As I See It: The perils facing the Constitution – Corvallis Gazette Times

We believe in the Constitution. It is the bedrock of our freedom and the supreme law of the land. No person great or small is above it not the president, not any of us. It establishes order the three branches of government and their functions and powers and it protects us lest the government overreach and try to take away our liberties.

We, and our Constitution, face two significant perils today: political parties have become more important to our leaders than serving all the citizens, and the First Amendment is under attack. I am trying to be nonpartisan, but let me give just one example. Vice President Pence, when he was chosen, described himself as a Christian, a father and a Republican in that order. What about being a citizen? What about serving all of the people, not just those on ones own team? Democrats are no better. If the Republicans want it, they are against it.

We have to start listening to each other. Each of us, regardless of education or economic status, knows where our individual shoe pinches and that is the genius of democracy: that each person has something to contribute. The great patriot of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine addressed this issue: He that would make his own liberty must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. What goes around comes around and if we Democrats and Republicans can think of nothing but beating each other up, our government will continue to be dysfunctional and our democracy flawed.

Here comes the civics quiz: What five freedoms does the First Amendment protect? No fair looking ahead. Here are the most important 46 words in the Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

First, religion. The government cant make you pray. Belief is off-limits for the government. It can neither favor nor persecute any religion, and that includes Islam. You can worship as you please or not at all. A uniform ban of people of a particular religion would seem to offend both ends of the religion clause.

Speech, press, petition and assembly. These four freedoms are how we avoid violent revolution. They give us the machinery to change and a democratic form of government is always in the process of becoming. The notion that there are alternative facts (namely, that if you believe something, it must be true) is totally contrary to the marketplace of ideas upon which the First Amendment is based (put all of the information out there and the truth will emerge). The founders protected the press because the people have to have accurate and timely information to govern themselves.

Petition and assembly are the other two ways we speak to power. We gather; we discuss. We march; we protest. But the government has to listen for this to work. A government with a closed and armored mind one that can not abide criticism is immune to the petitions of its citizens and is, therefore, undemocratic by definition.

My wish for us all is that we listen to each other with patience and good humor, and that we protect each others right to speak and try to persuade with facts and logic. After all, the Constitution is just paper unless it lives in the hearts and minds of citizens. So here is an exercise we can all try: each day engage a stranger on a topic you care about and actually listen to what that person says. Who knows. We might learn something.

John Frohnmayer was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts during the first Bush administration.

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As I See It: The perils facing the Constitution - Corvallis Gazette Times