Below is my column on Fox.com from a recent trip to Grand Lake, Colorado, a small town where families gather to celebrate our shared faith in the United States Constitution. For this aging academic, the visit was rejuvenating. It was a sharp contrast to the divisions and anger I had left behind on the East Coast.
Here is the column:
“I am very angry.” Those words from Harvard Law Professor Michael Klarman were something of an understatement in our debate at Colgate University last week over whether our country is in a “constitutional crisis.” Taking the affirmative position, Klarman lashed out at the current “authoritarianism rooted in old-fashioned white supremacy.” Analogizing the current situation to that of Nazi Germany, he denounced Trump and his supporters as “fascists” while calling ICE agents “thugs” operating “concentration camps” where immigrants are “essentially tortured.”
When I noted that Klarman was demonstrating the license of what I have called our “age of rage,” he readily agreed that “I am enraged.” He said he wanted to “show rage” because the constitutional system “is not working” and I do say this to alarm you . . . to shake people out of their insomnia.”
Like many law professors today, Klarman questioned the viability of our constitutional system. However, what he was describing was not a constitutional crisis but a crisis of faith.
A New York Times column last year denounced “Constitution worship” and added that “Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us; a growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.”
There is a growing chorus of faculty calling for us to scrap our constitutional system.
Brown University’s Corey Brettschneider called the Constitution a “dangerous document” that is driving this “threat to democracy.”
George Washington law professor Mary Anne Franks condemned the “cult of the Constitution” that has been defended to advance “white male supremacy.”
In a column titled “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale insisted that we need to “reclaim America from Constitutionalism.”
Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, author of the book “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States,” argued that the Constitution is now a threat to American democracy.
It is a drumbeat heard on cable news where the Constitution is called “trash” and a vehicle for oppression.
In academia, we are seeing the expansion of this counter-constitutional movement. The recent elections and court cases have gone against the demands of many in the establishment. The conclusion is that the system itself is broken and must be tossed aside.
For many law students, this is the academic echo chamber in which they learn the law. To support the Constitution or deny a “crisis” is to invite ridicule and retribution. It is viewed as simply naïve to suggest that the most successful constitutional system in history is anything but a failed experiment.
In my forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss this crisis of faith and dangers presented to the American democracy in the 21st Century.
Despite engaging in such debates for years, it can take its toll. It can often seem like fewer and fewer people understand the great gift that the Framers gave us in this unique document. While Klarman reminded the students in the audience that the Constitution is merely “words on paper” if it is not working correctly, it is more than that. It is a covenant of a people with each other; a leap of faith in a system that survived wars, economic crises, and social unrest for over two centuries.
I did not come straight home to Washington after the Colgate debate. I had one more stop. I was asked to give the Constitution Day Address for the small town of Grand Lake, Colorado. Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, this town holds an annual celebration and I was intrigued by the invitation. It said that they may be a small town, but they believed in something truly big. They believed in the United States Constitution.
I arrived near midnight and, frankly, I was questioning my decision to make the long trip after two weeks on the road. The next morning, I was pretty worn out when I was taken to the parade before the speech. What I found was what I needed the most. The entire town, along with others from communities as far away as Wyoming, had come out to share their love for our nation and our Constitution.
Before we began, I met three young boys dressed in revolutionary garb and carrying American flags. They were part of the local fife and drum team. We proceeded down main street as families lined up to cheer the Constitution. Flags passed on horseback and a line of go carts as neighbors cheered neighbors. They were not angry. There was not a scintilla of rage. They were grateful.
I am sure that this account will be scoffed at back East as some trite remake of how I came upon an American Whoville. However, living in Washington, you can easily succumb to the cynicism and tribalism of our politics. Patriotism is at best a soundbite to be used by politicians to satisfy the chumps in the hinterlands.
There is a dangerous conceit in every generation by those who believe that their problems are unique and require radical new measures. They are the same voices that we have heard for centuries; they are the voices of an age of rage.
In our debate, Professor Klarman stressed that he was not calling all Trump voters fascists because he believed many are simply ill-informed and “many do not read newspapers.” He added that any students in the room who had “not gone to a protest in the last eight months” were effective accessories in the rise of authoritarianism and autocracy.
