Gates, Hamilton discuss value of Constitution

Two hundred twenty six years ago in Philadelphia, 40 men signed the Constitution.

Today it still guides our government, our politics and our national conversation.

With every new controversy or issue, citizens and leaders appeal to the principles enshrined in the document and beg to protect it, as with the ongoing debate about the National Security Agency that began this summer.

For Constitution Day, Sept. 17, the Indiana Daily Student talked to two experts and former national security leaders with IU ties — former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and former Rep. Lee Hamilton — about what role the Constitution plays in a modern world.

Robert Gates served as Secretary of defense from 2006-2011 as a member of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s cabinets. Prior to that, he was director of the Central Intelligence Agency for President George H.W. Bush. Gates earned a master’s degree in history from IU in 1966.

IDS What do you see as the role of the Constitution in our government and our society today?

GATES The key for me in the national security arena has been the dual responsibility under the Constitution of Congress and the president. In the realm of national security under the Constitution, Congress is charged with raising armies and maintaining navies, and clearly there is a role for the Congress in terms of declaration of war.

We’ve fought two major wars in the last decade, and in neither case was war declared by Congress. I think the continuing dilemma that faces government in terms of the continuing balancing of power between the executive and legislative branches in the world in which I operated. There (intelligence), I think Congress has been more assertive in the creation of congressional oversight committees where they have done a good job, I think over the last 30 to 40 years in overseeing the executive branch intelligence community.

IDS In the NSA debate, we’ve seen two constitutional principles of security and privacy at odds. How can we find the right balance for them?

GATES This debate over the balance between freedom and security has been going on since the beginning of the Republic. It is an inherent tension, and it goes on the national security side back to a statement by Chief Justice Rob Jackson that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. We can’t make known all our secrets in the name of freedom, because then we’ll have no freedom or security.

Congress has done a good job. Can it do better? Always. But what has struck me is that neither Republicans nor Democrats serving on oversight committees have identified any wrongdoing by anyone, have not identified anything they were not already aware of.

IDS Young people have a reputation for not being engaged in the political process and these constitutional discussions. Is that something you see to be true, and how do we fix that?

GATES That may be true for young people as a whole, but I will tell you the young people I came in contact with as president of Texas A&M and chancellor at William and Mary were engaged, knowledgeable and passionate, many of them in public service. If you want to paint with a broad brush any people between the ages of 21 and 31, that generalization may be true, but I ran into a lot of young people engaged with public service and the community.

Lee Hamilton represented Indiana’s 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965-1999, including as chair of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees. He was also a member of the 9/11 Commission. Hamilton is now the director of IU’s Center on Congress.

IDS What do you see as the role of the Constitution in our government and our society today?

HAMILTON The Constitution is absolutely bedrock. It infuses and should infuse everything that is done within government, and it sets the institutional arrangements, it limits government power and government intrusion. It is deeply respected.

One interesting thing from my experience is that I, like any politician, you hold a lot of public meetings. Over a period of 34 years holding public meetings in Indiana, I cannot remember a single time when a person rejected the Constitution. In other words, they accepted it, and they accepted the validity of it, and they accepted it as setting the parameters of government. And that's extraordinary.

You and I may have a lot of differences of opinion on what do you do about health care or what do you do about Syria, but we know that we're going to resolve those differences within the institutions, the procedures, the processes that were set out for us in the Constitution, and that's been a major factor — some people would say the major factor — but it's been a major factor for sure in the unity and the success of our country.

IDS Is there any validity to the mindset that the Constitution is being in some way trampled on?

HAMILTON The founding fathers were deeply suspicious of concentrated power, even in the president. And they did not think that power should be concentrated in one person, so they developed this elaborate system of checks and balances.

The debate today about the NSA surveillance and monitoring is at heart a question of power. Should the intelligence community have that kind of power? And they argue they should and others say it's too much power.

IDS Young people have a reputation for not being engaged in the political process and these constitutional discussions. Is that something you see to be true, and how do we fix that?

HAMILTON The reason you have a struggle over student loans and the interest rates while older people are very amply funded in Medicare and Social Security is that they pay attention and you don't. They exercise their vote and their responsibility of citizenship much more than you do generally. The politicians know that, and so the federal government budget is heavily tilted toward older people, not younger people. That doesn't make any sense in terms of the priorities of the nation. We ought to be at least as supportive of the young people as we are of the older people because the younger people are the future, not old people like me. So young people pay for their lack of interest in government.

There are a lot of reasons, but young people need to pay more attention to the Constitution and to vote.

Follow reporter Michael Auslen on Twitter @MichaelAuslen.