Constitutional scholar Matt Spalding at The Heritage Foundation writes this disturbing review of the “educational” exhibits in the Capitol’s new underground Visitors Center.
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money,
and will promote the General Welfare,” James Madison wrote, “the
Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers,
but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”
Wrong, Mr. Madison. The Constitution, according to the new Visitor
Center, isn’t a list of powers but “aspirations” that Congress is
expected to define and realize. I guess those are like the rights the
Supreme Court, in the 1960s, began discovering in “penumbras” and
“emanations” of the Constitution.
This exhibit is Congress’ temple to liberals’ “living Constitution,”
the eternal font of lawmakers’ evolving mandate to achieve the nation’s
ideals. There are no fixed meanings in their version, only open-ended
“aspirations.” The Constitution is an empty vessel, to be adapted to
the times, as required to bring change. It means nothing – or anything.
Not surprisingly, the rest of the exhibit details the unfolding of
liberal progress and the rise of modern administrative government.
Everything is about movement away from America’s sins (slavery,
treatment of Indians, Vietnam) toward congressionally led enlightenment
(direct election of senators, voting rights, the New Deal, Medicare).
The education experience concludes by quoting Sen. Robert La
Follette, the great progressive reformer from Wisconsin: “America is
not made. It’s in the making.”