I suggested another possibility: most citizens do not agree with the political, academic, and media elite. They are not unread idiots but people who see something that many in academia can no longer see or are unwilling to see in this country.
I respect that Professor Klarman is responding to things that he honestly views as threatening and harmful to the most vulnerable in our society. Yet, at Harvard, where there are only a handful of conservative faculty members, it is easy for students to conclude such views are the unassailable truth.
Outside of Cambridge and Washington, there is an entire nation that still believes in our Constitution. That is why this trip was so rejuvenating for this refugee from higher education. Many law professors today are like priests who have lost their faith but kept their robes. They lash out against a system for failing to meet their demands and an electorate that failed to yield to their collective wisdom.
When I was walking in the town, I came across two boys near the pavilion. They eagerly described their haul of candy and could not wait for the fireworks that night. I was about to walk away when one of them added “and I got this.” He then proudly produced a pocket Constitution. His younger brother immediately objected, saying, “We are sharing it.”
As a nation, we are all still sharing it after two centuries. It defines us as a people. Unlike other nations bound by common language and culture, we are a nation joined by a common legacy of ideas, a revolutionary faith in a free people bound to each other by a simple constitution.
It was hard to leave Grand Lake, but it felt better just knowing that places like this still exist.
Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
It is California law that teachers teach the Constitution to eight graders, on Constitution Day, September 17th. Sadly, few do. School districts can spend money on promoting Earth Day, “Pride Day”, and other extraneous nonsense, but they don’t provide copies of the Constitution to the students. About 12 years ago, our Tea Party group raised funds to purchase them, and provided them to all the school districts around us. We put a note on the box stating where they came from, with contact information for comments. I received ONE thank you note over the years! We’re not even certain if they were given to the students, or are collecting dust in store rooms.
Here’s a non-partisan that should outrage John Roberts and every honest judge in America:
For over 40 years I’m not allowed to attend any high school reunion and it seems now not allowed to attend my 40th Reunion of my tiny technical school (about 200 students total back in the 1980’s).
I’ve never had a criminal record and I’ve never waived any of my guaranteed constitutional rights.
A possible reason for this unconstitutional false-imprisonment and isolation is that in the 1980’s (maybe earlier) some of the parents and family members of my school friends worked at the CIA and DoD during the Cold War.
After 9/11 I was placed on some type of watchlist and have lost over $1 million in income (out of pocket) in more than 20 years. This was due to at least 20 years of employment tampering without ever facing a judge or jury. I’m not allowed to perform some jobs due to the fraudulent 9/11 blacklisting.
To date, no government apology and worse not even an official explanation of what happened. It now looks like this nanny-state is disrupting our upcoming tech school class reunion in 2026.
It also questions the very calculus for success in covert operations. If you destroy more innocent Americans in secret operations but fail to report it, was the secret operation really successful or a failure.
This type of unAmerican behavior likely built the foundation for our current dictatorship John Roberts. Are any honest judges outraged by this?
If it can happen to me, nobody is safe in America!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0d7R6B_6lDWHxmxJGad012UQA
Charles Kuralt liked to say, “If you want to see America, get off the Interstate.” I would extend that to say these people need to get out of the big cities, and REALLY see America. Too many people never live outside of a (roughly) 20 mile radius. I have been to 30 of the 50 States, along with numerous Countries. That gives me a little different perspective than someone who have never been outside of their own “echo chamber.”
Oh, Hell No! Tell ’em to stay right where they are in their s—hole big cities!
As a two-time speaker at Constitution Week and frequent visitor to the “greater” Grand Lake area, congratulations on being chosen as their keynote speaker. The rest of America looks like and thinks about the Constitution way more like Grand Lake than the malevolent faculty lounges and their occupants. I’m not surprised you came away refreshed. Thanks for making the trek.
It’s that time of night when the deranged Trump-haters crawl out from under their slimy rock and comment here anonymously.
Like I always say, just say “No!” to trolls!
You sound like not only part of the problem, but the problem itself. Losers of the debate resort to slander because it’s all they have left. Thanks for proving that true once again. Now you know!
