The Constitution Makes Us Great

Our Constitution is one of one, and it deserves defending.

We’ve been asked to say a little something about the Constitution this week, in honor of Constitution Day. What to say that hasn’t already been said? The Constitution is a large part of what makes America the greatest country on Earth. Most of us who live here were just lucky enough to be born here. We didn’t choose to live here. We were given something valuable we had no hand in creating. Conservatism at its best is about ensuring that those who come after us get to experience the gifts we inherited. American conservatism at its best is about defending those gifts which are uniquely American – the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

With growing calls to overturn the Constitution on the anti-SCOTUS left and the Trumpy right, it’s worth remembering this fact: without the Constitution, we probably wouldn’t be here. This country needs at least one political faction dedicated to preserving the thing which has kept us from falling to pieces for over two centuries.

I’d also like to call attention to the fact that when new citizens are naturalized, they swear an oath not to the government or a king, but to the U.S. Constitution. Likewise, when government workers and members of the military take their oath, they swear allegiance not to a person or a group of people, but to the Constitution. That makes us special among nations and it is something we shouldn’t take for granted. 

Too many Americans do take it for granted. They think the world in which they grew up is natural and self-sustaining. Recently, I read Herbert Storing’s What the Anti-Federalists Were For, and one fact which impressed upon me was just how uncertain many Founders (on both sides) were that the Constitution would last. A strong Anti-Federalist critique of the Constitution was that what the Federalists were trying to do – establish a large, federal, self-regulating republic under a single government – was unprecedented in human history, unlikely to succeed, and possibly impossible. 

We know now that it did succeed, but that doesn’t mean the Anti-Federalists were wrong. Human beings are biased towards believing that if something happened a certain way, it had to happen that way. But it didn’t. Nothing is certain. The Anti-Federalists were right that the historical odds were against the United States lasting as long as it has. The Federalists were right that without the Constitution, it wouldn’t have. 

This week, it’s important for us to remember that the Constitution succeeded at doing something never before accomplished in human history. Many today think we could do better if we were to redo it. We shouldn’t be so sure. The American Constitution worked, and it worked when the odds were against it. The odds remain against any new attempt to come up with a better version from scratch. When measured against any such attempt, the Constitution has been tried and tested in ways no proposed “improvement” has. And the Constitution has passed every trial.

Ben Connelly is a writer, long-distance runner, former engineer, and author of “Grit: A Practical Guide to Developing Physical and Mental Toughness.” He publishes short stories and essays at Hardihood Books. @benconnelly6712