Learning from Obama: The artifice of our Constitution

We all learned about the three branches of government in our respective elementary schools. We learned how each branch was responsible for protecting us from the “tyranny” of Britain’s monarchy. The truth is that our government is a democratic system tainted by artifice, instead the political system rises and falls on faith and belief. These beliefs fail to guard against a concentration of power in one entity that believes you to be immoral, evil, etc. Every era has its scapegoat, I can list communists, immigrants, women…
We witnessed the eight years of the Bush Administration build a dictatorship of sorts, allowing torture, obfuscating knowledge and its tactics to the people. Where was the judiciary? We all know Congress was in his pocket, but the judiciary did nothing to prevent the corruption of power.
For the last six years, I wanted to go to law school not to be a lawyer, but rather to represent a voiceless, powerless minority; any minority group that is denied basic human rights. My hope was to infiltrate from within and learn how the privileged minority, the wealthy and powerful have acquired what they have and share this with those that have nothing, both in legal rights and monetarily. As a researcher I witnessed and observed hardworking immigrants have their basic human rights violated again and again with no recourse. I wanted to discard my feigned research objectivity and help enforce and/or change current law. I thought it was a way to address wrongs to this community with a minimal skill set at my disposal.
As a bilingual, bicultural and pansexual child of an immigrant I felt the responsibility on me to fight for those that I represent: women and children, immigrants, Latinos and LGBTQ+ communities. I want to change the law, but how can I change something that changes like a chameleon to benefit the elite few despite the fictitious Constitution promising life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
The more I tread in the legal scholarship to combat racism and homophobia, the wearier my steps become. At least as a researcher I could pretend my findings would be used to benefit someone. I take issue with the legal system disavowing bias and not building into it a real acknowledgment that and all other “ISMs” are an inherent part of the system.
Court opinions are often hailed as way to address the concerns of minority groups, but this fails when the justices are appointed by the President often based on legal, moral or religious ideology. While no system is perfect given the propensity of human beings to be corrupted by power, the United States is the only country in the world that has a Constitution that requires those at the helm of our country to comply with its basic tenets. The Constitution was written to provide people with a government, body of laws and infrastructure based on equality, promising life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I guess what I am saying is that perhaps the LGBTQ+ movement needs to be more political, more ideological without explaining, stopping to provide research and “hard facts”. We can learn from the Obama campaign, where change and hope itself was more important than the details.

This entry was submitted by Erica Lopez the Female- Co chair of Unid@s. *The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Unid@s*