The following Opinion is by C. Augustus Landis
“Interpreted as it ought to be, the Constitution is a Glorious Liberty document” –Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
This quotation of Frederick Douglass was his response to William Lloyd Garrison, the fiery abolitionist who burned the Constitution in protest over slavery. Douglass believed there was no need to tear up the Constitution or re-write it because it was a Glorious Liberty document. There are those today who wish to re-write or re-interpret the Constitution to right the perceived wrongs of a capitalist society and to establish new rights in accordance with a socialist agenda. They call themselves Socialist Democrats and social justice warriors but their end is always the same… power and control.
It can be argued the division in America today is greater than any time in our history, including the Civil War. Then, the fundamental issue was the Constitutional issues of disunion and slavery. Today, the existential issues are dueling views on the Constitution, populism, and liberty vs. the threat of the Socialist Democrat ideology. This essay addresses the first of these issues in a continuing series on issues related to the 2020 elections.
In reading the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution it is easy to imagine two of the greatest political philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries were sitting at the table: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1794). Indeed, all of the founding fathers had studied their treatises’ on natural law, civil government, liberty, and the social contract.
In “Of Commonwealth” (Part2 of the Leviathan, published in 1651), Hobbes writes that in the beginning man lived in a state of nature where there are no laws. Because of conflicts between people, by “mutual consents”, man enters into a commonwealth where absolute rule is by a sovereign which may be a monarch or an assembly. There is no separation of powers and no appeal to a legislative body or judiciary. The founders and thirteen royal colonies in America rebelled against the King of England, Parliament, or any kind of absolute sovereign.
John Locke rejected the ideas of Hobbes and believed that man, living in a state of nature, had certain natural laws of life, liberty, and property. Man had a right to live, be free, and to own that which was produced by his labor. If he grew a crop or built a dwelling on a piece of land it was his property. Any laws beyond these natural laws must be by mutual consent and man had a right and obligation to rebel if laws were abusive of authority.
The first paragraph of the Declaration speaks to it being necessary to break the bonds with England (rebel) because of abuse of authority, absence of consent, and… to assume …”the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Natures God entitle them.” The second paragraph says it is self-evident that all men are created equal and are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Locke was very much a part of the conversation. The Declaration then lists 27 abuses and usurpations by the King of England constituting absolute Despotism and Tyranny. Imagine in 1776 Hobbes making the argument for Loyalists and Locke making the case for as it was to be.
Note. The right of property Locke asserts refers to the right to own what you acquire as the product of your labor. The founders were concerned this property right might be taken to mean everyone could demand government give them land as a matter of right. Meaning , however, remained as was Locke’s intent. Most certainly, neither Locke or the founders did not mean “the pursuit of happiness” to mean every man had a right to the fruits of labor of others (equal outcomes instead of equal opportunity).
Because the Constitution submitted to the States for ratification did not enumerate rights they believed important and necessary, ratification was conditioned on amendments to include enumerated rights and unenumerated rights reserved to the states and/or the people. Assuredly they did not mean a right to all the free stuff Socialist Democrats now consider rights.
Today, the Democratic Socialists are trying to lead us back to the absolutist sovereignty of Hobbes via the administrative state with judicial allowance of the Chevron Deference (deference to experts) in the vast bureaucracy , promotion of the dialectal materialism of Marx, the utilitarianism of the administrative state, and identity politics of intersectionality.
Originalists, or textualists, believe the words written in the Declaration and the Constitution should be read and interpreted today as meaning and understanding was when written. Those who believe in a living Constitution believe the Constitution should be read and interpreted to meet the exigencies of today. For example, in America’s Unwritten Constitution, 2012,AKIL Amar, acclaimed professor of Constitutional Law at Yale, argues the amendments and interpretations since ratification constitute an unwritten Constitution with many new rights to be addressed based in good measure on who has the power.
