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threatens our democracy would be an issue of national security. If democracy is the soul of our national identity, then the Constitution is its heart and it is, by extension, precisely because of the risks posed to the Constitution that we protect our borders from invasion, because invaders, in some way, threaten our Constitution and in so doing, pose a threat to our democratic way of life.

If we had been successfully attacked by the Soviet Union in a Third World War, it is easy to imagine that the first thing to be tossed on the burn pile would have been the document that gave official birth to our nation. The Constitution and democracy would have died in the ashes and a dictatorial state feigning communism would have taken their places. The popular Cold War slogan, "Better Dead Than Red," challenging its adherents to die fighting commies or, heaven forbid, if we lose the fight, kill yourself after you've killed your wife and children, is reminder enough that freedom as guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution, was vital to the most insecure, anticommunist Americans.

Consequent to protecting the Constitution and the democracy, which it informs, it becomes imperative that we delineate, as best we can, the extent to which the world can threaten our country. In what ways are democracy and its foundational ideals vulnerable? If the target of our demise is the Constitution of the United States, then it should follow that if some internal force, not limited to being an armed force or insurrection, can in any way threaten the sanctity of the Constitution, it also would be considered a threat to national security. Among the risks: climate change and its extreme offsprings, economic instability from too much personal and foreign-held US debt, failed public education that fuels class war between the haves and have-nots, genetically modified crops and "Frankenfoods" that escape unbiased scientific review, dwindling world fresh water supply, disease, failed food supply due to climate and/or inaccessible oil, inadequate electricity, hemorrhaging US employment, and more.

With our focus on profit, consumption, and ambiguous terrorism, we in the United States are not taking care to monitor the truly critical elements of our national security. Who will lead the charge to defend us from these threats? How will we break free of politically motivated distractions? Can Barack Obama truly unite the US and the world so that together we may fully face the imminence and urgency of the national and global crises?

Learn more about this author, Michael Burgwin.
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