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The Constitution: As Important As the Bible
Mar 10, 2026
America was made for a purpose - to prosper, to live better, to be all one can be; they are one and the same thing. Our Constitution was designed to deliver that purpose. The Constitution is a business plan, a prototype invention intentionally designed to grow people.
The Constitution was a paradigm change in who governed whom, and for what ultimate purpose people would govern each other. By amending it with the Bill of Rights, it became a purposeful enterprise framework for people to prosper first, not the more powerful, self-centered, often tyrannical, and prosperity-limiting special interests.
The Constitution was designed to better accomplish Maslow’s 1943 landmark pyramid of the human ‘Hierarchy of Needs’. Being all one can be is the highest level of human need for prosperity and is inherent in all a person’s most basic needs. A person who lacks any of the basic securities of air, water, nutrition, home, and health is still striving to prosper and be all they can be.
Prosperity is the origin of commerce and finance. Abraham Lincoln nailed it, saying, ”Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves a much higher consideration.”
Today, 250 years after inventing the Constitution, the world knows for certain what our Founders were miraculously led to believe only in faith: that it is in humankind's common makeup to want to create, to help one another, and to prosper as one is best able. That is life 101, why people invest in themselves and others, create businesses, work at jobs, and relish in a common good they helped to create.
Given a choice, we would likely choose to work in businesses that benefit ourselves, our families, and our shared future on Earth over work that would reduce any of those. Prosperity is larger than just money or a financial target. Regardless of one’s station in life, prosperity means living more securely, more completely, and more (hope)fully.
The Constitution can be a life insurance policy we invest in with our votes and taxes. During the Cold War, my American quality of life and standard of living were in sharp contrast to the oppressed lives and often cruel methods under Soviet authoritarianism and European colonialism. The Constitution seemed like the greatest life insurance policy on Earth for a person TO BE ALL ONE CAN BE. Today, I know it isn’t a policy with guarantees. It should be a manufacturing system, an enterprise with a business-like purpose to build better lives.
We were wrong to think democracy and capitalism were America’s common unifying purposes. They are just processes, albeit critically important value-adding processes, in the constitutional system designed to build value-added lives.
Now there are two dozen nations with better-scoring life insurance policies than ours. They are knockoffs of our prototype Constitution, democratic representative systems, each achieving different prosperity outcomes for people. The renowned business consultant Peter Drucker famously said,” The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.” There are 7 billion potential customers who want what our prototype system was designed to do: enable better lives.
Building better people and lives, nurturing people TO BE ALL THEY CAN BE is the greatest business opportunity in the history of humanity! America is failing to improve or sustain the democratic system we invented for that purpose. We have run out of excuses to not reinvent ourselves yet again by taking the science of government to the next level. We, and every nation, democratic or otherwise, should commit to governing ourselves for a truly COMMON (global) UNIFYING PURPOSE - building better lives.
The Founders' concept of happiness and equality is mirrored in both ‘The Golden Rule’ and the Constitution. Both intend to achieve the same purpose: improved, more prosperous lives. The Constitution is as inspired and important as every religious version of ‘The Golden Rule’. For even greater benefit to humanity, the Constitution is an actual operational plan and social contract with laws to hold us accountable for human self-sustainment.
Perhaps both humanity and the Constitution were divinely inspired. Invented in an era lit by candlelight and lantern, the Founders could not fathom the electronic possibilities of the World Wide Web, the Hubble telescope, or a photograph of a ‘Pale Blue Dot’ (Earth) taken from an American spacecraft 3.7 billion miles from Philadelphia. Looking back at ourselves from outer space, our faith in a Creator and the possibility of a real heaven is more within reach now than ever before. Maybe mankind’s faith, hope and knowledge are beginning to come together; if what we see in that pale blue dot is actually the heaven we imagine. If Earth is not heaven, it is for certain our only home. There is no sensible reason not to treat Earth as we would treat the heaven we hope for.
During the Cold War we changed America’s motto from E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one) to ‘In God We Trust’. We are exponentially more knowledgeable now and should hold ourselves more accountable to the supreme value of truth and trust. An improved motto would be - ‘In God We Trust, and God Trust Us’... to be all we can be.
The world is no more ready for another paradigm shift in the purpose of government than it was for the one America created 250 years ago. But the reality is this. Now the world knows what it couldn’t have then. The ‘Golden Rule’ is about building better lives and a better planet for an existential purpose. That business transcends religion, borders, race, and culture. It is not a business that will prosper with a strategy of domination and devaluation of truth and trust. America’s business, our common unifying purpose, must be a healthy competition for constant improvement and quality of the most important product to humanity - BETTER PEOPLE, LIVES, and PLANET.
