The Oath of Office For Mayor and City Council

Where to start...

Of all the beginning places to define my campaign for Manteca City Council, the Oath of Office is the best.

I, Richard Behling, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.

I have read the Constitution of the United States, now it's time to re-read it and to read the California Constitution.

I am NOT swearing allegiance to voters, the Mayor, developers, city employees, taxpayers, the governor of California, the president of the United States, any one person, or any group of people. The oath is to uphold the two constitutions under which Californians live in the USA. Unconstitutional laws and regulations may be ignored, unenforced or, preferably, struck down and repealed; even better would be they are not enacted in the first place!

A public servant should always bear in mind that the supreme law of the land is the US Constitution - not Congress, not the Supreme Court, and definitely not any regulatory agency of the Executive branch. The same also applies to the supreme law of the State, and its political subdivisions, where one lives.

A public servant must bear in mind that the constitutions exist to LIMIT government intrusions into the lives, liberties, and pursuits of individuals and families. (Those three guarantees generally protect one's wallet, as well.)

Federal, state, and municipal laws that pass constitutional muster represent the responsibilities - or MINIMUM performance requirements - of citizens in dealing with each other. The laws establish relationships between citizens wherein both RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES are balanced in order to preserve to individuals the God-given blessings they were born with.

Freedom is not defined as an utter absence of regulation (that is anarchy, or Law of the Jungle). All the other political theories of the world, the -ism's, are distinguished by various degrees and burdens of regulations.

Rather, freedom is defined as the ability to pursue your life goals without giving offense, that is, purposely intruding on your neighbors' pursuit of their goals, Of course, the reciprocal is true, that they do not purposely intrude on yours.

Preservation of those freedoms, pursuant to constitutional laws, is the oath that every public servant (officer, official, lawmaker, lawman, city worker, clerk and dog catcher) swears upon taking office.
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