He believes that his predecessor "progressives" have done such a good job at censoring the Founders' principles of their written Constitution from the public mind that he is speaking before a citizenry made up of "constitutional illiterates," as someone has called us.
He is about to find out that his Administration's blatant overreach for power over individuals triggered the greatest amount of research and study of the Founders' Constitution and its principles since the Revolutionary Period in our history.
Tocqueville, in the 1830's, observed how even in the backwoods, citizens were informed of their rights and liberties and their Constitution.
When so-called "progressives" determined to impose their ideas of government planning, government control, and government intervention in the lives of citizens, they first had to eliminate, as far as possible, the Declaration's primary message from the schools and "public" places.
This President is overly confident that their work has prepared American citizens for his emergence and his interpretation of their Constitution.
November 2010 should have signaled a new era. Apparently, it did not.
Whether by Divine Providence, or simple advances in technology, that which was "hidden" is now revealed, and ordinary citizens, with a mouse and a computer, can read the same historical writers the Founders' read. They can read all the letters, speeches, writings, and debates about liberty versus tyranny. They can read the real history of how the Constitution was intended by its Framers to protect them; and, they can read the essential ideas of their liberty. They even can read the cases where the Court has exercised its constitutional authority to strike down legislation which exceeded the Constitution's bounds.
They are becoming more and more "constitutionally literate" by the minute, and such "performances" as that in the Rose Garden only uncloak the "myth" surrounding this President's Constitutional understanding. By simple historical research, citizens can find each misrepresentation in that one "performance" and evaluate for themselves whether it is a political design to retain power, or a valid observation of the Court's role in safeguarding liberty.
Since this President's outrageous claims for unprecedented government control of almost every aspect of the society, one may be certain that every word of the Justice's opinions will be scrutinized carefully over the next decades, and they will be measured against the standards of the literature of America's founding period and the Framers of the Constitution which gave birth to freedom in this great land."Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant—they have been cheated; asleep—they have been surprised; divided—the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ... the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government, they should watch over it ... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free."- James Madison
I was surprised at the Tea Party protest (D.C. 2008) at the number of young people with mini Constitutions in hand. Very encouraging.
Excellent!