BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  SEP 20

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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.

Preamble to the Constitution, adopted  September 17, 1787

Last Saturday the nation celebrated the signing of the US Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia 229 years ago.

There were parades and fireworks, great speeches and events all across the country.

Actually, there weren’t. The anniversary went by mostly unnoticed, unlike that for the Declaration of Independence, last July 4.

In fairness what is Constitution and Citizenship Day is a relatively new observance, dating back to 2004 and legislation sponsored by the late West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, although there have been observances of citizenship dating back nearly 100 years.

A real celebration this year would have been good for all of us. Our Constitution, considered the oldest among constitutional governments anywhere in the world, is being challenged from every direction. The challenges bear little resemblance to some of the constitutional crises we have endured, most notably the Civil War, but they should be of concern, because they tear at the fabric of the Republic, already a little frayed.

The incredible sacrifices, courage and perseverance of the Founders who made it all possible warrant our thanks more than once a year. Benjamin Franklin, the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, at 81, suffered immeasurably just getting back and forth. James Madison struggled from epileptic seizures. Others were recovering from war injuries and still others were sick and infirm. There were 55 delegates appointed to  the Philadelphia Convention from 12 states (Rhode Island took a pass) appointed ostensibly to revise the Articles of Confederation.

They labored for nearly five months in the sweltering heat of rooms with boarded windows to prevent it from being discovered that they weren’t rewriting the Articles, but rewriting history. At the end, 38 delegates, the convention President, George Washington, and the secretary, signed the new charter for delivery back to the Congress. Several, including Eldridge Gerry (who gave gerrymandering its name), George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee refused to sign because there was no bill of rights, a problem later fixed by James Madison who introduced what would become the first amendments just months after the first Congress convened in 1789. Patrick Henry didn’t sign, either, because he opposed the new Federalist system. Still others did not sign because they went home early. Still, the miracle we today call the greatest experiment in self-governance in human history, got done.

The Constitution is an enduring reflection of our strength and weakness, our humility and hubris, our imperfection and our greatness, and our capacity to change, for better and for worse. It is also a reflection of our eternal optimism and our cynicism, but most of all, our true grit. The document is us, and the 27 amendments to it, a portrait of where we’ve been.

Today the document is under siege.

What would James Madison see, what would he think, what would he feel if he were seated in a time machine and transported here, to a 21st Century America that is so much of his making?

Madison would probably be alarmed by the treatment of his handiwork, especially in the two centuries of evolution of the powers and responsibilities enumerated in Article I, which describes the first branch of government, the Legislative Branch, and Article II, which describes the Executive.

The friction between Legislative and Executive has existed since Washington traveled up to the Senate for the ratification of his Indian treaties. While he was seated in the gallery, the Senate tabled them, much to his embarrassment. Most Presidents since have pushed the envelope of their executive powers. Thomas Jefferson did in the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln did suspending habeas corpus. President Roosevelt did stacking the Supreme Court, and the impeachment of Bill Clinton strained the relationship to the breaking point.

But there may not have been a time when the friction was so constant and the challenges of authority so wide ranging as now.

The Obama Administration has exceeded its authority in the conduct of war across half the globe; in the implementation of immigration policies never approved by Congress; and in the management of programs ranging from pipeline construction and oil drilling, to clean air regulation, and endangered species enforcement. The Administration has spent tax dollars it was not empowered to spend and withheld funds it was required to spend. It has overstepped its authority in criminal justice, health care, and trade agreements.

As Lynne Cheney in her book on Madison reminds us, the father of our Constitution abhorred Executive overreach, whether democratic or monarchical. It was the match that ignited the revolution against the oppression of King George III.

Madison would probably look at the 2016 campaigns and wonder what has happened to our electoral process and political system over the past two centuries. In hindsight stricter qualifications for Federal office may have been worth considering, like a psychological profile. He would probably scratch his head wondering how the constitutional recognition of a militia could turn into an AK 47 behind the front seat of every SUV or a semiautomatic handgun in the shopping cart in Walmart.

If Madison could sit today on the veranda at Montpelier and look back over the course of the last 230 years, he would likely marvel at what the nation has overcome in that time, through courage, faith and fortitude, always striving to be better, always trying to preserve the liberties and opportunities they envisioned for those who come after. And then, he’d pick up a copy of the Richmond Times and read about the demeaning and asinine behavior of those who have inherited the legacy, especially two major candidates for the Presidency who have the distinction of being the most unpopular and distrusted candidates in the history of survey research.

He would be chagrined, as well, at the citizenry’s exercise, or lack thereof, of civic responsibility and the degree to which they have kept themselves informed and engaged. The Founders designed a republican system of government, not a democracy, a word not mentioned in the Constitution. They did so, we are taught, because at the time they thought it best to entrust the powers and responsibilities of governance in a group of men, who had the capacity to represent the less educated masses. They made some incredibly bad judgments in that process but they were made according to the tenor of the times.

Today, if Madison strolled down the streets of his hometown in Orange, VA or nearby Charlottesville, and gave a pop quiz on civics and politics, he would probably find what today’s survey research has found, that only 36 percent can name the three branches of government and 35 percent can’t name one. About that same percentage could tell him who the Speaker of the House is. He would have to search Google for Judge Judy because 10 percent of college students he would test think she is on the Supreme Court. Almost 30 percent think a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court is sent back to Congress. Less than 50 percent of people know what GOP stands for and 55 percent think that Christianity was written into the Constitution. Only 25 percent know the length of a US Senator’s term and 20 percent can tell you how many Senators there are. Half of Americans don’t know which parties control which houses of Congress.

And he would be embarrassed to know that on college campuses only 28 percent could identify him as the father of the Constitution.

But then again, what is the point of being informed, they would tell him, when 70 percent don’t trust government and do not believe their representatives are looking out for them, 59 percent think the American dream is out of their reach and 75 percent no longer believe their children will have a better life than they. So, Mr. Madison, what’s your point?

And when after a long day of surveying the American landscape, if the former President would sit down to watch NBC News on the day before Constitution Day to see how his  freedom of press was working out, there would be the  anchor Lester Holt just giddy announcing his “birther bombshell:” Donald Trump acknowledging that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.   We gave the press constitutional protection for that?

Yes, there it was, the most important news of the day around the entire globe.  Madison would sit  through more than six minutes of the drivel before learning that there had been a major oil spill in the South, requiring seven governors to declare a state of emergency, or that the United Nations had failed in its first attempt to get desperately needed food and medicine to innocent women and children in Aleppo in one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, or that the frighteningly growing epidemic in heroin abuse was taking more lives, now up to 28,000 in just one year.

No doubt  Mr. Madison would  turn off his TV, made in Japan, stroll out to the lawn, climb back into the time machine, assembled in Singapore, buckle up and take his leave of 21st Century America, hopefully committed to return for another look at next year’s non-celebration of Constitution Day.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.