid following Rome into an empire-type government. They also sought to avoid a democratic government which was historically viewed as mob rule which would facilitate a slide into tyranny. However, these men were divided between state's rights and federal rights. Very few of these men were Christians though they adhered to Judeo-Christian values which mirrored the tension contained in the Constitution.

Constitution begins, "We the People..."
It Should begin, "We the States..."

Public education has taught, read conditioned, the people to believe that the Constitution represented government for the people. Nothing could be further from the truth! Historically, government has always been the rule of the few over the many supposedly for the good of all. Plato envisioned a philosopher-king, free from any checks on power except his own conscience, to guide the warriors and workers of society. Today this would called a dictatorship. Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution were meant as inclusive instruments. The weaknesses of both documents were apparent at the time but remained unaddressed; i.e., they violated the Law of Identity and swept their issues under the rug. These conflicts in interpretation plague America today showing the fallibility of these documents and their writers.

Leading Scholars and Legal Experts
Teach the Flexibility of the Constitution

The Constitution contains three clauses that have been the primary means for thwarting its power limiting provisions. They are: Necessary and Proper Clause; Commerce Clause; and the General Welfare Clause. Each of these clauses were undefined, violating the Law of Identity {purposely according to Andrew Napolitano, author of Hamilton's Curse}. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Marshall began setting precedence to undermine the written aspects of the document to expand federal power. Again, inherent tension between the written and unwritten would be used to expand power just as occurred in Rome. The Republicans under Lincoln rewrote history with the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln placed the origin of the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence to legitimize his war of power expansion. In fact, it had been the independent and several states that agreed to and gave birth to the Constitution. This speak, and Lincoln's war victory, weakened the Constitution while strengthening federalism. Progressivism was the fruit of this victory with its subtle national socialism of the 20th century.

Government: A Growing Entity
Power is Never Relinquished

Both Republicans and Democrats have been disingenuous during the 20th century to the present. Government is a separate entity and like all entities, it never relinquishes power; it never shares power, especially with the people. Today's conflicts are simply one form of socialism against another; if both sides were honest. One side claims to be for the people when demanding a strict interpretation of the Constitution. The reality is that this is simply a national socialism movement seeking consent of the people to prevent violence. The other side claims to be for the people and incites mob violence as the will of the people in establishing a socialistic government that will become inclusive in global or international socialism. Crises are manufactured to maintain a state of unrest to further these competing aims. Terms and accusations are bandied about purposefully defying the Law of Identity.

This corresponds to the Roman Civil Wars period in the above graphic. Confidence in government deteriorated as government used domestic violence to increase personal power and war emergency measures to refocus attention abroad. Mob riots were quelled with promises of free bread and cheap money but only if government power was supported. Individual leaders arose promising fixes that only consolidated their power. Eventually from this confusion arose one person to rule. Caesar made the mistake of being too obvious but his adopted son was more subtle and was voted as princeps, or first citizen of all citizens. Thus began the Empire and the failure of Rome's constitutional government.

Pledge of Allegiance to U.S. Socialism
Defended by Antisocialism Conservatism