In The Second Founding (2019), Eric Foner, historian at Columbia University and and contributor to the Nation, argues the Reconstruction Amendments ( 13th,14th, and 15th Amendments) constitute a second founding and the Civil Rights interpretations constitute a second reconstruction. Also, the New York Time’s 1619 Project endeavors to re-write our history and founding from 1776 t0 1619, when first slaves arrived in Virginia, and to have this be taught in all public schools.
Consider, also, the initiatives now pursued by the Socialist Democrats relating to the founding documents as written vs. a living Constitution:
Article 2, Sec. 1. The Electoral College. The Socialist Democrats think half of population (republican/conservative) is “deplorable”. Parts of the country between the large Democrat urban areas is fly over country populated by “deplorables.” Therefore we must eliminate the constitutional guarantees of representative government provided in the Constitution by the Electoral College and change to direct popular vote in presidential election. Thus, vote of large democrat controlled cities will determine and the flyover parts disenfranchised. Thus, for example, Los Angeles County would have a larger voice in deciding election of President than 43 states.
First Amendment. Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech, of the press, or right of the people to people to peaceably assemble. While Congress has made no law limiting free speech or assembly, there is an abundance of evidence showing that free speech and assembly of conservatives is suppressed on college campuses. Trump has taken action by executive order restricting federal funds for this abridgement, but Congress has not. The Left has asserted the right to censure speech they do not agree with or is not politically correct.
Surveys show 95% of reporters vote Democrat and same percent report negatively on Trump. Coverage on some issues favorable to Trump or Republicans are ignored or time devoted is negligible. CNN,,MSNBC, NY Times, and Washington Post, appear to have no other purpose than promoting leftist agenda, over rule the 2016 election and removal of Trump from office.
Second Amendment. Right to bear arms. While this would require a Constitutional amendment, there is a constant demand for regulations to accomplish same.
Fifth Amendment. Due process. While the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing was not a trial, every Democrat Senator voted against confirmation on basis of belief in accuser in spite of absence of proof or witnesses. Again, in the impeachment hearing of Trump in the House and trial in the Senate, while not criminal/judicial trials, due process in the proceedings was much abused in the House, and in both House and Senate the vote was on party allegiance. High crimes and misdemeanors to the Socialist Democrats was reduced to unenumerated offences being whatever a majority of their polity said it was.
Those who believe in a living Constitution also believe there is need of a an ever evolving unwritten Constitution and new “founding’s”. These to be based on inclusion of rights and social justices as perceived in other countries and cultures.
AS Franklin said, we “have a Republic if we can keep it”, Douglass said, the Constitution is “ a Glorious Freedom Document”, lets keep it and interpret as it ought to be and intended.
About the Author
As this following communication from myself to a member of the New York state assembly on 8 May 2020 makes incandescently clear, in New York state, at least, and I believe in the Commonwealth, as well, Constitutional government has fallen, without a peep or shot being fired, and as a result, the Hobbessians and Democratic Socialists have won in a bloodless coup, to wit:
Assemblymember Carl E. Heastie
LOB 932
Albany, NY 12248
RE: the Cuomo Concentration Camp Bill
Dear Mr. Assemblymember:
In the course of conducting a forensic examination as a New York State licensed professional engineer further qualified to practice in New York State as an associate level public health engineer into the actions and/or inactions of New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker on and after 8 January 2020, when he was notified by the CDC in a Health Alert Network notification that COVID-19 represented an emerging public health threat, I came across a very disturbing Assembly Bill now known in upstate New York as the “Cuomo Concentration Camp Bill,” which piece of legislation bore your glowing endorsement, to wit:
New York State Assembly
Speaker Carl E. Heastie
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A99
SPONSOR: Perry
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the public health law, in relation to the removal of cases, contacts and carriers of communicable diseases who are potentially dangerous to the public health
end quotes
In the body of the “Cuomo Concentration Camp Bill” which you are a champion of, it states as follows, to wit:
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2120-a to read as follows:
§ 2120-a. Removal and detention of cases, contacts and carriers who are or may be a danger to public health; other orders.
