The "progressives" of Madison, Wisc., are toying with the idea of letting public officials, when they take the oath of office, add exceptions for the parts of the state and federal constitutions they don't like:
That comes awfully close to letting officials pick which laws they want to enforce. And that doesn't seem like the most promising way to usher them into office. The oath sworn by public servants, starting with the President of the United States, is the closest thing to a sacred act of all our democratic traditions. Candidates may be partisan brawlers when they run for office; campaigning is a contact sport that you play to win or not at all. But once elected, they're born again as servants of all the people, and taking the oath is an act of both exaltation and submission; we're giving you this power, now promise to play by the rules we've laid down.
Well, yeah. I might like, when writing my check to the IRS, to tell the federal government not to spend any of my money on the things the government does of which I disapprove. But that's not the way it works.
