Misdemeanor (The 1787 version)

Word of the day: Misdemean (Verb, archaic): To behave badly; with a reflexive pronoun, i.e. to misdemean oneself.

A person who misdemeans himself, or herself, is a misdemeanant. What they do is a misdemeanor. 

"Misdemeanor," in 1787, did not refer to a lesser crime. It referred to bad behavior more generally. One example of a misdemeanor -- of persons misdemeaning themselves -- would be violating an oath, such as that a president takes upon inauguration, or the oath senators took as impeachment  procedures commenced in their chamber. 

To the men who met in Philadelphia in 1787, their honor and their oaths were all important. Challenging someone's honor was grounds for a duel. In an age lacking in elaborate legal sructures and catalogues of federal statutes and codes, being a misdemeanant, committing a misdemeanor, was serious stuff and as bad or worse, maybe, than committing "high crimes." Honor was at stake, for the person, for the institution, and the country.

Those who revere the Constitution and its framers need to focus on the word, misdemeanor, and what it meant then; what the framers' "original intent" was. And, they -- we -- need to consider what it means when the person sitting in the oval office lies the way most of us grow fingernails. We need to consider what the framers' would think of Senators and Congressional Representatives who put party ahead of patriotism, or worse, put one man's ego and ill-temper ahead of the Republic.