end quotes
Speaking as an associate level public health engineer who was twice commended in writing in 1988 by then-New York State Health Commissioner Dr. David Axelrod for my integrity and knowledge of the New York State Public Health Law, the Sanitary Code, and the history of public health in New York State coupled with the fact that I wouldn’t bow to political pressure to take bribes or condone bribes taken, with respect to carriers who are or may be a danger to public health, PHL §2100 confers broad authority on local boards of health and health officers (commonly the local commissioner of health) to deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases, to wit:
1. Every local board of health and every health officer shall guard against the introduction of such communicable diseases as are designated in the sanitary code, by the exercise of proper and vigilant medical inspection and control of all persons and things infected with or exposed to such diseases.
2. Every local board of health and every health officer may:
(a) provide for care and isolation of cases of communicable disease in a hospital or elsewhere when necessary for protection of the public health and,
(b) subject to the provisions of the sanitary code, prohibit and prevent all intercourse and communication with or use of infected premises, places and things, and require, and if necessary, provide the means for the thorough purification and cleansing of the same before general intercourse with the same or use thereof shall be allowed.
end quotes
Search as I might in the “Cuomo Concentration Camp Bill,” I could find no justification from either yourself as Speaker of the Assembly, or Assemblymember Perry as to why this authority is being shifted to Andrew Cuomo, who is not a public health professional of any sort, by training or experience.
So I am asking you as the individual who has endorsed this legislation as to why you did so, given this following language in your endorsement of this legislation, to wit:
Subdivision 3 requires that any person or group removed or detained by order of the governor or his or her delegate shall be detained for as long as the department may direct.
end quotes
By what authority do you as a member of the New York Assembly who took an oath to support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of New York, grant Andrew Cuomo the right to order “groups” of people to be detained for as long as Howard Zucker may direct in a medical facility or other appropriate facility designated by the governor or his or her delegate?
What exactly is an “other appropriate facility” designated by the governor?
A work camp?
A re-education camp?
A Gulag?
An internment camp?
Or is it whatever the governor wishes it to be at the moment, based on a whim, or intestinal gas caused by a bad case of indigestion?
And whom exactly are these “groups” that you and Assemblymember Perry are intent on removing from society with this “Cuomo Concentration Camp Bill, where in section 2, Assemblymember Perry states that Governor Cuomo may order the removal and/or detention of such a group by issuing a single order, identifying such persons by a reasonably specific description of the group being detained?
What precisely is a “reasonably specific description of the group being detained” as you and Assemblymember Perry envision it?
Persons of Jewish extraction, perhaps?
Or homosexuals?
Or perhaps Caucasian males between the ages of 18 and 65?
As to the source of my concerns as a life-long New York State resident, grandfather and disabled combat veteran with this very un-American piece of legislation which bears your endorsement, I would refer you to a Gothamist article entitled “Albany’s Dead-Of-Night Coronavirus Vote Gives Cuomo Sweeping New Emergency Powers” by Ross Barkan on March 5, 2020, where we upstate resident learned, to wit:
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the state legislature approved $40 million in emergency funding to help contain the COVID-19 outbreak in New York.
Buried within the legislation is a provision that has alarmed progressive lawmakers and advocates: an extraordinary, broad, and little-understood expansion of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s emergency powers.
“I’m scared or concerned because I don’t know what the governor has in mind,” said Assembly member Richard Gottfried, the longtime chair of his chamber’s health committee.
With the support of both legislative leaders, the emergency funding bill overwhelmingly passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly and State Senate.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate Majority Leader, and Carl Heastie, the Speaker of the State Assembly, pushed for its passage, overriding the concerns of the health committee chairs in both chambers.
The whole process was rushed, in typical Albany fashion.
Word came Monday afternoon that legislation would be coming to the floor from the governor’s office, Gottfried said.