Jerry Branum, Captain USN(Ret), is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the National Defense University, Industrial College. He realized in 2017 that military service was no longer the first line of defense of America and the Constitution. Voters are. He volunteers with Veterans for All Voters and other non-profits trying to make elections fair for soley people. Not as proud, but still an investor in and customer of The Constitution.
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What War Powers?
Mar 07, 2026
This week the House has cut its session to just Weds-Thurs while the Senate has its standard Monday evening - Thursday schedule.
There's the usual mix in the House of some bills likely to pass with large majorities and and a couple that will probably be party-line or close to.
A moderate number of committee meetings are scheduled across both the House and Senate.
But what will likely be occupying most legislators' minds is the war launched against Iran this weekend.
As we've discussed in past posts, if one is abiding by the constitution, then Congress must be consulted on, and agree to, a war.
Instead, the Trump Administration has launched this war without consulting Congress. Thus, this week we're expecting votes in both chambers on whether to approve the war that's already ongoing or not. The House resolution, according to Punchbowl might pass while the Senate one is unlikely to do so.
Even if one or both of bills made it through both chambers, the President could simply veto any bill limiting his actions knowing that successful veto overrides are extremely rare.
If enough members of Congress support the attack on Iran to preclude a successful veto override, do the members who oppose it have any other options?
Yes they do, although you'd not know it from the comments many legislators are making today. For example, earlier today, Rep. Jeffries (D-NY8) was on CNN suggesting that the administration had chosen to buy weapons at the expense of programs for the US population. But as Aaron Reichlin-Melnick pointed out, "'The administration' didn’t find billions for bombs, Congress gave the U.S. military billions for bombs. Trump is just using them up."
And that's where Congress's real power potentially lies: in appropriations. Our colleagues at the First Branch Forecast discuss this in detail.
The bottom line is that this, like tariffs, is an area where Congress has ceded its own authority to the Executive Branch.
Another area where Republican legislators are looking to cede their authority is with respect to the SAVE America Act. This bill has proven controversial due to the barriers it would create for US citizens who want to register to vote. So, today, Semafor reports that some Senate Republicans are saying they'd like to see the President bypass Congress entirely. That may seem odd on its face; why would someone say out loud on the record that they'd really like to be rendered even more irrelevant? The answer is that this way, if it goes poorly, the president takes the blame and the members can dodge accountability for policies that they support.
With the attack on Iran introducing considerable uncertainty into the week, we'll see you all on Friday to find out what Congress decided to spend their time on.
What War Powers? was originally published on GovTrack.us and is republished with permission.
Amy West is the GovTrack research and communications manager.
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Sen. Chuck Schumer criticized the Iran War on Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats are mostly split along party lines in support and criticism of the war.
(Marissa Fernandez/MNS)
Senators Express Support, Criticism of Future Military Action in Iran
Mar 06, 2026
WASHINGTON — Senators seemed split along party lines over future military action in the Middle East after a classified intelligence briefing on Tuesday afternoon. Democrats called for increased clarity on the objectives and justifications for attacks, while Republicans supported the Trump administration’s current plan.
The conflicting reactions came as both the House and the Senate are scheduled to vote on a war powers resolution on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. If passed, the resolution would limit further military actions in Iran without congressional approval.
Most Republicans criticized the measure and said that Congress should not take authority away from the president.
“We don’t need 535 commanders-in-chief,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday. “The commander in chief is the president of the United States, and he has a duty in Article Two to be able to protect American interests, and he is initiating that and doing that with great authority and great effect.”
Democrats criticized the president for striking without congressional approval.
The Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war, but dictates that the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
“Nobody gets to hide and give the President an easy pass or an end run around the Constitution,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said regarding the war powers resolution. “Everybody's got to declare whether they're for this war or against it.”
President Donald Trump launched strikes on Iran early Saturday morning. As of Wednesday morning, over 1000 people, including six U.S. service members, have been killed in the conflict, reported CBS News. Trump and members of his administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, offered conflicting justifications for the war and different estimates of how long it might last.
Democrats expressed worry over the lack of clarity from the Trump administration.
“They have shifting goals, different goals all the time, different answers every day,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday. “And I'm truly worried about the mission. There's no set plan being here day after day. ‘We're going to do this, this, this and this,’ and these are the reasons why you end up with an endless war.”
Schumer added that the answers given during Tuesday’s intelligence briefing were "unsatisfying."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., echoed Schumer’s concerns about the unclear objectives.
“I am more fearful than ever after that briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops in the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have,” said Blumenthal. “But I also am no more clear on what priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist activities.”
