Has it gone unnoticed that the Congress of the United States has been unable to negotiate and create laws in recent years or enact a budget as required in the Constitution; but rather have been spending a bulk of their time prosecuting and adjudicating persons and acts– a function of the Judicial branch of government? Conversely, how many people believe it is the Supreme Court’s responsibility to make new law by reviewing cases before it and voting amongst themselves to establish legal precedent?
These are just a couple of misapplications of the U.S. government structure that many people mistake for responsible governance. But how would you know that?
Recent political discourse has been spectacularly uncivil and the media coverage has been intentionally over-hyped to drive ad sales– leading regular citizens of our great country to conclude all governmental regulation is throttling personal success, and all persons outside of our their own political, religious, ethnic or sexual group are out to get us. We could look to address our common problems as a group with the Constitutional structure our forefathers built for us, but many among us are just looking for “the guy” who can fix all our problems.
Former Supreme Court Justice, David Souter calls this “the way democracy dies.”
Justice Souter identifies civic education being the single most important initiative needed to solve our community’s problems and save our country from oblivion. Pervasive civic ignorance of the Constitution of the United States and the structure government today is the fault and the responsibility of us all. An American who truly understands how our government is supposed to work is more resistant to divisive campaign rhetoric or sub-media hype. We all can make more rational decisions about our leaders and the quality of their work if we take the time to learn about our country and engage in its success.