Thread: NYT Op-ed: “Let’s Give Up on the Constitution”

So argues Louis Michael Seidman, who, as is routine with progressives from Woodrow Wilson onward, is gracious enough to keep the parts of the Constitution he likes, but bemoans the very checks and balances that serve to protect individuals from the government, and deny temporary demagogues the power to affect enormous sudden systemic change. He also (predictably) ignores that the Constitution contains an amendment process, a strategic rhetorical bracketing on Seidman’s part, presumably because that process is too slow and cumbersome and doesn’t allow progressives to capitalize immediately on the latest ginned up crisis to savage the framework for our constitutional republic. You can read the whole thing here if you’d like. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/12/31...nstitution.xml

Me, I’m tired of such treachery, disguised as it always is in appeals to “getting things done” and decrying having to answer to dead white propertied slave owners. So I’ll say only this (yet again http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=6149 ): go find a state or set of states with people who agree with you, Mr Seidman, and secede. Declare your independence from the tyranny of the Constitution. Declare your independence from our founders and framers, with their dogged insistence on keeping government constrained and the individual empowered. Declare your independence from independence, and be content that you’ve salved your psychic wounds and political conscience.

It’s been done before, you know, this declaration of independence thing. And if it’s progressive Utopia you’re after, it’s easier to force such collectivism on the masses if they happen to be those masses who claim to agree with your collectivist, liberal fascist principles.

– Although come to think of it, that’s the real rub, isn’t it?: were you to succeed in building your post-Constitutional Marxist dream state (may I suggest taking Illinois, California, DC along with you?), you’d need “masses” to rule over. You’d need people to herd, to manage, to nudge, to coax, to direct, to molest, to bully, and to dictate to. http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=46306

And since progressives fancy themselves the de facto ruling class of such a civic paradise, come that glorious day of Utopian freedom from a stable rule of law and the perverse American experiment, they’d be left battling amongst themselves over who now plays the role of subject and who gets to play the role of politburo. http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/12...inglepage=true

Which, in the end, is why you wish to drag us all into your post-Constitutional fantasies, Mr Seidman: you need subjects to enslave, to lord over, to control, and because you and your kind aren’t willing to become slaves yourselves, you’ll need the rest of us to play the serfs. And the first step to bringing that about is trying to get us to surrender our protections, guaranteed by the Constitution, against would-be tyrants like you.

But here’s the thing: even were you to succeed in your Marxist coup, after a time, we who cherish our individual liberty and sovereignty would just declare ourselves independent of you, and adopt a Constitution that protects us from the tyranny of those centralized few who presume to rule over us.

And that, too, has been done before. Just as assuredly as it would be done again. Only this time without the muskets.

Just something to ponder.

http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=46307

Glenn Reynolds Keynote – Conference on the Constitutional Convention from Rootstrikers on Vimeo. http://vimeo.com/30822593

update 2: More, from Mike at Cold Fury. http://coldfury.com/2012/12/31/the-truth-at-last-5/

What pointy-heads like Seidman miss is that failure to understand the Constitution on his part (it is, after all, more than 100 years old) coupled with a failure by the political class to adhere to it does not mean that the Constitution itself is a failure. (The fact that he’s an idiot doesn’t much excuse his treachery.)

That, and “getting things done” is not, per se, a positive or a negative thing. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Charles Manson… History is replete with examples of people like this who “got things done.”

On the plus side, he has “good intentions.” And we all know what good intentions are good for.

..

Here’s one of his sensible people in an op-ed out of Iowa. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/app...nclick_check=1

The thing missing from the debate so far is anger — anger that we live in a society where something like the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre can happen and our main concern is not offending the NRA’s sensibilities.

That’s obscene. Here, then, is my “madder-than-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-it-anymore” program for ending gun violence in America:

• Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It’s badly written, confusing and more trouble than it’s worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a “well-regulated militia.” We don’t make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn’t have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.

• Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

• Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.

And if that didn’t work, I’d adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I’ll bet gun sales will rise.

Obama's destruction of the Bill of Rights
On the human rights front, the United States of America has now plummeted to a level approaching that of North Korea.

