The U.S. Senate confirmed nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on April 7, 2022.  When Justice Stephen Breyer finally retires, she will be the 116th justice on the Supreme Court. 

Republicans took the high road and did not attack Judge Jackson as the Democrats have done during hearings for Republican nominees.  There were no accusers coming out of the woodwork to smear the judge nor highlight what was in her high school yearbook.  That was good.  Republicans did try to get answers to substantive questions but to little avail.

Judge Jackson stayed silent, mostly, about the Constitution, much as she stayed silent when Senator Marsha Blackburn asked her to define what a woman is; in other words, Jackson never really spelled out her judicial philosophy -- she did describe her ‘methodology’ -- nor did she reflect on whether she values the Constitution or not.

This is a tell and a symptom.  It is a tell that Judge Jackson’s silence about the Constitution says that she is not a passionate defender of our original Constitution.  It is a symptom in that the sickness known as wokism has reached the very heart of our Republic, which no longer sits on the firm foundation of the founding document. 

I’m betting that Jackson was silent about the Constitution because she is devoted to another constitution, the one that has been developed by the political left over the past 100 years.

“America increasingly is torn between two rival cultures, two constitutions, two ways of life,” writes Charles R. Kesler author of Crisis of the Two Constitutions: The Rise, Decline & Recovery of American Greatness.  He calls this a cold civil war.  

That makes sense to me; not long ago, I received an insight as I struggled with what is plaguing our country and society that the USA has been in a civil war for a long time, that the civil war has come to a head, and that it is now affecting families and communities.

Kesler reflects on how political loyalties are diverging more and more because of the two visions -- the one based on the Founders’ Constitution and the other developed by progressives and liberals and how he fears that we are moving from normal politics into regime politics.

So, what do conservatives do? Throw up their hands and give up?  No.  We must become aware of the existence of this parallel constitution and the Left’s approach to governance and speak up against both to protect and defend our Constitution and our Republic.  We must elect candidates who are aware of what’s going on and who will speak up.

How should conservatives communicate about this?  Here’s one example: the Left says they prefer a “living constitution.”  Kesler writes. “The term describing it implies that the original Constitution is dead -- or at least on life support, in which case, in order to remain relevant to our national life, the old frame of government must continually receive life-giving infusions of new meaning, and along with them new duties, rights, and powers.”

Conservatives can explain that the original Constitution is living in that We the People amend it from time to time so it will remain relevant while, at the same time, it continues as a solid rock on which our Republic remains secure.

Conservatives can also point out what is happening to our nation as the Left institutes its constitution.  Today, with the rise of the Left’s constitution, our Union is undermined; Justice is unequal; domestic tranquility is destroyed; the common defense is not provided for; the general welfare of Americans is ignored; and the blessings of liberty are diminished. 

The original Constitution envisioned the opposite. “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Conservatives can also point out that the Left’s constitution will not limit government and protect our rights while the original Constitution does.  We can ask, do you want a government that forgets its place completely and violates your rights?   We can speak out about how the government has been imprisoning Americans as political prisoners, has been spying on other Americans, and has been colluding with Big Tech to violate our First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of the press. 

Conservatives can talk sense to other Americans so they will vote in their own best interest for limited government and then we will be able to nominate more justices to the Supreme Court who are passionate about our original Constitution, and will say so.

C.S. Boddie writes for Meadowlark Press, LLC.

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