Right-Wing Billionaires Have a Project Going to Rewrite Our Constitution, & They Are Shockingly Clos

[Hestia]

Right-Wing Billionaires Have a Project Going to Rewrite Our Constitution, and They Are Shockingly Close to Pulling It Off
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/right-wing-billionaires-have-project-going-rewrite-our-constitution-and-they-are?akid=15289.162216.Jt7SFs&rd=1&src=newsletter1073670&t=2

By Thom Hartmann / AlterNet March 10, 2017

Imagine if the U.S. Constitution barred the EPA and Department of Education from existing. All union protections are dead, there are no more federal workplace safety standards, and even child-labor laws are struck down, along with a national minimum wage.

Imagine that the Constitution makes it illegal for the federal government to protect you from big polluters, big banks and even big food and pharma—all are free to rip you off or poison you all they want, and your only remedy is in state courts and legislatures, because the Constitution prevents Congress from doing anything about any of it. The federal government can't even enforce voting or civil rights laws.

To add injury to insult, the federal government has to shut down Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because all of these programs (along with food stamps, housing supports and any programs that help the middle class, the less fortunate or disabled) are “beyond the reach” of what the federal government can do.

A few years ago, it would have been a thought experiment; now it's nearly reality. Billionaires and the groups they fund are working to rewrite our Constitution to provide corprations and the rich with more and more protections and benefits, and chop away at anything smelling of “socialism” like Social Security or child labor laws.
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I am so disturbed by this article that it is hard to really post about it.

[Foamfollower]

1. Do you have a legitimate source for this?

Thom Hartmann is affiliated with RT and cannot be trusted.

Thanks.

[Skidmore]

2. thank you. nt

[Crunchy Frog]

6. This is a few years old, but it's from the Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/21/a-constitutional-convention-could-be-the-single-most-dangerous-way-to-fix-american-government/?utm_term=.77a71f05ff1a

[Amaryllis]

20. THat is a great article. It would be worth a new post now even though it's old, with a note about

how many states have signed on.

[progree]

22. 28 states have signed on. 6 more needed to pass the 2/3 threshold to call a Con Con

According to Article V of the U.S. Constitution, 34 state legislatures have to call for a Constitutional Convention in order for it to be convened. ((Also called a "Con Con" -Progree))

In 2014 – what halcyon days – this seemed like another of Farris’s many fringe projects. Specifically, it seem­ed like a new and doomed way to push his beloved “Parental Rights Amendment,” which would make home­schooling a constitutional right. Despite his diligence, and some existing support for the idea within the GOP (40 Republican representatives introduced a parental rights measure in 2009), it’s obviously come to nothing so far.

Now it looks like Farris may just get what he wants. In These Times reported in January that 28 states have now called for a constitutional convention, and this, coupled with Republican gains in state legislatures last November, means that Farris’s big idea may now be just a few states away from becoming reality.

There are some risks, of course. Once a Constitutional Convention is convened, ADF and its allies in state legislatures can’t control how it would play out. Representatives could pass anything from the Equal Rights Amendment to an amendment banning school vouchers. As Stanford University’s Jack Rackove told me in 2014, “Anything you want to propose is up for consideration. You can’t definitively say whether or not it would be a ‘runaway’ convention.” This is precisely why the late Phyllis Schlafly opposed the idea.

But the Religious Right might not have a better moment to advance its goal of American theocracy. ((and of course the right-wing greedbangers in general promoting yet more wealth concentration, destruction of civil liberties and on and on -Progree))

http://au.org/church-state/march-2017-church-state/viewpoint/the-con-con-con

The above is from au.org - Americans United for Separation of Church and State. From the March 2017 issue of their Church and State magazine. So it's from the perspective of worrying about dissolving the separation of church and state and imposing right-wing theocracy on us all. But of course a "con con" would undoubtedly deal with more than gay marriage and teaching "creation science" and ending women's right to choose, taxpayer funding of religious schools, to name just a few right-wing theocracy goals.

[elleng]

7. Watch Thom Hartmann on DU's Video & Multimedia and decide for yourself

whether he can be trusted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017428021

[Foamfollower]

8. Nobody affiliated with RT can be trusted.

[elleng]

9. Don't trust your own judgment,

I guess.

[Foamfollower]

10. No, won't waste my time on an RT mouth of Putin.

Anybody affiliated with RT is bought and paid for by Putin.

[elleng]

15. Remaining ignorant is your choice.

[Foamfollower]

23. And listening to a Putin mouthpiece is yours.

[elleng]

25. I KNOW a putin mouthpiece when I hear one,

and it's not hartmann.