The state’s health commissioner, Howard Zucker, had met with Assembly Democrats for a briefing, making no mention of the need of additional emergency powers.
The Assembly and Senate hardly debated the bill.
It passed both houses after midnight, with little time to read it or seek outside counsel.
end quotes
We call that the night our Constitution died, and for us older veterans who came into the world at the time of WWII or shortly after, what took place that night in Albany reminds us all too much of the Reichstag Fire Decree which is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 28 February 1933, which decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens and was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered “friendly” to the Nazi cause.
That decree was considered by historians as one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany, and we are clearly concerned that you are trying to use this legislation you are pushing to make Andrew Cuomo a dictator in fact and to establish a one-party fascist state here in New York, which takes us back to that Gothamist article, as follows:
The definition of disasters is general enough that critics fear Cuomo, a governor who already enjoys aggressively wielding executive power, can abuse the new law in a wide array of circumstances to override existing law.
“It’s a reckless expansion of executive power,” said State Senator Julia Salazar, a Brooklyn Democrat who voted against the bill.
end quotes
And it most certainly is a very reckless expansion of executive power which demands an explanation from yourself as the champion of the “Cuomo Concentration Camp Bill” to the citizens of upstate New York as to what your motives are in giving Andrew Cuomo, who according to the Albany Times Union (see,”Churchill: This is Andrew Cuomo’s finest moment – New York’s governor has been the nation’s most authoritative voice during the pandemic” by Chris Churchill, March 22, 2020), governs by inspiring fear, not love, this dictatorial power to put “groups” of us in indefinite detention, as if this were Iraq under Saddam Hussein, as opposed to a free state with a Republican frame of government in the United States of America, which takes us back to the Gothamist, as follows:
Part of the challenge of understanding the expansion is the lack of specificity in the bill language.
Since the governor already has expansive emergency powers, adding more could theoretically justify all kinds of maneuvers, like the declaration of martial law, unilateral travel restrictions, and mass quarantines.
The limits are largely unknown.
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, a Manhattan Democrat, said Cuomo’s expansion of emergency powers deeply concerned her as an Asian-American legislator.
“One of my mentors was born inside an internment camp,” Niou said in an emotional Instagram video, referring to the unlawful detention of Japanese-American citizens during World War II.
“I have an innate fear of what would happen if we allow our government to be able to weaponize fear and to be able to make a directive and have the power to order private citizens to do something without any checks and balances.”
end quotes
I too share her fears about your allowing Andrew Cuomo to weaponize fear and to be able to make a directive and have the power to order private citizens to do something without any checks and balances, as if he were a reincarnation of the tyrant George III of England, which is why I am requesting from yourself an explanation as to why you are trying to turn New York state into another Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Uganda under Idi Amin.
Thanking you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter, I remain
Respectfully,
Paul Plante, PE
Wayne Creed is a fucking idiot. Why would anybody listen to him?
Note: Sir, this is McDonalds? Young Liberal (Ryan Scott), Wayne did not write this article, there’s something called a “by-line”. You seem nice.
You are not very bright are you, Boy?
What does Wayne Creed have to do with anything?
And we do not “listen” to Wayne Creed.
We consider what he posts and then make up our own minds.
And if you didn’t have your head shoved so far up your *** as you do, to where the only scenery you can see is the inside of your bowel, you would have noticed this following at the beginning of the article, to wit:
The following Opinion is by C. Augustus Landis
“Wayne Creed is a fucking idiot.”
As they say throughout all social media debates, cite your sources please.
I mean, I tried Google but nada.
Nothing on Wikipedia.
Snapchat? Nope
Instagram? Nope
I did see some cute puppy pics he posted on Pinterest but I don’t think that makes him an idiot so yeah, we’re gonna need sources.
PS – Wayne, lose the thong, your Pinterest page is not set to private.
Wait, I didn’t LOSE the thong, I meant REPLACE the thong.
Whew, close one.