Is the US Constitution 'political opinion' now?

By Jerry Newcombe, CP Op-Ed Contributor Saturday, February 25, 2023

A woman signs a giant banner printed with the Preamble to the United States Constitution during a demonstration against the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall October 20, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The rally at the memorial was organized by brothers Laird and Robin Monahan who spent the last five months walking from San Francisco, California, to Washington to protest the court decision, which overturned the provision of the McCain-Feingold law barring corporations and unions from paying for political ads made independently of candidate campaigns. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sir William Gladstone, a British Prime Minister during the time of Queen Victoria, once observed, “The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”

The Constitution needs no defense. Its durability is a testimony to its greatness. However, many Americans today certainly do not appreciate it.

Last year, one commentator said on national television that the U.S. Constitution was “trash.” Trash? What do we do with trash? We throw it out. Yipes.

Meanwhile, just last week, after a two-year legal battle, a student was finally granted permission to hand out copies of our nation’s Constitution anywhere on his campus, not just the comparatively tiny “free speech zone” established by a Los Angeles area college.

After his legal victory, Pierce College student Kevin Shaw remarked, “I’m thankful to know future students won’t have to worry about being harassed for expressing political opinions.” Too bad he had to battle for this in the first place, over a course of two years. And is America’s chief governing document a mere “political opinion” now?

Earlier this month, AmericanWireNews.com reported on how an immigrant was expelled from her post in academia reportedly because of her advocacy of our nation’s governing document: “A Virginia Board of Education member named Suparna Dutta, who was appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, was booted from the board by Senate Democrats because she ardently defended the Constitution and spoke out against socialism to another board member, calling it ‘very destructive.’”

Ironically, this immigrant from India who supports “traditional American values” was also accused of supposedly being a “white supremacist.”

Quite honestly, I don’t think the huddled masses at the southern border yearning to breathe free view our nation’s governing document as trash, or as merely an instrument of “white supremacy.”

Why do people vote with their feet to try and get a chance to enjoy life here under our Constitution?

I’ve been working on a documentary on our nation’s governing document. It’s called, “We the People.” This is the latest installment of our Providence Forum’s ongoing series, “The Foundation of American Liberty,” on the role of Judeo-Christian influence in the settling and founding of America.

“We the People” not only explains how the Bible played a critical role in the creation of the Constitution, but it also answers important objections — often raised today — such as the issues of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the mistreatment of the Indians.

These are glaring examples of the promises of the Constitution that came late, but came nonetheless. The special points out how the framers built in the means by which injustices could be rectified.

Some of the guests in “We the People” on America and its Constitution:

Alveda King, niece of MLK: “There is still opportunity in America, there is still hope in America, there is still prayer in America, and I continue to pray for America.”
Rev. Billy Falling: “As a Native American, the Constitution means to me that I have a protection, I have a wall, I have something that covers me, and that is the rule of law.”
Father Leon Hutton: “As a Catholic, the Constitution has meant to us the opportunity to freely practice faith as we see it.”
Dennis Prager: “This is the Judeo-Christian country. Christians rooted in ‘Judeo’ founded the country. Jews knew this ... Jews were in love with this country and for good reason.”
Jenna Ellis: “As a millennial Christian woman, the Constitution is such a wonderful gift that my generation and the generations after must continue to preserve and protect.”

I have been working on this series for some time, and I was able to get an interview with syndicated columnist Dr. Walter Williams, a professor at George Mason University, about a year before his death,

Dr. Williams told me: “I think that the United States Constitution has been very valuable just considering the evidence. Number one, we still have the Constitution, although, it’s not obeyed all the time. But the Constitution has led to the richest and the most powerful nation on the face of this earth and the greatest amount of personal liberty that people enjoy, that is the people try to get to United States, people want to live in United States, they want to become American citizens. And the reason why is the liberty that we have.”

I wish some of today’s elites on the left would rethink their jaundiced view of this “most wonderful work,” the Constitution of the United States of America. The irony is that those who rail against the Constitution are able to do so because of the freedoms granted them by that very document.

Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of D. James Kennedy Ministries, where Jerry also serves as senior producer and an on-air host. He has written/co-written 33 books, including George Washington’s Sacred Fire (with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.). www.djkm.org? @newcombejerry www.jerrynewcombe.com