Exercise power through
rule of law, not fealty
During the impeachment hearings, some Republicans claimed that reputable witnesses within the federal service failed to support the president as if they had taken an oath to defend Donald Trump rather than to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Trump often behaves as if members of the federal service, including the uniformed services, owe their loyalty to him in fealty. Fealty is defined as loyalty to a feudal lord and implies loyalty in one direction, from servant to lord.
Though often referred to as “public servants,” federal employees are servants to the Constitution and the American people, not in fealty to a single elected official. Loyalty is not a one-way street from public servant, or United States citizen, to president.
Military members recognize the president as commander in chief. Their oath exhibits service and duty to the nation rather than fealty to any single elected official:
“I (name), 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; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Military manuals and doctrine bind them to the president and bind commanders-in-chief and the chain of command to leadership and management to support their missions, missions often undertaken in fearful danger and hardship. Loyalty is not a one-way street from private soldier to commander in chief.
President William Henry Harrison once said, “There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.”
We must trust the Constitution in our government of the people, by the people, for the people, and exercise power through the rule of law rather than fealty.
Don Strimbeck, COL USA RET
Bill Wyant, LTC USA RET
Morgantown
