If you are reading this and you think the United States is a democracy, and when we elect someone to a state legislature, a governor’s mansion, or to the US. Congress, they are there to serve the will of the people that elected them, you are wrong.
Did you notice that I left out the president of the United States in the lead paragraph? There is a reason I left out the president because that office is not elected by the popular vote. The president is elected by the Electoral College.
In fact, in this century, two of three presidents were elected by the Electoral College when they lost the popular vote. President G. W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore in 2000 by 543,895 votes but Gore lost the Electoral College 266 to GWB’s 271. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won a popular vote margin over Donald Trump with a total of 65,788,583 to 62,955,363 respectively, a margin of approximately 2.8 million votes (although Trump won the presidency by securing 306 Electoral College votes, 36 more than he needed to claim victory).
Has the Republican Party learned how to manipulate the Electoral College to win the White House, and does that mean the election was rigged as Donald Trump repeatedly claimed?
No matter how one is elected, elected officials do not vow to serve the people, or their political party, or whoever donated the most money to their campaign. When elected, the winners take an oath of office to defend and serve the U.S. Constitution because that document was written to protect all the people even from themselves. The problem is that too many elected officials don’t serve or defend the U.S. Constitution.
If the actions of an elected representative or even an appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice or any judge reveals loyalty to their party, a billionaire, a corporation, the people that elected them, an ideology, and/or a religion, then they lied when they took their oath of office.
How did they lie? An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: “I, _______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” – Cornell Law School
The President’s oath of office is similar: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” – National Museum of American History
The evidence is overwhelming that Donald Trump, and most if not all of his cabinet, lied when they took their oath of office, and they have already broken the oath repeatedly branding them traitors and liable for impeachment. Many members of both Houses of Congress are also guilty of violating their oath of office, because their actions and their votes brand them as loyal to billionaires, corporations, the political party they belong to, a religion, or an ideology.
Politico.com reports, “From early in his campaign, critics have been consistently astonished by his (Donald Trump) seeming indifference to the Constitution, as he has launched attacks on the press, on mosques, and on other institutions explicitly protected by the Bill of Rights. Or consider Trump’s private meeting with Republican members of Congress, when the candidate expressed his admiration for Article 12 of the Constitution, apparently unaware that there are only seven Articles.”
A little quiz to see if you learned anything from this post:
When it comes to being an American, who or what should all U.S. citizens give their loyalty to first? There is only one correct answer, and it isn’t “All of the Above,” because that is not an option in this quiz.
- The President of the United States
- The United States Congress
- The U.S. Supreme Court
- The U.S. Constitution
- The American Flag
- Apple Pie
- Your mother
- The state where you were born or where you live
- The Bible
- A corporation
- A billionaire
- A religion
- The political party you belong to
- The ideology you believe in: democracy, libertarianism, socialism, communism, conservatism, liberalism, Trumpism, etc.
The one correct answer also explains why the Catholic, libertarian Koch brothers want to rewrite and revise the U.S. Constitution that will match their interests and beliefs. PR Watch reports, “Kochs Bankroll Move to Rewrite the Constitution.”
Why is this dangerous?
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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam combat veteran with a BA in journalism and an MFA in writing, who taught in the public schools for thirty years (1975 – 2005).
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Lloyd Lofthouse 