GOP’s DISTORTION OF THE CONSTITUTION

CHECK-IT-OUT:  GOP Rhetoric on the Constitution at

Think Progress

Conservatives just love the U.S. Constitution!  We all know they do because they constantly rant and rail that only they ‘revere the Constitution, and all those Liberals don’t cherish the historic document that our country was founded on, and only Conservatives understand it.’

Well, we’d better understand what it is that Conservatives understand about the Constitution. 

— According to Think Progress, many Republican officials, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have indicated that they believe that child labor laws are unconstitional.  

— The newly elected Junior Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul (R) asserts that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to ban whites-only lunch counters.

— Many Conservatives also claim that the minimum wage is unconstitutional — again, including Clarence Thomas.

— Senator Tom Coburn, (R-OK) and many other GOP members of Congress believe that all federal education programs, which include Pell Grants and student loans, are unconstitutional.

— Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently stated that the Constitution has “nothing to say about discrimination against women.”

— Other Conservatives, including Utah Senator Mike Lee (R), have declared that the Seventeenth Amendment — which amended the Constitution to let voters in the States elect their own Senators rather than having them appointed by the Governor — “was a mistake.”

— Famous Conservative, Congressman Ron Paul from Texas, claims that “the U.S. dollar is unconstitutional.”  Apparently we should only be using gold.

— Senators Paul, Lee and Coburn all have stated that they believe that Social Security and Medicare are also unconstitutional.  In their “Pledge to America” the GOP embraces the “tenther” view of the Constitution which would declare that Social Security and Medicare, and other programs, are unconstitutional.

We understand that the Constitution, like much of the written word, can be interpreted differently by different people.  And that is why it is so important that all Americans take the time to understand what it is that the Conservative Republicans understand the Constitution to say about our rights and liberties. 

When we use our vote to put Republicans in control, we need to know that we are empowering Republicans to appoint the members of the third branch of our government — our judiciary, which will make decisions about our personnel rights and liberties as given to us in our Constitution. 

We MUST be vigilant in our oversight of political candidates, and be clear in our own minds that the votes we cast will elect representatives that actually represent our own understanding of the Constitution and of the kind of country that we want to live in.