Blumenthal added that the “administration owes it” to the American people to release information about the Iran war.
Republicans came out of Tuesday’s briefing praising the administration and its objectives.
“They want to make sure that the ability for them to strike us anywhere at any time is gone,” said Mullin. “No way they'll be able to make a nuclear weapon or enrich uranium again. To take out their navy so they can't disrupt commerce in the shipping lanes, and to take out their ability to restock and rebuild their missiles and drones. That's the objective here.”
Mullin added that the U.S is “going to eliminate the threat that’s been threatening us for 47 years,” which “no other president was willing to stand up against Iran and eliminate it like President Trump.”
Others, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., expressed similar confidence in the U.S. military's power.
“Who’s going to win a war between the Iranian regime and the United States? We are. We’re going to win this conflict,” Graham said.
Marissa Fernandez covers politics for Medill on the Hill.
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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers will call special sessions to ban partisan gerrymandering via constitutional amendment, as national redistricting battles intensify.
IVN Staff
Tony Evers’ Final Mission as Governor: End Partisan Gerrymandering for Good
Mar 04, 2026
MADISON, Wis. - In his final State of the State address, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced that he plans to call a special legislative session in the Spring to put an end to partisan gerrymandering “once and for all.”
And he will keep calling lawmakers into session until happens.
- YouTube youtu.be
“There’s one thing that we should all be able to agree on, which is that politics should stay out of redistricting from start to finish,” he said.
He noted that while political differences may get in the way of creating a nonpartisan redistricting commission, state lawmakers and officials can still work together to ban partisan gerrymandering.
And so, he is going to call a special session so that the legislature can adopt a constitutional amendment to make the practice illegal. He also said he was willing to keep calling the legislature into session until they pass the amendment.
“I won’t hesitate to bring the Legislature into special session later this year in August. Or September. Or October,” he remarked. “Heck, I’m old enough to remember when the legislature was willing to meet in December!
- YouTube youtu.be
Evers’ announcement fell under the radar nationally at a time when officials in other states are still trying to push new congressional maps on voters and candidates – like in Virginia and Maryland.
Additionally, 5 states have implemented new maps passed by their legislature in 2025, including Texas, California (which voters approved under Prop 50), Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio.
Utah will also use a new congressional map under court order.
Evers said the current chaos created by this bipartisan gerrymandering fight started with President Donald Trump, which is true. But then he added, “Democratic Legislatures have been put in the unthinkable position of having to respond by trying to restore balance to our elections.”
This suggests that Democratic-controlled states like Illinois, New Mexico, and Maryland didn’t already have egregiously gerrymandered maps – and that what started with Trump was not also an opportunity for Democrats.
In California, for example, Democrats tossed out an independent congressional map approved unanimously by the state’s redistricting commission for a map that gives their party an advantage in 92% of the state’s US House districts.
On the same day California Prop 50 passed, Maryland Governor Wes Moore called for the creation of a redistricting committee to come up with a new map that would hand the Democratic Party all of the state’s congressional districts.
Moore is getting pushback in the Maryland Legislature.
This is why independent reformers do not refer to the “you take our seats, we will take yours” mentality as “rebalancing.” They call it a race to the bottom, because when officials "fight fire with fire" everyone inevitably gets burned.
While Evers may not be willing to hold his own party accountable for its role in escalation, he wants no part of the power grab.
“Compared to all of the chaos, dysfunction, and recklessness in Washington, here in Wisconsin, we’ve worked to lead by example. And a big part of that is the fact that, today, lawmakers are elected under the fair maps I signed into law,” he said.
“But here’s the problem, Wisconsin: new maps are redrawn every ten years. While we have fair maps today, we still don’t have a nonpartisan redistricting process in place. That means there’s no guarantee Wisconsinites will still have fair maps after the next US Census.”
In 2024, Evers signed into law new legislative maps that he initially submitted to the state Supreme Court for consideration. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed his maps with bipartisan support.
The maps enacted for state House and Senate have been given A grades by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. However, the state’s congressional map still has an F, failing in partisan fairness in particular.
Evers previously pledged to push for an independent redistricting process that takes map drawing out of the hands of legislators. His remarks at the 2026 State of the State signal his skepticism that it will happen under the current political environment.
So, for now, the proposed constitutional amendment will have to do – if the legislature gets on board. In order to amend the state constitution, a proposed amendment needs to clear the legislature in two consecutive legislative sessions.
Tony Evers’ Final Mission as Governor: End Partisan Gerrymandering for Good was originally published by Independent Voter News and is republished with permission.
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