It appears to me that we are reaching a constitutional crisis. The Executive has decided to ignore the laws passed by the Legislature to fund certain programs and certain departments. The Supreme Court has decided that the President can do nothing illegal. The Legislature has decided not to impeach the President as a remedy to flouting the law.
It appears that those who do not see this as a problem are those who will directly benefit from the dissolution of the checks and balances the Constitution was intended to provide.
The sky is falling. The sky is falling. The sky is falling.
The executive power is vested solely and exclusively in a president.
The legislative branch possesses no executive power.
No legislation may usurp and exercise executive power.
Legislation must be accomplished in the absence of the exercise of executive power.
The Constitution may be modified only through the amendment process.
That you don’t enjoy or appreciate the Constitution does not bear.
_________________________________________________________________________
Article 2
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.
Is this your personal version of the Constitution?
“The legislative branch possesses no executive power.
No legislation may usurp and exercise executive power.
Legislation must be accomplished in the absence of the exercise of executive power.”
do not appear in the document.
Agree. The three EQUAL branches consist of 1 person, 535 persons, and 9 persons. This fact is lost on almost everyone. The equal balance is accomplished by voters for the President and their Congressional representatives. Indirectly the Supreme Court consists of the public will and is protected from the political whim and caprice.
The genius of the Constitution is in the Electoral College protecting the United States from costal hegemony.
The Electoral College was created to allow the smaller number of those living in the South to inflate their votes by counting those held as slaves as part of the assignment of delegates, essentially stealing the right to representation along with stealing the right to freedom from those slaves. To slightly balance this the framers decided to cap this theft at only 3/5ths or 60%, but slave holders could use rape and other extortion to increase the weight of their votes to make up for it.
The Supreme Court largely represents the will of the lobbyists who groom candidates starting in law school to make unremarkable careers and avoid any rulings of importance until they can be plucked, like ripe unblemished poison apples, to do the will of their patrons. Right now that is 6 from patronage and 3 not.
I will be unsurprised to hear them suggest that the term limit for President only applied to consecutive terms.
You are suffering from TDS, get help
trumps grand daughter making money off his grand papa, ho hum. Her name isn’t Biden so it’s ok.
trumps kids make boatloads of money of their daddy. No problem, their names do not begin with Hunter.
trump gets indictment on comey, ho hum, nothing to see here, just a republican corrupting the Presidency. But hey, at least his name isn’t Biden.
To all those that raged about Hunters corruption, any comment here?
Hookers, underage girls, pornographic content, using secret service to protect first-son-debauchery.
Nothing to see here either, and it’s SO much more colorful!
The things you’ve listed are a part of the underclass but not all of the lower class. People are so anxious for the Epstein information (which they already have) as proof the wealthy upper class are the same (they aren’t).
The under and lower class live in poverty. The task at hand is finding a solution for the poverty. MIT is attempting to identify characteristics of poverty traps. It’s brutal. It’s a culture.
Ho hum to those the 2016 election outcome disappointed and henceforth recklessly plunged into a perpetual state of anger and neurotic hatred to appease their objection while fueling a needless degree of hyperreactive chaos.
There is no agreement on what a specific Constitutional Crisis is. Any discussion that doesn’t define the characteristics of one are pure puffery.
For my, I think when the Congress allocates funds for a particular purpose and the President ignores the law and either refuses to spend the funds or redirects the funds to another purpose, particularly one they signed, that this is unconstitutional. What makes it a crisis is when Congress does not immediately impeach the President for ignoring the law and with it the Legislative branch. What really makes one is when the Supreme Court says the President has the right to do anything they want. When the three branches have decided to pick and choose the parts of the Constitution they want to use, that is a clear problem. Is it a crisis that is generally recognized? Not if one is on the payroll of those who are using this as an opportunity for financial gain.
How fun that Trump is using government workers as hostages to extort an agreement to destroy access to healthcare for millions of people. Are we tired of winning yet?
W I N N I N G !
Before the Declaration of Independence, there was the Preamble to the first Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Adopted 29 June 1776 by the Virginia Convention, it declared Virginia independent of Great Britain. Written largely by George Mason, it served as a model for the July 4th Declaration.
