Sworn to Uphold the Constitution

[dream_weaver]

Obama blames Founding Fathers’ ‘structural’ design of Congress for gridlock

 

President Obama is taking a swipe at the Founding Fathers, blaming his inability to move his agenda on the “disadvantage” of having each state represented equally in the Senate.

 

After setting his target on the most prestigious position in the land and then being sworn to uphold and defend The Constitution of the United States, not once, but twice - he is just now figuring out its structure?

 

Of course the inability to move his agenda has nothing to do with the content of that agenda.

 

The Founding Fathers decided in the “Great Compromise” in 1787 to apportion House seats based on population and give each state two seats in the Senate regardless of population. The solution was a compromise between large states and small states in a dispute that nearly dissolved the Constitutional Convention.

 

The must be an interesting story behind what this was called the "Great Compromise". I heard it discussed years ago on a talk radio show. The crux I still retain as putting the mechanism in place to prevent the most populous states from exercising a tyranny over the less populous regions. Many states used to appoint their senators by either the legislative or executive branch to ensure the state was best represented. Here in Michigan, that was overturned and the senators are elected by the general populace.

 

Recently, I drove to the automobile dealership to have a recall notification service. On my drive home, I realized that two commemorative 'ghost bikes' where not in the places I had seen them in the past. I don't recall the last time I positively saw them. I was struck by how I had noticed their absence.

 

This article documents the "Great Compromise" as merely "a dispute that nearly dissolved the Constitutional Convention." How much more signification is what the dispute dealt with, in essence.

 

Like a clock that stops ticking when the battery wears out, the absence may go unnoticed for a while. Liberty, the freedom from tyranny, has no clear visual reminder to observe or notice it has gone missing. The sound it makes should not be drowned out by a president's assailing rant.