The proper way to think of the Constitution of the United States is to remember that it confers absolutely no rights on people.

That's right. The Constitution is not a document which grants us rights.

The Constitution is the charter of the Federal Government. It is the document which created our government, and without it, the United States government would cease to exist.

The Constitution lists the powers that we - as in "We, the People" are willing to give to a government. It's a relatively short list.

The underlying principle is that We - the People - had all of the political power. This is what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote:

"...that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."

We ceded some power over ourselves to the Federal government, but not very much. Certainly the bargain did not call for the massive, intrusive federal government we have now.

It's troubling to me that people in the central government are acting as if they've been granting us individual rights out of the goodness of their hearts for two centuries, but in the modern world it's just no longer realistic, so it's time to curtail all these unnecessary rights in the name of national security, the war on terrorism, the war on drugs, the war on organized crime, the Cold War, etcetera.

Simply, it's not up to John Ashcroft, it's not up to Gordon Smith, it's not up to George Bush, Bill Clinton, Jesse Helms, Dick Gephardt, Dennis Hastert, Tom Daschle, or any other politician to tell us which rights we can and cannot enjoy. The Constitution does not give them that power. Each and every one of them took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution - not to go Washington D.C.and see who can take the most money and freedom from the people of other states and use it to reward their friends and major contributors.

It is time these politicians started honoring their oaths.

Your rights are not theirs to bargain away. If you elect me, I will understand always and foremost that your rights are yours, they are not mine to trade for favors. I believe that having one - just one - US Senator who acted as if he or she believed this would vastly improve our nation.