Yeah’r, but then West Virginia, was essentially allowed to form the newly created Restored Government of Virginia, in 1861 at the Wheeling Convention, making claim they represented all of Virginia, when in fact they represented only the counties under Federal occupation in the Western and Northern portion of Virginia.
Never the less, the Republican dominated Congress officially recognized this band of far Northern Virginia Federal secessionists as the true government of Virginia, by repealing the Ordnance of Secession that the actual duly elected government of Virginia had ratified at the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861. It then created West Virginia from the western counties under Union Army control. The new state was formed and recognized by the U.S. Congress on June 20, 1863, and protected by the U.S. Army.
Underwritten largely by Abraham Lincoln, it served as a model for the old adage; Paybacks is a beach!
Lavrov at UN accuses NATO and EU of declaring ‘real war’ on Russia
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Russia’s foreign minister accused NATO and the European Union of using Ukraine to wage war against his country in a speech on the sidelines of the United Nations on Thursday that Britain dismissed as “false fantasy world distortions.”
He spoke at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers at the U.N. two days after U.S. President Donald Trump, in a rhetorical shift, mocked Moscow’s military performance in Ukraine and said he thought Kyiv could retake all its land.
By: Reuters ~ September 25, 2025
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/lavrov-un-accuses-nato-eu-declaring-real-war-russia-2025-09-25/
Moldova faces key parliamentary election, with EU bid at stake
KYIV, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Moldova holds a high-stakes parliamentary election on Sunday that could determine the fate of its bid to join the European Union, amid what officials have described as a subversive Russian campaign to sway the vote and sabotage the effort.
The country of 2.4 million people has faced multiple crises since Russia’s 2022 invasion of neighbouring Ukraine that have tested the pro-European government, which sees membership of the 27-member bloc as critical to breaking free from Moscow’s orbit.
By: Dan Peleschuk ~ September 25, 2025
[Link] reuters.com/world/europe/moldova-faces-key-parliamentary-election-with-eu-bid-stake-2025-09-25/
Hegseth orders hundreds of military commanders to Virginia for unprecedented meeting
Highly unusual gathering comes as War Secretary Hegseth wants to cut 20% of senior officers
By: Morgan Phillips , Jennifer Griffin – Fox News ~ September 25, 2025
[Link] foxnews.com/politics/hegseth-orders-hundreds-military-commanders-virginia-unprecedented-meeting
It’s about time! Get rid of the dead-wood and bring in the new stock, we got us a War to have. (Thank You War Mongers)
Get Ready:
The US draft, or conscription, officially ended in 1973, but young men are still required to register with the Selective Service System until age 25 to maintain a database for potential mobilization in a national emergency. Reinstating the draft would require new legislation from Congress and approval from the President, a process that would occur only in a severe national crisis.
https://www.sss.gov/register/who-needs-to-register/
Lets go kill us do Russians!
In 2019, my family visited Frisco and found ourselves there during the vibrant Fourth of July celebrations. The town buzzed with excitement from the moment we woke up, and we joined in the day’s festivities. The parade welcomed everyone to participate, creating a lively procession that included a group of children pedaling their bikes and a spirited contingent of “older children” proudly showcasing their beat up Jeeps from the local club. The event also featured the local ski team and equestrian groups, adding to the patriotic spirit of the day.
Communists against the Constitution? Against America?
Sorry Commie!
