Jon Stewart was ridiculing the Congressmen who missed their "oath of office". However, I was very disturbed when I heard the actual oath.
The Constitution specifies the exact oath of office for the President. For Congressmen and other Federal employees, the Constitution specifies the oath but not the exact text.
These two pages have a good summary.
The original oath of office for Congressmen was pretty simple:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.After the US Civil War, it was extended to:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.I found this extremely disturbing. I was offendeded by "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic".
I know that the Constitution isn't a valid contract. The Constitution is a massive fraud. State thugs have a monopoly for interpreting and enforcing the Constitution. The slaves are SOL when State thugs claim too much power.
Does that mean I'm an "enemy of the Constitution"? As part of their oath of office, do Congressmen swear that I'm their enemy?
"The Constitution" is an abstract fictional idea. I can't be an "enemy of the Constitution" any more than I can be an "enemy of Santa Claus". A more accurate statement is "My enemies are people who use violence (or threat of violence) to steal from me."
If government is a voluntary contract, then do people have the right to get rid of it and replace it with something better? According to Congress' oath of office, the answer is "no". The main issue of the Civil War was that people don't have the right to renounce support for the Constitution.
The above oath is the same oath that soldiers take. Does that mean that "Congressman" is a military job and not a legislative job?
The oath that judges take is the above oath PLUS:
I, XXX XXX, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as XXX under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.A judge *ALSO* declares war on "enemies of the Constitution". If you're a tax protester/resister, than the judge is obligated by his oath to rule against you, because tax protesters and some political protesters are "enemies of the Constitution".
Some people say "FSK, if you want to change things, why don't you run for Congress? Why don't you support less dishonest politicians?" First, I'd have no chance of actually getting elected. Second, I couldn't take an "oath to support the Constitution" in good faith, because I know it isn't a valid contract. Of course, most Congressmen violate their oath, but in their own minds they didn't.
Finally, as an honest politician, I'd only be making slightly more than I get paid now as a wage slave software engineer. It wouldn't be worth the hassle. A dishonest politician gets paid his salary *PLUS* whatever State resources he can steal. It would be much better if each Congressmen directly wrote himself a check for $100M and otherwise behaved honestly. Instead, much more is stolen indirectly via pork projects and lobbyist-written laws.
A Congressman's actual salary is illusion. The real value is all the State resources he can steal. This means that dishonest politicians squeeze out honest politicians. A dishonest politician's effective salary is much higher than that of an honest politician. In effect, the State "bids" for dishonest politicians, because they get paid more and have more incentive to seek political office.
It was offensive to see Congress' "oath of office". Every Federal government employee takes that oath. Am I an "enemy of the Constitution", because I know it's a fraud? Does every Federal government employee, as part of his "oath of office", declare that he's my enemy?