Anybody appointed or elected to a Federal office must swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same … So help me God.” I took a job at the National Endowment for the Arts in 2003 as a low-level political appointment that didn’t involve security, lots of money, or personnel powers, and yet the Oath of Office was required. When it happened, I hadn’t looked at a word of the Constitution for many years and didn’t think I needed to do so before raising my hand and giving my word. Do the deed and move on—that was my attitude.
The oath looks different now. Too much evidence of bad behavior in the halls of power has come out in recent times for ordinary citizens not to question the integrity of officials. We’ve seen gargantuan fraud in welfare programs that could not have proceeded unnoticed by those in charge of the system. We’ve seen federal prosecutors exert their powers abusively in the targeting of political adversaries. Leaks continue to happen, legislators amass fabulous wealth while in office, some pledge to pack the Supreme Court and to abolish the Electoral College, others launch wild accusations against opponents and pepper the airwaves with vile language, they speak the misleading language of “our democracy” instead of hailing our constitutional republic, they open the gates to millions of migrants, election rules are bent or broken...
What happened to their oath? In 2021, Milo Yiannapoulos asked me that very question while dropping by my townhouse in DC (he was advising a member of Congress at the time). I hadn’t considered the point, but it made sense as soon as he said it. An oath properly taken puts the state of one’s soul on the line. On it rests one’s honor and reputation. To violate an oath is to ruin your prospects, to live in shame if caught or exposed. If you swear on a Bible, a violation means a long period of penance or eternal damnation. A secular oath, once violated, plants a mark of shame upon you that tarnishes every triumph you experience afterward. David’s famous painting “The Oath of the Horatii” powerfully renders the stakes of the act. It’s an absolute commitment. Thomas More went to his death by beheading because he refused to accept an oath demanded by the king. When the newly elected president of the United States begins his term by facing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and swears his oath, it’s a solemn national event.
The power of the oath still holds—most of the time. Witnesses take an oath to tell the truth and open themselves to serious charges if they break it. Those are ordinary people. We expect much more out of political leaders. In watching members of Congress conduct hearings and deliver speeches and appear on news shows, however, the gravity of truth-telling doesn’t seem so strong. Perhaps the government has become so large and multilayered and complex that fidelity to the Constitution gets swamped by the daily grind of bureaucracy. Or the money that passes through Washington is so voluminous that a few shenanigans don’t seem like much of a big deal. Partisan rivalries have become so intense that ends too often justify the means. Maybe some officials believe that strictly obeying the law does damage to the country at large, for instance, if a superior pushes a policy that appears destructive.
None of those reasons, however, should downplay the significance of the oath. It gives you no wiggle room; you have no choice. Only another person properly empowered to do so can release you from your promise. Of course, the ethics of our time are more slippery than that. We allow people to change their minds, to adapt to changing circumstances. There’s an exchange in the 1969 film “The Wild Bunch” when the outlaws played by William Holden and Ernest Borgnine bicker over the merits of a former comrade helping the railroad company track them down in exchange for release from prison. Borgnine condemns him for it, but Holden answers that the man “gave his word.” Borgnine replies with disdain, “Gave his word to a railroad,” to which Holden growls, “It’s his word!” Borgnine then delivers what we might call the situational principle: “That’s not what counts! It’s who ya’ give it to!”
The film doesn’t come down clearly on one side or the other, but Borgnine certainly points toward the easier way, the less honorable but more tempting. It shouldn’t surprise us that government officials sometimes forget their oath. The negligence is only human. People need to be reminded of the obligation. If we do see any government officials convicted of welfare fraud or any other crime, let’s hear in news stories of the outcome another element added to the list of charges, namely, violation of Oath of Office. In civic courses in high school and college, let’s see lessons given in the meaning of an oath. In U.S. history courses, give kids examples of those who have honored and dishonored their oaths. A republic doesn’t survive if its representatives of the people don’t put their honor on the line.
