Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed., 2001, p. 1009, defines “irony” :“the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” And “hypocrisy”: “a pretense of having a virtuous character , moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not really possess.” Id., p. 943.

The Convention acted outside its charter to “devise such further provisions that appear [ ] necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.” Stewart, “The Summer of 1787,” 2007, p. 68.

The Constitution established a structure - a framework - for government and is light on virtues: “...secure the Blessings of Liberty...” Preamble. Our Rights are protected, not created, by The Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) and later amendments.

The Bill of Rights was floated as a sop to those concerned that few protections of rights are in The Constitution, a document of ironies produced by the 1787 Convention, a convention rife with hypocrisy. The delegates were white, male landowners, of whom “at least a third of them” claimed ownership over other human beings. Stewart, “The Summer of 1787,” 2007, p. 68. Yet they spoke of liberty and freedom.

Nearly all of the delegates were wealthy and yet James Madison, dubbed the Father of the Constitution, wrote that “the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.” Federalist 10. Was Madison a commie?

The downstairs windows of The Statehouse were kept “closed so their speeches ... would not be heard outside.” Collier, Decision in Philadelphia, 1986, p. 103. They agreed to a “rule against publication” that “was a code of silence: a complete news blackout.” Stewart, p. 51.

We have functioned under The Constitution for over 230 years. Our greatest Constitutional crisis to date, The Civil War, resulted from evil protected by The Constitution as a compromise on slavery, although “slavery” does not appear in the original Constitution.

It’s little wonder that we still feel the effects of slavery. It either was legal or actually, after The Constitution was ratified, protected by law for a greater time (approximately 240 years) than it has been illegal (1865 to date). People have to be told “Black Lives Matter.”

We face a Constitutional Crisis today. Supporters of a would-be dictator want to reject the vote of the greater number of voters to install trump. They view the “Electoral College” as a means to keep trump in the Oval Office, but The Constitution does not mention “Electoral College.”

There is no body chosen to select a president. Each State determines how it selects “Electors.” U.S. Const., Art. II, sec. 1. “The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for” Pres and VP. Amend. XII. Indiana requires an elector vote for her or his party’s Pres/VP candidates. I.C. § 3-10-4-1.7.

The last time our two-party system hung in limbo, 1840 to 1865, was because we had mollified those who ignored the inevitability of abolition and forestalled an explosion (the Civil War) that was bound to occur.
We cannot afford to write one party off as being the property of reactionary forces.

I hope that those trump supporters who call for a boycott of Georgia’s January runoff elections for two U.S. Senate seats are successful. In the meantime the GOP has to be taken back from the racists who now control it and returned to the progressive party it has been for most of its history.