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“Who are you supporting?” is the question. “Obama or McCain?” And they stare at me as if I were daft when I answer, “Wrong question.”

I’m not too concerned whether Obama or McCain is elected. With either candidate, we’re certain to have a variation of the same old thing we’ve had for the past four years—or longer. “Obama or McCain” is the wrong question.

The right question is, “Whom can we elect that will honor the Oath of Office of the President of the United States?”

It doesn’t really matter who we elect if that President does not honor the Oath of Office of the President, which is:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office
of President of the United States, and will to the best of my
Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

I’m looking for a President who will honor his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. My concerns go beyond the candidates and their parties. My concerns are that far too many of our elected officials—Presidents and Congressmen—simply do not honor the oaths of their offices. The government has increasingly overstepped its Constitutional bounds. The most recent example: the bailout.

For the U.S. government to bail out, buy up, or go into the financial business goes far beyond the bounds which WE THE PEOPLE granted to government in the Constitution. This country was founded on and prospered under a free market system—yet we are moving farther away from a free market system. The Wall Street bail-me-out boys take all the profits they can while they can, but when their businesses fail (due to their mismanagement), they want the taxpayer to take the hit. They take the gains, we take the losses. That is not the government our Founders envisioned.

The bailout is not free market capitalism—it is socialism. Russia tried a socialist system—it didn’t work. And neither will this bailout—not in the long run. The cause of the “crises”, our illustrious Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson assert, must be capitalism—“we had better step in and steady the markets”—even if it means violating Constitutional principles and grabbing more power. The very idea that our government, which set the stage for this inevitable problem, is smart enough or moral enough to provide a real solution is laughable. Our leaders aren’t taking accountability for their foolhardy actions—they changed the regulations to authorize—(mandate, coerce, threaten) Freddie and Fannie into taking “subprime loans.” It’s just plain dumb and stupid to lend money to people who can’t afford the loans, and then promise to back up these bad mortgages with a United States government guarantee. Never mind that the Federal government is so deep in debt that it has to borrow money just to pay the interest! Again, the Soviet experiment has proven that central planning and state control does not work. The cause of our present situation is not capitalism, and the solution is certainly not socialism. This is not the solution our Founders would have presented.

But beyond the argument that a bailout is a bad idea, it’s an illegal usurpation of power. With the bailout, Congress has given the Executive branch a blank check for $700B of OUR money to give to failed businessmen and foreign bankers. This is not just wrong, it’s outrageous! Think of it in these terms: we are forced to pay our taxes under threat of fines, penalties, or imprisonment. Rather than incur fines, penalties, or imprisonment, we pay our taxes. What does the government do with this money? It gives it away—to multimillionaire businessmen who’ve mismanaged the corporations they were hired to run. This situation is very much the same as having a policeman and a banker come to our door. The policeman forces you—under threat of fines, penalties, or imprisonment—to hand over some of your money, which he then gives to the banker! This is not the system our Founders intended.

What is there to protect us from this kind of outrage? The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to protect all Americans—WE THE PEOPLE—from the tyranny of heavy-handed government. The Founders asserted that the power to govern originates with WE THE PEOPLE. We are the masters; the government is our servant. The Constitution was carefully written to control the tendency of government to expand its control. In the Constitution we say, “We will give up some of our power to government so that we (through our government servants) can regulate interstate commerce, provide for the common defense, etc.” But, we go on to say, “We give up only the power we’ve written down in this document and no more. All other powers are reserved for the States and the people.” If government takes more power than that which we have granted by virtue of the Constitution, we must not allow it. We must not allow our elected officials to make a mockery of the oaths they take to uphold and defend the Constitution. If and when they do, they trample this sacred document into the dirt and take our liberty from us.

Power is very heady stuff. There is a great temptation for leaders to get as much as they can. The Constitution is as much about what the government is not allowed to do, as it is about what it is supposed to do. To ensure we remain protected by this document, we require our President and each member of Congress to swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. The President swears: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s it – nothing more or less. The President doesn’t swear an oath to be a good member of his political party, or to be the leader of the US world-wide police force, or to give our money away to failed businessmen. Just this one thing: to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. To do anything more or less is to violate that oath. Our Congressmen swear a similar oath.

Our present system of government has evolved bit by bit since the nation’s founding into a government the Founding Fathers wouldn’t recognize today. Were they to see what we have become, they would say, “This isn’t the form of government we pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors to create. This isn’t the form of government we fought, bled and died for. This government is as tyrannical as the government of King George.” They would be appalled that Americans are no longer a freedom loving people. They would find it difficult to believe that Americans would trade their bold-spirited liberties for the security of a welfare blanket. Specifically they would ask: “Where are the checks on Presidential powers?” “Why is the Supreme Court legislating from the bench?” “Why is Congress abdicating their responsibilities they were elected to perform?”

But the Founders are not here. Their fight was fought, their cause was won, and liberty was established. Their sacrifices are past. It is now our time. This is our time, and it is a difficult time in which we see the winds of change and turmoil beating upon us. We must return to the bedrock of the Constitution if we are to, as the Founders said, “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” in our time.

Obama or McCain? Wrong question. I’m looking for a President who will honor his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.