The Sidney Sun-Telegraph - Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper

Today (Wednesday) is Veterans Day. Our forefathers risked their lives in order to preserve our constitutional republic as well as the freedoms contained in our American Constitution. These principles of liberty are worth defending and they are worth dying for. Remember to thank a veteran today for preserving our American way of life. Unfortunately, our great American way of life is still being threatened today.

I am a Constitutionalist. Constitutionalism is the political philosophy that government should be limited in its power and bound in its authority by a constitution. Constitutionalism is foundational to our American republic. Contrary to popular opinion, the United States of America is not a democracy; our Founding Fathers actually despised democracy as a form of mob rule. Instead, they formed our nation as a constitutional republic. This means that the supreme law of our land is the U.S. Constitution.

The United States of America is currently in the middle of one of the greatest Constitutional crises in our nation’s history. The presidential election of 2020 has presented challenges to our constitutional republic never seen before. When dead people are allowed to vote in Nevada, when votes are allowed to be counted after the deadline in Georgia, and when Republican poll watchers are forced to observe the election process through a pair of binoculars at a distance of more than 25 feet away from where the counts take place in Philadelphia, there is just cause for concern that election fraud may be taking place.

The integrity of our elections is sacred to our constitutional form of government. So, whenever we suspect that voting fraud may be taking place, our politicians have a fundamental duty to stand up against it. The American people must have confidence in the integrity of our elections. As John Locke said, “…a man can never be obliged in conscience to submit to any power, unless he can be satisfied who is the person who has the right to exercise that power over him.”

As an elected official, today I am calling upon our courts and our elected officials in Congress to bring confidence back to our elections. Unless the current situation is resolved in an amenable way, the American people will be left bewildered, disenfranchised and alienated from the electoral process.

I am especially calling upon U.S. Senator Ben Sasse to uphold the integrity of our elections. Ben Sasse has prided himself on being a strict constitutionalist in his campaign ads. So, where is he now that our election hangs in the balance? Sasse’s silence has been deafening. Instead of defending the integrity of the electoral process, he chose to badmouth our president two weeks before the election.

Instead of criticizing the president, he could have simply said, “I disagree with the president on certain matters, but when it comes to the election, if you believe in freedom, if you uphold the right to life, and if you believe in limited government, then there is only one correct choice.”

Personal passions and dislikes should never interfere with a patriot’s commitment to Constitutionalism. Unfortunately, it appears that Sasse is unable to divorce his strict constitutionalism from his gross dislike of Donald Trump. His passions have gotten the better of him. Perhaps, he is selfishly positioning himself to make his own run for the White House in four years. Nevertheless, our nation needs leadership at the highest level, and Sasse’s isn’t giving us any. To be sure, his re-election has already been made secure. If Sasse continues to sit comfortably on the sideline, the people of Nebraska will surely take notice of it.