“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America”

I didn’t say it, Senator Obama did.  Speaking tonight at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, Senator Obama said, near the beginning of his speech:  “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” 

Remember, Senator Obama himself told us that words matter in his “Just Words” speech on February 19, 2008 (see the YouTube of this speech here).  So are they just words Senator Obama?  Fundamentally transforming?  Just words? or words we should investigate and understand their meaning.  Seems like you told us words matter, so we’ll go ahead and investigate these words.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary from the year 2000 defines the words fundamentally and transforming as follows:

ADJECTIVE:	1a. Of or relating to the foundation or base; elementary: the fundamental laws of the universe. b. Forming or serving as an essential component of a system or structure; central: an example that was fundamental to the argument. c. Of great significance or entailing major change: a book that underwent fundamental revision.
NOUN:	1. Something that is an essential or necessary part of a system or object.
OTHER FORMS:	funda·mental·ly —ADVERB

VERB:	Inflected forms: trans·formed, trans·form·ing, trans·forms
TRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To change markedly the appearance or form of: “A thick, fibrous fog had transformed the trees into ghosts and the streetlights into soft, haloed moons”(David Michael Kaplan). 2. To change the nature, function, or condition of; convert. See synonyms at convert.

So as we can see from the definitions, fundamentally transforming something (in this case the United States of America) means to markedly change the nature, function, or condition of the foundation or base, forming or serving as an essential component of a system.

So what is it, exactly, that Senator Obama needs to markedly change?  What is the foundation or base of the United States of America, the essential component of our system (our government)?  I would argue it is the Constitution of the United States of America.  But does the U.S. Constitution need to be markedly changed?  I would argue, of course it does not.  Senator Obama couldn’t have possibly meant to fundamentally transform the Constitution of the United States of America, could he?

Well, let’s look at some of his other words and find out.  In the last Presidential Debate this subject of the Constitution came up in the form of the judges the two candidates would appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Senator Obama told us in essence that he believes the Constitution of the United States of America is a “living” document  and therefore would appoint judges in this vain.  In essence, he talked about judges putting on their 21st century hats and interpreting the Constitution in modern day America.  Let’s look at his exact words to be sure:

“[W]e need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

This school of thought is typically referred to as a philosophy that the Constitution is a “living” document.  As George Neumayr pointed out in his October 29th article in The American Spectator entitled “Obama’s Living-Will Constitution,” the reason this judicial philosophy is dangerous is as follows:

Why not? He is on record saying that judges need to view the Constitution through the prism of political correctness <snip>

This is creeping tyranny cast as “change.” The whole point of a written constitution with prescribed procedures for its official change is to prevent this tyranny and the inevitable chaos that erupts after the people realize the meaningless character of law under such arrogance. After all, if the “living” constitutionalists don’t have to listen to the words of the framers and can insert new meanings into the place of those words, the people, by the same logic, don’t have to listen either and can reject those new meanings just as lawlessly.

So if Senator Barack Obama views our Constitution as a “living” document, and the most fundamental part of America is its Constitution, then when he says in a speech five days before the general election for his Presidential Candidacy, isn’t he clearly telling us that the Constitution of the United States of America needs to be fundamentally transformed?  I would argue, he is.  I would argue that every day in his stump speeches, in his 30 minute infomercial, in his acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado, he tells us exactly his plans for this country.  Senator Obama is not a mystery to the American public, he tells us everyday what hope and change mean to him.

Today he told us that he intends on fundamentally transforming the United States of America.  I argue he means to markedly change the foundation of our country, i.e. the United States Constitution.  Is that the kind of change you want?  I didn’t think so.  Now go out and vote on November 4th because words do matter and are not just words.

If you would like to read a more thorough discussion on this topic check out Selwyn Duke’s article “Obama the Justifier” on The American Thinker Website.