The American Civil Liberties Union is promoting what they’re calling the “People’s Oath.” The protest campaign tells us that when President-elect Trump takes his oath of office on Friday, the people will take a similar oath: “I do solemnly swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
Added to these initial words of the ACLU version are specifications for what the oath must mean in the official lexicon of American liberal identity politics: to ensure that my daughter never has to endure racism, or has anyone telling her what she can or can’t do with her body, or sexuality, or religion.
We are reminded of the importance of this oath especially for gay sex, and especially for Islam. We are told of the importance of all such oath-taking for a woman’s right to choose, especially the choice to abort the very small person developing in her womb. “To ensure that Planned Parenthood’s doors stay open,” is even included as one of many suggestions for how people can choose to conclude the oath.
The #PeoplesOath rightly identifies racism as a wicked thing, though it fails to say why it is wicked, and it fails to recognize the dignity of God’s image in every human person.
The ACLU fails to see abortion as a wicked act, which dismembers the same image, and deprives a human person the freedom to exist. The ACLU are certainly engaged in a kind of moralizing, commending the good and resisting evil. But their moral calculus is confused, and they seem to be morally Manichean. Distinctions between good and evil are finally reserved for the ethereal idea of a coastal people (good) and the president they did not vote for (evil).
The wording of the oaths, both presidential and at least the first sentence of the ACLU’s newly formed one, are actually from Article II, Section One, Clause 8 of the Constitution. The Constitution, however, is not a document designed to support identity politics. It was made for a people who were by and large Christian, and who sought to protect, preserve and promote a common good. The Constitution was designed to protect the freedom of a people, and the public thing (respublica) they pursue.
The president takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution precisely on behalf of the American people. To pit “the people” against the president not simply at the level of party politics, but at the level of the Constitution undermines the very thing they hope this president will not undermine.
The ACLU is a partisan institution. If it were not, it would have called foul on President Obama’s trampling of the first amendment rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor long ago.
Of course, the Constitution protects the freedom of the ACLU too. But what kind of freedom do they exercise with this #PeoplesOath? They should think carefully about what it means to begin sawing off the branch of liberty they sit upon as they call for popular resistance to a representative of the people before he even takes the very oath of office intended to protect them.
C.C. Pecknold (@ccpecknold) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate professor of Theology at The Catholic University of America, located in Washington, D.C. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