Jason Chaffetz Thinks the Poor Should Trade Their iPhones for Health Care
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017427849

[Foamfollower]

26. One CANNOT be affiliated with RT and NOT be a Putin mouthpiece.

[Hortensis]

13. Agree about Hartmann. But! Try Jane Mayer's

in-depth books and articles. She's very well regarded and extensively cited by many others who have also researched the decades of conspiracy, the (Lewis) Powell Memorandum, and all the rest of it.

She's author of the giant wake-up call, "Dark Money:The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" among others and writes for the New Yorker.

[SalviaBlue]

19. Bullshit. Thom Hartmann is trustworthy.

Jeez, what a fucked up thing to say. Do your homework, low count poster.

[jodymarie aimee]

3. thank you for posting this

I just wrote it down to look up. Thom Hartmann is a genius and he controls all his shows, not Russia. We are fortunate to have him on our side. This Constitution stuff is all true and well researched. He brought us Greg Palast and look how that turned out. We always come too late to the party. And LOSE. Pay attention DEMS. And those here who drink the "Hartman is the devil kool-aid", shame on you. Easily led like the FOX crowd, I fear.

[Amaryllis]

18. He is brilliant and a stickler for fact checking and has fought for election integrity for years. .

sounding the alarm on electronic paperless voting machines as early as 2000. I absolutely trust him. I listened to his radio show for years when it was on in my city. He has been a strong voice for progressive values such as net neutrality, and has a lot of integrity. Just do a search for him on Truthout and Alternet.
Here:
http://www.truth-out.org/component/search/?searchword=thom%20hartmann&searchphrase=all&Itemid=302
806 articles by him on truthout.

[pat_k]

4. Citizens for Self-Governance is very real

https://selfgovern.com

They have developed memes that resonate -- and we don't have any simple and direct counter-memes that are as powerful. Until we do, we are leaving the "public mind" undefended.

[caroldansen]

5. In other words they are trying to kill off the poor and middle class. I understand that. They cant

do that because then they would be completely on their own and totally alone. That's what happened before the French revolution. People were willing to fight and
Die if necessary to stop the evil and pain and the suffering the rich aristocrats were doing to them and not helping them. The poor and middle class won that war, but blood
Was shed.

[Initech]

17. I think they wouldn't do this. This would be enough to cause a war or two.

But I wouldn't put it past these fucking billionaire scumbags - they are addicted to wealth and power and now they have one of their own, and a free pass to do as much damage as they please. But it sure seems we're headed that way.

[babylonsister]

11. Reminds me of PNAC back in the day; that went belly-up

thankfully.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

Project for the New American Century
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Project for the New American Century (PNAC) PNAC logo.png
Formation 1997; 20 years ago
Founder William Kristol, Robert Kagan
Dissolved 2006
Type Public policy think tank
Location

Washington, D.C.

Chairman
William Kristol
Directors


Robert Kagan
Devon Gaffney Cross
Bruce P. Jackson
John R. Bolton

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neoconservative[1][2][3] think tank based in Washington, D.C. that focused on United States foreign policy. It was established as a non-profit educational organization in 1997, and founded by William Kristol and Robert Kagan.[4][5] PNAC's stated goal was "to promote American global leadership."[6] The organization stated that "American leadership is good both for America and for the world," and sought to build support for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity."[7]

Of the twenty-five people who signed PNAC's founding statement of principles, ten went on to serve in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz.[8][9][10][11] Observers such as Irwin Stelzer and Dave Grondin have suggested that the PNAC played a key role in shaping the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, particularly in building support for the Iraq War.[12][13][14][15] Academics such as Inderjeet Parmar, Phillip Hammond, and Donald E. Abelson have said PNAC's influence on the George W. Bush administration has been exaggerated.[16][17][18]

[annabanana]

12. I'm thinking that ALEC has been working in the vineyards of this effort for years. . .n/t

[Initech]

14. This is why I'm 150% against the idea of a constitutional convention.

Ours isn't perfect but it's the only one we have, and I'll be damned if we let the uber wealthy and the clergy change it to install a fascist theocracy in this country. Fuck that shit.

[LenaBaby61]

16. Thom Hartmann aside ...

It doesn't shock me to know that groups like the Koch Brothers and ALEC want to destroy this country and it's citizenry by re-writing our Constitution.

thuglicans only need 2 or 3 more state houses to get this done, and you're right OP. This is extremely disturbing. But then again, thuglicans always put party above country.

[WinkyDink]

21. Then I would have to risk my life for the Revolution.

[dawg]

24. Oh yeah? Well left-wing "thousandaires" have a project going ...

to sneak into their gated communities and shit into their fancy swimming pools.