by Marc Racicot
It took almost two centuries of tyranny, war and suffering for our ancestors, desperate for liberty and self-determination, to conceive of and draft a system of constitutional government that has endured for 237 years.
They met in Philadelphia in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1787 to devise, and hopefully agree upon, a form of government their ancestors had never known. In the beginning, there was little assurance that would happen, but after listening to each other in good faith and debating for 89 days, they designed the Constitution of the United States of America giving birth to the longest functioning democracy in human history.
From the beginning of their deliberations, it was the resolute belief of the Founders that our consensual union would not survive, the Constitution would not function, and our republic would not endure, unless the people and their elected leaders embraced and lived by the civic virtues upon which the Constitution rests for its efficacy. The Founders warned that only if the eternal objective of the Constitution remained to seek the public good would our hallowed union survive.
Constitutional virtues, so easy to summarize and so challenging to sustain, include humility, self-restraint, integrity, courage, truth, moderation, patience, compassion, respect for contrary opinion and a commitment to the Rule of Law. Rejection of those virtues, the Founders believed, would first loosen the bonds that hold us together, then lead to civil disorder, and finally result in the destruction of our democracy.
The disordered and erratic governance of the President and his apologists, leading the nation step by step toward autocracy; his relentless pursuit of power and control; his illegal government reorganizations and directives; his reckless declaration and stated intention to “terminate,” certain “articles” of the Constitution; his inane Napoleanic suggestion that when he’s saving the country, he’s above the law; his calling for impeachment of a federal judge who doesn’t rule in his favor and then referring to him as a “radical left lunatic;” his betrayal of the oath he took and the promise he made to every American to faithfully protect and defend the Constitution; all of that, and infinitely more, reveals his lack of fitness to lead this “one nation under God.”
“[What’s happening now] … appears and feels more like the work of furtive detectives operating under color of law; puffed up with power and equal measures of arrogance and ignorance; creeping through federal buildings in the nation’s capital and throughout the country; and, in the dark of night sending messages and signals to employees that they no longer have a job. It is cruel and utter madness, and it is looting the heart and soul of America.”
We all understand that reform of governmental operations can produce disruption, even when undertaken lawfully. But the lawless laying of waste presently and repetitively unfolding across the country, and around the world, creating chaos, injury and fear is no where near a normal or expected consequence of legitimate and lawful reform.
It appears and feels more like the work of furtive detectives operating under color of law; puffed up with power and equal measures of arrogance and ignorance; creeping through federal buildings in the nation’s capital and throughout the country; and, in the dark of night sending messages and signals to employees that they no longer have a job. It is cruel and utter madness, and it is looting the heart and soul of America.
Neither the President nor his Republican acolytes in Congress appear to even remotely comprehend the risk of their frontal assault upon the Constitution, nor to remember that as the world turns, generations who follow will inevitably end up reaping what they now sow.
The Republican Party has previously pronounced the Constitution to be “a unique and binding compact,” which the President and his accessories in Congress, by their sworn oath, have pledged to faithfully “support and defend.” Yet their contemptuous repudiation of their own party position through word, deed, or silence in the face of duty, along with the President’s defiance of the Constitution, his betrayal of his oath of office and his persistent encroachment upon and defamation of the judiciary exposes a glaring and obvious intention to confiscate control of all three branches of government in a prodigious dereliction of constitutional duty.
Our democratic republic, though we’ve been blessed with it and devoted to it for 237 years, is nonetheless fragile. It is, after all, based upon the consent of every American. We cannot be forced to embrace it. We must choose it. For the republic to survive the ages, our promise to each other has been and must forever be: to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution; to practice the self-discipline required of every American to maintain order; and to respect our fellow citizens and the differences of view they may hold.
To those who seek to lead us, We, the People, at this existential moment of peril, intend to be more than observers. We intend to be informed, we insist on being heard, we presume faithful obedience of the oath of office and we demand loyalty to the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
SPECIAL EDITOR’S NOTE: You, our dear Yellowstonian readers, are invited to a special event. Dorothy Bradley will be joining Marc Racicot on stage May 22, 2025 for a free public discussion at the historic Ellen Theatre in downtown Bozeman, Montana. The focus is a lively conversation about civility, democracy, our shared public lands heritage and the need for a renewed sense of citizenship.The evening is hosted by Yellowstonian and co-sponsored with the Montana Wildlife Federation. It begins promptly at 7 pm. Please bring along young people who might benefit from seeing what true statesmanship still looks like. Bradley, a Democrat, and Racicot, a Republican—and both popular Montana elected officials— faced off against each other in the 1992 Montana gubernatorial race, which Racicot won by a narrow margin. In addition to being a two-term governor and elected state attorney general, Racicot served as chairman of the National Republican Committee and was chair of the Bush-Cheney Re-election Campaign in 2004. An attorney by profession, he says he identifies as a citizen who identifies first as a Montanan and American, and not as a person beholden to any ideology that undermines shared values, the common good and the interests of future generations.