Thanks to President Obama, who increasingly appears to be a devout communist bent on destroying America culture and economy, the White House now creates secret kill lists of American citizens to be assassinated by government agents. This is not denied in Washington. It is, in fact, celebrated as an "important tool" for the completely fabricated "war on terror."

With his signing of the NDAA in late 2011, Obama also nullified due process and the right to a fair trial. Now, American citizens who are merely "named" by the White House as being possibly involved in anything they call "terrorism" can be kidnapped and taken away to secret government interrogation centers where they can be held indefinitely, without charge, without a trial and without any civil rights or human rights.

This was all put in place by a president re-elected by over 50% of the American people, cementing an obvious communist into the top position of what one Russian columnist calls an "illiterate society."

That columnist goes on to say:

President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined anyone so ignorant or so willing to destroy their people like Obama much less seeing millions vote for someone like Obama. They read history in America don't they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda.

And he's right. America is an illiterate society, where the ability to read, write or think critically has all but vanished. It has been replaced by a mass of zombified, brain-dead, obedient boot lickers who actually lined up and beg to be fitted with TSA shock bracelets and even full-body cavity searches before they fly.

Importantly, America has become the land of the enslaved, illiterate masses because the American people WANT to be enslaved. They beg to be told what to do, how to eat, how much water to flush in their toilets and what to believe about 9/11, the war on drugs, the war on terror, vaccines, public water fluoridation and every other grand delusion you can imagine.

No wonder states like Texas are looking at seceding from the union and forming their own nation states.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038086_Am...#ixzz2GhJQUi9b

Just heard on ABC news ... i'll have to search for a link ... the fighting Syria has cost an estimated 65,000 deaths in 21 months... not including injuried, orphaned, or those whose homes and properties have been destroyed... and the UN is considering using the Peackeepers before the violence spreads. ????

Obama has stated he will completely disregard the Tenth Amendment rights of states who have passed legislation to nullify Obamacare. States that refuse to comply based on legislation or their state constitutions will see their entire health insurance industry taken over by agents of the Department of Health and Human Services.

States including Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming told the federal government they would not be enforcing new Obamacare rules and they have been put on notice by the government that Obama’s agents will come in on a “collaborative enforcement arrangement” and make sure they do. It’s Obamacare, mafia-style.

The 10th Amendment protects the sovereignty of states, reading:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

But Obama is using the heavy hand of the feds to ignore the wishes of the American people. Obamacare is not popular, and every day we see more reasons why it should be repealed. States are fighting tooth and nail to stop the government from coming in and ruining their healthcare system, but Obama is determined to ignore them and ram through socialized medicine, regardless of public opinion.

Now is the time to let every single Member of Congress know that we are serious about repealing Obamacare, and they need to get on board with the wishes of American citizens. We must also let them know we will not stand for the President of the United States completely ignoring our constitutional rights.

Constitutional boundaries and freedoms do not matter to this administration and even Members of Congress are straying farther and farther away from its principles.

For example, even though some Democrats are beginning to vote against Obamacare provisions and high taxes, every single Democratic Senator just voted to provide taxpayer-funded medical care for illegal immigrants. These votes should be noted, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicts they will come back to haunt Members in election season (although McConnell himself needs to quit pontificating about how bad Obamacare is and take some effective action against it, himself.). McConnell said, "[It] will be a big issue in 2014. I think it will be an albatross around the neck of every Democrat who voted for it. They are going to be running away from it, not toward it."

We have the momentum to end Obamacare. Because headlines are consistently blaring messages about pending lawsuits that could strangle the law, to states being short of doctors and HHS Secretary Sebelius herself admitting that premiums are rising, Obama’s PR machine is in full swing.

A recent Associated Press story explained how the administration is ramping up for a full-on Obamacare marketing campaign beginning this summer, asking, “How do you convince millions of average Americans that one of the most complex and controversial programs devised by government may actually be a good deal for them?”

The answer is the proverbial; you cannot put lipstick on a pig and call it anything else, no matter how many taxpayer dollars you spend insisting otherwise. We know the truth. Let the bad news trickle out, ignore the media hype and get on Congress to do something.

http://www.conservative-daily.com/20...0th-amendment/