Tea Party's Love for Constitution May Kill It

[usregimechange]

By Michael Waldman

These days, conservatives proudly proclaim their love for the Constitution. Yet many seem unsure whether to revere it or repeal it, plank by plank.

Such constitutional nihilism extends well beyond the drive to strike down the U.S. health-care law, a jarring move by those long opposed to judicial activism. It reflects a deep discomfort with the country’s growth toward a thriving, coast-to-coast democracy...

Some advocates want to rewrite the 14th Amendment, a landmark of the Constitution -- indeed, of human freedom. The amendment guaranteed equal protection of the law and due process to former slaves. Under its provisions, if you were born in the U.S. you had the rights of a citizen. The amendment was enacted by the Radical Republicans, which meant something very different back in 1868...

Strikingly, these constitutional forays would repeal some of the greatest advances in democracy. A movement born as a populist squall seems oddly uncomfortable with the very mechanisms that give ordinary citizens the loudest voice.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-16/tea-party-love-of-constitution-may-kill-it-commentary-by-michael-waldman.html

[warrior1]

1. That's a bunch of crap

It'll never happen. They are in fact a minority.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[MineralMan]

3. They don't actually love the Constitution.

They read it like they read their Bibles - piecemeal, only paying attention to small parts of it that suit their thinking. The rest is simply ignored, as though it did not exist.

[SoCalDem]

6. They love the 2nd amendment most of all

even though if they are "strict constitutionalists", they would be buying muskets & blunderbusses.:)

I'm pretty sure the founders did not anticipate UZIs & 50 caliber blasters:)...or that people would be so in love with their guns & so ready to kill their fellow citizens.

[benEzra]

10. The Founders used .69 to .80 caliber blasters...

and actual Uzi's are as tightly controlled in this country as bombs and 105mm howitzers under the National Firearms Act, and always have been.

Current U.S. civilian-legal firearms (NFA Title 1, e.g. non-automatic and non-sound-suppressed) are way closer to the technology available in 1789 than photography, digital publishing, electronic communication, and the Internet are.

And of course, crime has been falling in this country for years, and rifle crime is near historic lows, but I suppose that tends to derail the MSM's "the sky is falling" meme.

FWIW, I don't believe the Tea Party likes the Constitution as much as they say they do, at least since the movement was hijacked by the Religious Right. They (or at least the "War on Terrah"/Religious Right flavor) certainly don't seem to believe that the First Amendment protects the right to worship Allah or to build a mosque, they don't seem to believe that the 4thA bars warrantless surveillance, they don't feel that the 5thA prevents torture, and they don't believe in the right to habeus corpus.

[SoCalDem]

11. whatever

:P

[FreakinDJ]

4. TeaBaggers pervert the Constitution like Fundies pervert the Bible

Dumpster Diving through the Constitution the same way Fundies have "Dumpster Dived the Bible" picking and choosing which passages to hold up and proclaim as the "Law of the Land" and which passages they choose to throw in the trash and ignore

THE DAMM THING AIN'T WRIT THAT WAY

You take it - you take it all - and quit trying to re-interpret the damm thing

[HopeHoops]

5. I doubt all but a handful of teabaggers have ever even READ the Constitution. I read it yesterday.

(Again). I'm not sure what got into me, but I just felt like reading it again. I also re-read the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. I might have been inspired to do so because I'm working my way through the Federalist Papers. Not sure.

[unblock]

7. a movement born as a populist squall?

not really. for all practical purposes, it was launched by rick santelli on cnbc, and prospered due to the funding of a few reich-wing billionaires. the right-leaning media CHARACTERIZED it as a populist squall, because that meme suited the funding billionaires better than the meme that it was, well, funded by billionaires and launched by a right-wing talking head.

[rasputin1952]

8. I am willing to bet that 85-90% of them...

never read the document in the first place...nor have they read the Declaration of Independence in it's entirety.

Can they understand the difference between it and the Articles of Confederation?

How about the Mayflower Compact or the Federalist Papers?

Do they understand that the 13th, 14th, 15th and 20th Amendments righted some very serious wrongs?

Do they understand that if they went back to the original document, as written, unless they were landholders and male, they could not vote? Owning a condo in FL would not pass muster as "landholder", and unless you owned the land upon which a mobile home or motor home was parked on, their right to suffrage would be non-existent; women, regardless of landholder status would have no vote...I bet that would go over really well with 51% of the population...:eyes:


These people are idiots, and they have zero chance of getting what they want...do they think their grand/greatgrand children from the ages of 18-21 would suddenly find fault with the 26th Amendment?

How about the people of DC would suddenly rescind the Right to vote under the 23rd Amendment. In a nutshell...these people are screwed up, and anyone who gives them any credence is equally as screwed up.

[fascisthunter]

9. how can one expect such ignorant and dishonest people

to not pervert any document they get their fingers on. Just look at how they abuse the bible for their own sick, narrow-minded and exclusive view of the World. These whack jobs actually think they deserve the name "Tea Party". Hell, they are the very Tories the TRUE Tea Party opposed.