Death of the Oath, Death of the Republic

Bonnie Alba

“I swear ... to uphold the Constitution of the United States ... so help me God.”

Our President, Congress, and Supreme Court Justices do so solemnly swear upon entering their offices. The oath of government officials has become one of mere formality, nothing more. The Constitution is just a document to most of them, holding no meaning or knowledge of the original intent of the founders.

There was a time when a man’s word was good as gold; a handshake meant a promise to be kept. Remember what we as children swore by: “Cross my heart and hope to die?” Did we believe we would die if we weren’t telling the truth? Yet today’s adults swear and make promises which they have no intention of keeping.

The Republic envisioned by our founding fathers has been scrapped; our Constitution has been dumped on, spit on, trampled beneath the calloused footpads of elected and appointed officials. It’s not about labels of conservative or liberal, republican or democrat. The limitations on government have been arrogantly ignored and the Republic fails from lack of protest from the people.

“We the people” are the other half of the equation of the failing Republic. From the 60s the cries of “freedom from responsibility” and “I’m a victim” have persuaded many citizens that Big Brother is Sugar Daddy --- he’ll take care of you from birth to death. Add to that the dumbing down of education, several generations have been indoctrinated to expect the redistribution of wealth. Ignorant of their own nation’s governing documents, the whining masses propel government to enact and continue to grow social programs centralizing more control over “we the people’s” lives.

The oath is no longer or rarely given to swear in witnesses in our court system. Why? Because too many Americans relinguished belief in God. Over 160 years ago, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, observed a court case in Chester County, New York. The witness declared he didn’t believe in the existence of God or in the immortality of the soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all confidence of the court in what he was about to say. As reported in “The New York Spectator,” the presiding judge remarked, “...that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this (oath) belief constituted the sanction of all testimony in a court of justice; and that he knew of no case in a Christian country, where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief.”

My, My! What “intolerance” existed back then! Today the oath means nothing and leaves no way to judge the truth of any matter. So an Al Gore who worships goddess-Gaia or a devil-worshipper (by definition, a liar) may testify in today’s court system without solemn oath to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. No accountability.

That old sage, Benjamin Franklin, emerging from the 1787 Constitutional Convention, was asked what kind of government we would have. He responded, “...A Republic, if you can keep it.”

The U.S. Constitution, dusty and unread, sits in silence while the governing bodies and the people go their own way. Alexis de Tocqueville also observed, “In the United States the sovereign authority is religious (Christianity)...,” whereas in France he almost always saw, “...the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions.”

Such a small thing is an oath, but when taken, it defines the person who swears by the words. The promise. Is there still hope for the fading Republic? When oaths no longer hold to truth, when the words “...so help me God” have no meaning to those swearing?

Belief in God, a future accounting for the lies and actions of today, heaven or hell, lay just below the promise, the oath. When the people no longer believe in God, then the truth no longer exists in the peoples’ minds, and the oath has no meaning and is unnecessary to public life.

Fascism here we come! To quote Benjamin Franklin, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” We are in the transition period, having departed from Republic governance, now well into Socialist Democracy, we are on the road to Fascism.

Is there hope for a return to governance by the Constitution, to oaths under God? Saving the Republic? Is it possible to return to a government.... “of the people, by the people, for the people?”

© 2005 Bonnie Alba
balba2@earthlink.net

Sources:
Clerk of the House; http://clerk.house.gov/members/memFAQ.html
“Ben’s Guide to US Government (for kids),” http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/symbols/oaths.html
“America’s God and Country,” William J. Federer, FAME Publishing, 1994