The Constitution

This week's issue of "Time" magazine features a cover story concerning the Constitution of the United States. Attached to the article is a poll of Americans conducted at the behest of the magazine, measuring public opinion on four controversial matters. Here are the questions and the findings.

1. Should the Constitution be interpreted narrowly as the founders presumably intended or is it a living document to be interpreted in light of current conditions. Respondents supported the "broad" interpretation by a 54-41 margin.

2. Should a woman be entitled to a legal abortion in the first few months of pregnancy? The public voted "yes" by a 64-35 majority.

3. The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to everyone born in the United States. Should it be kept or altered? By a 62-35 margin, Americans want to keep the Amendment as is.

4. Does the president need Congressional approval for his current actions in Libya? Here the public said the president does need the approval of Congress 50-44%.

What intrigues me is that the first three questions show majorities for the positions usually associated with the Democrats. The fourth question also shows most people want to restrict the president's war powers, in the past part of the Democratic canon, though now exercised (or abused) by a Democrat in the White House.

So why is it that the Republicans continually and forcefully advocate unpopular positions while the Democrats, with a majority favoring their argument, always seem scared of their own shadows?

The article itself, written by Richard Stengel, presents four more issues that are in the news and argues the Constitutionality of national government action in all four of them. They are:

1. The war powers of the executive. Essentially the argument here is that presidents have been using the armed forces of the United States since the time of John Adams without Congressional approval. (In the Marine Corps hymn, the words ". . .to the shores of Tripoli" appear, a reference to Thomas Jefferson's campaign against the Barbary pirates, for which he had no Congressional declaration of war.) In fact, Congress has declared war only five times in our history, though they did authorize the two presidents Bush to use force in Iraq. Presidents must be able to commit US troops when Congress is out of session, or in emergencies.

2. The debt ceiling. Congress is empowered to borrow money on the credit of the United States, and according to the 14th Amendment, the public debt shall not be questioned. This is taken to mean the federal government cannot default on its debt. Congress must either raise the debt ceiling or immediately balance the budget. Since no one truly expects the government to balance its books next month, the only thing Congress can do is raise the debt limit. Arguing against raising the ceiling is empty posturing.

3. Congress is empowered to regulate interstate commerce. The question here concerns the Constitutionality of "Obamacare," the Health Reform Act. Mr. Stengel contends that the government can manipulate the tax code to insist that everyone carry health insurance or pay a higher tax rate.

4. Citizenship. As already noted, all persons born in the USA are citizens here, a different procedure than what exists in most other countries. People who would like to change or revoke the amendment or parts of it point to "anchor babies" who allegedly are conceived as a dodge to prevent deportation of the parents. Stengel believes this doesn't happen very often and when it does it usually involves illegal aliens who have been here for quite awhile and have become integrated into our economy and society.

Local conservative columnist Mike Rosen takes the article to task in this morning's "Denver Post," claiming the Constitution limits the powers of the national government rather than expanding them. It's true that the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, do circumscribe federal powers, but the body of the document authorizes government action, it doesn't limit them. Mr. Rosen needs to go back and do some remedial reading.