A More Perfect Union

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

Do you recognize those words?  That’s the Preamble of the United States Constitution.  Fifty-two words to sum up the bedrock on which our country is based.  Fifty-two words to name our most precious dream: A more perfect Union. 

When the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, our Union was far from perfect.  That’s why delegates from 12 of the 13 states (Rhode Island sat out) decided to meet in Philadelphia in May of 1787.  The list of delegates reads like a political All-Star team: Benjamin Franklin was there.  Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were there.  George Washington was there.  (Thomas Jefferson described the convention as “a gathering of demi-gods.”)  The most important thing for them to decide was how our nation would be governed.  Eventually they determined that, in order for this experiment in democracy to work, we would need both a legislature for making laws and an executive to carry them out.  That’s how Congress was formed and the Presidency created.  That’s how our Government came to be. 

But the Union still wasn’t perfect.  That’s where we come in. 

Every time Congress meets or a President is inaugurated, they get down to the business of governing our country.  But they can be judged by only one body: us, the citizens of the United States.  Sure, the Supreme Court determines if Congress’ laws are actually legal—but to decide whether our laws actually work—to figure out if our government is doing the right thing—no one else has that power but you and me.  We’re the last form of oversight, the greatest check, the most important balance.  We are the Union.  And it’s our actions that determine how perfect it will be. 

That’s why I’m so excited for this November.  I can’t wait for the chance to vote. 

I know that not everybody feels the same way, and I can understand why.  Every year it seems like Washington becomes more and more divided, and political pundits more and more obnoxious. 

And everyone knows you never talk politics around the dinner table. After all, who wants to waste time arguing during dinner?

Then too, some people find the actual voting process annoying.  It means showing up late for work, or giving up your lunch break, or coming home late for dinner.  All to stand in line for twenty minutes, then check off a few names.  It’s hardly glamorous, is it?  And yet, if you look at history, nothing about democracy is glamorous.  When our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, it was in the middle of a hot, sweltering summer.  We like to picture all those great men constantly thumping their chests and giving speeches, but I’m willing to bet that in reality, most days looked like this: men in long-sleeve shirts and pants, sweating bullets, their wigs, hats and coats discarded on the floor, slumping over in their chairs for hours every day.  They couldn’t even open the windows or the curtains because their deliberations were a secret.  Poor Benjamin Franklin had gout.  While there were 55 delegates in total, only 30 to 40 would be present any given day, most of them constantly disagreeing.  New York’s delegates went home early.  Hardly the romantic image we see in paintings. 

And yet, despite all their flaws, they were perfecting the Union. 

This November, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing—every one of us who stands in line, every time someone enters a booth, every church or school that gives up its building for a day, and every overworked and underpaid volunteer who sits at a table for hour after hour crossing out names and handing out I Voted stickers. 

Whenever you watch a debate, read a newspaper article, or do even the slightest bit of research, you’re fulfilling the Founders’ dream.  It may not be romantic, but it’s still incredible, because, we are the People.  Every vote we cast is a vote for justice, a vote for tranquility, a vote for liberty.  We may never be as famous as the Founding Fathers, but in our own small way, we’re just as important.  Because, like them, we too, are working to form a more perfect Union.  That’s worth twenty minutes, wouldn’t you say? 

I hope this year you’ll take the time to vote.  What’s more, I hope you’ll take the time to figure out why you’re voting how you do.  The more informed we all are, the better our country will be.

Our nation is a long way from perfect.  Not all our laws are just; not all our candidates right.  We make mistakes.  But that’s why we vote not once, but continuously.  That’s why we’re constantly striving to improve.  Because as long as we do, we’ll have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, that shall not perish from the earth. 

We’ll be one step closer to a more perfect Union.