Shelby Foote, a noted Civil War historian sympathetic to the South, was given a lot of air in Ken Burns' "Civil War" documentary which was all the rage in the early 1990's.

There is a supreme court ruling Texas v. White with language that says the Constitution is "more perpetual than perpetual". This was Lincoln-era political rhetoric enshrined in law by a Lincoln appointee to the SCOTUS. Commenting on this language, Foote adamantly retorted, "It flies in the face of history!"

I think one of the reasons this language became popular rhetoric is that it occurred outside living memory of the revolution and the framing. Most who were alive at the time of the framing were dead or way too old to care or do much about it by the 1860's. While many alive in the 1860's had talked directly to some who had been alive at the framing, much was already lost.

Which brings me to the current tendency to allow the POTUS to rule by executive order, essentially, by decree.

Article II Section 3 of the Constitution charges the POTUS as follows:

he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed

According to the supremacy clause, the constitution itself, legislation duly passed in pursuit of the constitution and treaties ratified by the Senate are the supreme law of the land.  These are the laws that the POTUS must "faithfully" execute.  (see presidential oath) 

Neither SCOTUS rulings nor executive orders are on that list.

Enforcing executive orders amounts to "ruling by pretended legislation", a complaint lodged against King George III in the Declaration of Independence.

Yep, such practice truly, to borrow Footes' language, "flies in the face of history!"

If "We the People" were already at the limits of living memory in the 1860's, how totally beyond living memory are we today?!

If lack of memory is part of the problem, then refreshing the memory is part of the solution.

DC Treybil

There are a lot of people who are fed up with Government. They express themselves in articles reported on in Freedom's Phoenix. They often express themselves in comments in the Freedom's Phoenix forum. Besides FP, you can look all over the Internet to find them.

Since folks want to get rid of the Government, that means they want to get rid of the Constitution, as well. So, why should Government officials obey the Constitution?

The result of everything that is going on is that the people are divided into 2 basic groups. And this is the ONLY thing that is important. There are those who think that people should obey Obama and Congress as though they were emperors and dictators. And there are those others who think that we should follow the Government, the Constitution, and limit what Congress and Obama are doing.

It seems that the military is being pulled in the direction of following Obama as Emperor. Part of the reason for this is that Obama is their Commander and Chief.

Looks like we are in for another civil war that will make the earlier one - the one in the mid 1800s - look like a picnic on the beach.