The Declaration of Independence (TDOI) and the Constitution (TC) are two of the greatest documents ever written, perhaps the greatest, because they have provided Americans with the most free country ever created and continue to do so. The attacks on TDOIATC come from the dedicated left which is now fully nihilist. That is, when I was young there were left wing politicians with whom I had fundamental disagreements but who seemed to value America as a free country. JFK, Adlai Stevenson, Truman, and before my time FDR. All such Democratic politicians are gone. To repeat, all serious Democrats are now fully nihilist. That is, they reject any facts which clash with their ideology and all human values, competence, integrity, excellence, honesty, beauty, etc. as such. As a result they hate, fear, and try to destroy freedom and individual rights (FAIR) wherever they find them, here in America and world wide in order to bring about the left wing police state which they so desperately desire. Their attacks on TC (and by implication if not overt, TDOI) are dedicated to destroying the protection of FAIR which those two documents provide. Their left wing’s malevolent nonsense about ‘dangers to democracy’ are clearly outright lies since the left now believes in murdering anyone with whom they disagree and for political gain and since they have allied themselves with followers of Islam whose credo is ‘murder or enslave all nonbelievers’. There may be a few decent people still supporting the Democrats but if so they are either manipulated or outright ignored. In summary, the calls for an end to TC are from Democrats who want to turn America into a left wing police state and know that they must first destroy TC to remove TC’s defense of FAIR in America.
Excellent statement, mayfwriter.
To add: I don’t believe there are any “normal” democrats left (such as those you named, though I wouldn’t put FDR in that group);
they have either become radicalized or switched to Independent or Republican domains, where they KNOW reason and morals prevail.
Trump Endorses Breathing!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNblN2sOWoc/
The TDS Libs will stop just because Trump is doing it.
“We create the anarchy we want in the world.” dated 23 Sep 25
https://anarchistnews.org/content/call-anarchist-action-america
(as I said yesterday, more like narcissistic attention-getting, self-aggrandizement-as one those who “will go down in history as_______” in otherwise unremarkable and unaccomplished lives.)
correction: “as those who “will go down in history as_______” in otherwise unremarkable and unaccomplished lives.”
p.s. Open up the hyperlink I just cited and look to the right of the page. It lists all the upcoming GLOBAL appearances the organization will be making
Off topic but I’m mad as hell as the moment: Microsoft should be broken up. They’ve made Microsoft Office unrecognizable. They do this to force developers to take more Microsoft training. That monopoly needs to end. I’ve just lost months of work because they’ve turned Microsoft Office into a maze and a prison.
On The Off Topic
In a free society, competition is the answer; it is the only answer.
Americans are free to start a business to compete with Microsoft and steal its unhappy customers away.
The alternative is dictatorship, which, incidentally, was an idea of Karl Marx.
“The Dictatorship of Diogenes.”
It has a lovely ring to it, don’t you think?
Works for me 🙂
Anonymous – so you think antitrust laws are not a thing? Or perhaps unnecessary?
Americans have a right to freedom, the freedom to “pursue happiness,” absolute private property, free enterprise, free markets, etc.
Unconstitutional “antitrust laws” deny individuals their constitutional rights.
The answer to monopoly is not caterwauling; it is vigorous and effective competition.
For crying out loud, you need me to tell you that?
Unconstitutional “antitrust laws” . . .
I don’t know if the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, the FTC Act, etc. are unconstitutional or not. The fact they’ve been around for over a century makes me think they’ve withstood legal challenges. So when you call them unconstitutional, is that your personal opinion, or can you point to any legal precedent to back it up.
And secession has been not prohibited and fully constitutional since 1860.
And Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional from 1973 to 2022.
Please cite the Constitution.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 was found unconstitutional in Marbury.
You’ll find the dictatorship you seek in the Communist Manifesto.
Guess you’ve never heard of Monopoly or Anti-trust laws, the stiff shutting down of competition by tycoons who corner the market.
Please cite the Constitution.
Not the best comment. How much money does Prince Gates have? Microsoft? Here, let me buy you out.
Please cite the Constitution for any materiality of Gates’ wealth et al.
Linux Mint is your salvation, try it on a USB first.
VOILA! The free enterprise, free market solution! That’s what the Constitution of the American Founders and Framers is all about!
So use LibreOffice.
So use LibreOffice.
What ticks me off are where have all the phone booths gone and phone books. Where’s the Delta airlines person making my reservation? FORCED use of the net like fish reeled in.
Diogenes,
Try a Linux distro. They have a office suite called LibreOffice that does everything MS office does. You can save docs, spreadsheets in MS format too.
https://distrowatch.com/
Mint, Debian, Ubuntu are all pretty good. You will have to burn the .iso image to a flash drive. https://pendriveapps.com/lili-live-linux-usb-creator/