“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

This is the oath of office taken by every congressman and congresswoman following their election to the office of Senator or Representative.

The oath is taken after each election, and a person re-elected to his or her office takes the oath each time.

One might assume the same oath, taken multiple times by many of those elected to Congress, would be taken a bit more seriously than seems to be the case.

Enlistees in the military services take a similar oath, except they also swear to obey orders given by the president and all officers above, according to the rules of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

It has been said those taking the oath of military service also sign a blank check, made out to the people of the United States for an amount up to and including their ultimate sacrifice.

Is it perhaps cynical to believe those entering Congress, whether for the first time or after several elections, are thinking about a blank check as well but one that is going to be written out to them by some high-roller or corporation seeking special favors?

Oaths, often taken with a right hand raised and sometimes with a hand on the Bible, are too frequently just a succession of words without any real meaning, and immediately forgotten.

How often has one appeared in a court of law, taken an oath to “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” taken a seat and commenced to lie like a cheap rug?

How many oaths of marriage, “to love, honor and cherish … ‘til death do us part” have been cast aside in intervening years when the love leaves?

Are such oaths to be taken literally?

Do they not possess some degree of demand, of obeisance, of fidelity?

As Americans are treated to the tiresome hearings possibly leading to the impeachment of the president, they must be asking themselves whether those members of the House of Representatives posing questions or making irrelevant remarks or excoriating witnesses and casting aspersions on those witnesses or fellow members of the hearing board have completely forgotten their oath of office.

Impeachment is a method set out in the Constitution to defend that Constitution against domestic enemies when those enemies inhabit the courts, the halls of Congress or the White House.

Now the country is engaged in a debate about what constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanors” since the founding fathers failed to define them.

Only two presidents have been impeached thus far and neither of them was actually removed from office as a result of impeachment, and only 16 individuals have faced impeachment and only seven removed from office.

It may be domestic enemies of the Constitution are harder to expose than are the foreign ones, but that is what impeachment is intended to accomplish.

When those tasked with conducting impeachment attempt to circumvent or derail the process, especially under some misguided allegiance to party, they too become domestic enemies and have abrogated their oath, much to their own shame.

Chuck Witt is a retired architect and a lifelong resident of Winchester. He can be reached at chuck740@bellsouth.net.